Happy Christmas to all from Walkhighlands – hope its a good one!

We also wanted to say a big thank you to all the users of Walkhighlands and those who have contributed to the site, added trip reports and photos, or emailed us with information, suggestions and encouragement. We are always interested to hear how you use Walkhighlands and what we can do to improve the site, so keep your ideas rolling in.

The last year has been great with over 960 walks now on the site and coverage expanded to include Aberdeenshire, Angus, Fife, Moray, the Isle of Eigg, Sutherland, Caithness and some of the Long Distance Trails. We made 1:25,000 OS Explorer mapping free for every walk. We now have a Find a Walk search feature to help you find the walk you want, and have recently added the Scottish Marilyns for those who like to bag peaks. Walkhighlands was also declared overall winner at the Herald’s Digitial Business Awards.

During the next year we intend to expand coverage to the rest of Scotland, add new mapping features, and include driving instructions and Sat Nav co-ordinates to help you find the start of each walk. No doubt you will come up with a lot of other ideas and as always we’ll try and response.

In the meantime have a great Christmas and New Year – Helen and Paul, Walkhighlands.

Know your Marilyns from your Munros? Walkhighlands has now added all the Scottish Marilyns under 2000 feet so you can write trip reports and record them on your logger or bagger’s map. The Marilyns are the relative hills, those with 150 metres of descent all the way round and were devised by Alan Dawson. No one has yet claimed to have climbed them all. As well as plenty of popular hills such as Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh, the list also includes some difficult summits in St Kilda, such as Boreray, Stac Lee and Stac an Armin.

Click here to go to the Sub-2000 hill list on Walkhighlands.

A stunning view over the Old Man of Storr on the Isle of Skye has taken the top prize in this year’s search to find the ‘Landscape Photographer of the Year’. Parisian-born, Emmanuel Coupe becomes the third person to win this prestigious Award and the £10,000 prize. His picture was chosen, by the judges, from the thousands of entries that showcased the richly diverse landscape of the UK.

From salt marshes, chalk cliffs and ancient woodland, to historic villages, parklands and cityscapes, the ‘Landscape Photographer of the Year’ Award aims to highlight the interaction between people and places that is so important for us all.

Over 100 of the very best images will premier in an exciting free exhibition at London’s National Theatre from December 5th.
Charlie Waite, one of Britain’s best-loved landscape photographers & founder of Take a view, set up the Awards to provide an on-going platform for capturing images that best symbolise our land and our times, and that will stand as a record in the future. He says: “Seeing the Awards go from strength to strength is very exciting for me. The standard of entries has been exceptional and proves what enthusiasm we have for both our photography and our landscape”.

A book, by AA Publishing, will feature over 170 winning & commended entries from this year’s competition. Published on October 31st, it will be available at the exhibition.

The 2009 Awards are held in association with Natural England and the English National Park Authorities. Charlie feels that, “The support we have received from our co-sponsors has been invaluable – the Awards just could not have happened without them. To be helped by people who work hard to ensure that the country is managed in the best possible way for the future has been very exciting for us. Only by being aware of what can be lost and the actions we can take, can we be sure that our landscape remains our most precious asset. The National Theatre is an amazing venue and we hope that as many people as possible will enjoy the wonderful, free exhibition.”

Other Scottish scenes which captured the hearts of the judges included a snow-capped Buachaille Etive Mòr in the Classic View category, an abandoned shopping trolley in Aberdeen Harbour won the Your View category, and a fantastic photo from a wild camping trip to St Abbs was highly commended.

Walkhighlands has made the shortlist for this years Highlands and Islands Tourism Awards.  Up for Most Entrepreneurial Business, this is a new award for 2009. Also shortlisted in the same category are two of our advertisers. Active Outdoor Pursuits have a base in Newtonmore and offer a great range of activities including mountain guiding and kayaking, whilst Sonas Hospitality is the group behind the Toravaig and Duisdale Hotels on Skye, famed for their boutique style and fabulous food.  The winners will be announced at a ceremony in Inverness on 20 November.

Other businesses which advertise through Walkhighlands and have been nominated for an award are: Simon Wallwork, the young talented chef at The Glenview, Skye; Christine Macdonald from Homagen B&B in Roy Bridge, The Princes Hotel, Glenfinnan, Evergreen B&B, south Loch Ness, and Craggan Outdoors. Walkhighlands wishes them all the best on the night and a big thank you to all the users of the site.

We’ve launched our initial coverage of Aberdeenshire. This new area of the site at present covers 27 walks around the coast from Portsoy through Banff and Buchan to the outskirts of Aberdeen, together with further routes including two routes on the very popular hill Bennachie. Parts of Aberdeenshire – notably Deeside upriver from Aboyne – are already covered in the Cairngorms National Park section.

Aberdeenshire has alot to offer for outdoor enthusiasts with miles and miles of superb sandy beaches and dunes. The north coast also has some of Scotland’s most picturesque fishing villages. We’ll be expanding further to cover more walks around Strathdon, Lower Deeside and Stonehaven later in the year, and Angus coverage is currently being planned.

Michael Tunney, who has been raising money over the summer for Mountain Rescue and the Police treatment centre that helped him to walk again following a mountain fall, is due to appear on STV’s The Hour on Monday 16 August 5 – 6pm.

Michael, known as Bio-man to Walkhighlands’ Forum members, nearly died after a horrific mountain fall. He will recount the exciting tale and also talk about his efforts to raise £30,000 by climbing the Scottish peaks over 4000 feet this summer. Not only did Michael complete this gruelling challenge, just weeks after being warned by doctors that it could be too much for his re-built body, he climbed a good number of Munros and other peaks on the way. A number of Walkhighlands users met and supported Michael during his effort.

Michael will be on the STV tea-time programme with Kenny Harris from Oban Mountain Rescue Team and his son, also Michael, who witnessed the accident and rescue.

Michael is still raising money and has assembled an impressive selection of raffle prizes including a round of golf at Gleneagles, numerous bottles of single malt whisky, meals out, and even a session with a sports physiotherapist! To buy raffle tickets and read more about Michael’s accident, recovery and fund raising visit his amusing blog.