Applications for next year's Bill Wallace Grant, for adventures in wild places, need to be made by 18th January. Bill Wallace was a stalwart of conservation charity, The John Muir Trust (JMT), and the grant is a lasting and personal memorial to the man who played an important role in the development of the JMT and also inspired others to set off for wild places both in Scotland and abroad. Grants of £300 to £2,000 are available to people aspiring to travel to wild places in the spirit of adventure, on a trip that includes some educational or scientific significance.…

Scotland’s environmental groups and charities have expressed surprise and disappointment that the Scottish Government has decided not to remove permitted development rights for agricultural and forestry tracks. Scottish Environment LINK – whose members inculde RSPB Scotland, the John Muir Trust, the National Trust for Scotland, Ramblers Scotland and the Scottish Campaign for National Parks, issued their response, which echoes the condemnation by the Mountaineering Council for Scotland. The decision is despite the government’s earlier statement that it had received ‘compelling evidence’ of the damage that uncontrolled development of these tracks has caused, and therefore was convinced of the need to…

Mountaineers have condemned the Scottish Government as ‘feeble’ for its failure to stop new hill tracks being bulldozed through unspoilt landscapes. The Mountaineering Council of Scotland has been campaigning for all new tracks to require planning permission. This would prevent land owners from claiming that tracks are for agricultural use when they are really just for use by shooting parties or for other recreational purposes. However planning minister Derek Mackay has announced that he is allowing a free-for-all to continue and will do nothing to prevent the construction of ever-more huge, unsightly and damaging hill tracks through previously unspoiled mountain…