Repair work on Ben Lawers

The Trust, which looks after some of Scotland’s most popular mountain landscapes, including Torridon, Glencoe and Kintail, is launching a public appeal to raise funds for ongoing repairs to pathways in these areas.

Through its Sole Trading appeal, the charity hopes to raise £80,000 this year to fund the specialist, ongoing repair work needed to protect this fragile environment. Trust is mailing the appeal to 11,000 supporters across the country and appealing to walkers to donate on the Trust’s website.

A dedicated National Trust for Scotland’s upland footpath team completed a major programme of work earlier this year to improve the path network at Ben Lawers, Ben Lomond, Mar Lodge Estate, Glencoe and Kintail and on Arran.

Together, the team care for more than 394 miles of mountain paths and spend 50 per cent of their work time at altitudes over 2500 feet.

Alasdair Eckersall, ranger at Ben Lomond, works closely with the team and provides management support. He said, “The Trust is fortunate to care for some of Scotland’s most beautiful mountain areas, including more than 40 munros. Many of these are very popular with walkers and we need to raise extra funds, so we can continue with our repair work.

Many thousands of visitors enjoy these landscapes every year. I hope that anyone taking advantage of the exhilarating climbs and stunning scenery will support our fundraising appeal by making a donation, so that visitors can continue to make the most of our glorious countryside now and for years to come.”

Bob Brown, contracts officer said, “It is fantastic that we have now completed our major works across the country. The upgrades that we have made to paths in places like Torridon and Kintail have improved things for walkers, but more importantly will help protect the fragile environments that exist at these high altitudes. Such eco-systems are highly susceptible to erosion, which our work will help to minimise.”

Half a million native trees will be planted in Glen Moriston following Tree’s for Life’s purchase of the Dundreggan Estate. The charity, which has bought over 4,000 hectares in a £1.6 million deal, plans to re-connect the forest between Glen Moriston and Glen Affric. The site currently has about 100 hectares of ancient woodland.

Trees for Life, based in Findhorn, Moray, has already been involved in a number of other projects including the planting of thousands of native tree in Glen Affric. The aim is that the forest will provide a habitat for many species, including wood ants and black grouse, and increase the bio-diversity of the region.

The purchase is Trees for Life’s most important project to date and followed more than two years of negotiations. Founder and executive director, Alan Watson Featherstone, said: “This is a massive step forward in achieving our vision of a renewed Caledonian Forest. It is a huge milestone for us, and we look forward to restoring Dundreggan into a wild landscape that the UK and Scotland can be proud of.”

Six key species will be helped in a new programme to create better habits within Scotland’s woodlands. The Forestry Commission will focus on the capercaillie, black grouse, red squirrel, pearl-bordered fritillary, chequered skipper butterfly and juniper as important, but threatened, species. The projects, across all of Scotland, will seek to increase biodiversity by improving habitats. For example open areas within woodlands will be created to increase the amount of blaeberry growing, an important food for the capercaillie and also to provide areas where the bird is more likely to successfully breed.

Environment Minister Mike Russell launched the plan at the Carrick Forest in Dumfries and Galloway. He said Scotland’s forests had a key part to play in protecting endangered species. “We are very fortunate in Scotland to enjoy a wealth of biodiversity that is for the most part robust and healthy.
However, some elements are extremely fragile and making sure that they thrive will require some large-scale thinking and landscape scale vision – both of which are forestry sector strengths.”

The Woods for Nature programme looks at most of the major issues facing woodland development across Scotland. Among the biggest threats listed are “widespread browsing by deer or sheep” and “invasive non-native trees and shrubs”. The projects range from using Highland cattle to graze areas within woodlands to increase flowers and improve the habitat for butterflies, to rhododendron control, to trying to naturalise mono-species plantations by the introduction of other types of native trees.

Walkhighlands.co.uk is one of 41 top tourism businesses which have made it through to the finals of VisitScotland’s prestigious Thistle awards this year.

The coveted accolades, regarded as Tourism’s Oscars, celebrate quality and innovation. The 2008 winners will be announced at a glittering ceremony in Edinburgh on the 24th October. Now in their 17th year, the awards are open to all businesses operating in Scotland’s tourism industry and businesses can enter as many of the 11 categories as appropriate.

Walkhighlands has been shortlisted in the Innovation category, sponsored by Scottish Enterprise, and faces stiff competition from Edinburgh-based Wilderness Scotland and the new Culloden Battlefield Guide.

Commenting on reaching the final three, Walkhighlands’ Helen Webster said: “We are thrilled to hear that we’ve been shortlisted in the Innovation category. We strive to offer our users all the information they could possibly want from a website so that they get the most out of their visit to the Highlands and hopefully keep coming back year after year”.

“Reaching the finals of the Thistle Awards is great recognition for all the walkers who have supported us by enthusiastically using the site and providing feedback. We also want to thank the the local businesses who advertise on the site and the tourist attractions who have partnered with us to promote their attraction and all that the Highlands has to offer the visitor.”

Previous winners of the Scottish Thistle Award for Innovation include Loch Lomond Seaplanes and The Ice Factor at Kinlochleven. The Awards aim to celebrate excellence in the Scottish tourism sector and to encourage professionalism, innovation and creative thinking within the industry.

Quo digital mapping is offering 15% off any of its products and maps until 25 August.

Quo first came to our attention due to its low prices for digital Ordnance Survey maps – up to half the price of its competitors. Would the downside be software that was difficult to use or with less options than Memory Map or Anquet?

To our surprise, we found that the answer is no – we found Quo to be the easiest to use and most fully featured mapping software on the market. We like it so much that we partnered with Mapyx to make all our routes available as Quo downloads.

It couldn’t be easier to use, with everything available on a context menu brought up by a right-click of the mouse, whether it’s adding waypoints or exporting the route to your GPS. You can add more maps – Explorer or Landranger scale – by simply downloading them at great prices.

You need to be quick to take advantage of Quo’s summer bank holiday offer – 15% off all products only until 25 August. Visit their website and download or order it here.

The Met Office is running a survey asking walkers how they use weather forecasts as part of a review of the Public Weather Service.

The aim of the consultation is to better understand and prioritise the needs of people who spend time in the hills and mountains of Scotland. There will be similar consultation in Wales, Northern Ireland and England.

The Mountaineering Council of Scotland is cooperating with the research and the survey can be found at their website. Anyone filling in the survey can enter a raffle to win a VIP tour of the Met Office’s headquarters in Exeter (possibly not that convenient for walkers based in Scotland!).

Walkhighlands provides links to the local area forecasts from the Met Office as well as the Mountain Weather Information Service, a midge forecast, the avalanche warning service and a great blog for the Fort William area with information on climbing conditions. To find this information click on Info on each of the area pages of Walkhighlands.