For the third year running, the Hopes and Homes for Children charity is running its Night of Adventure in Edinburgh. The event will bring together an eclectic collection of explorers and daredevils to share the experiences of adventure with a live audience. The evening will be hosted by award-winning writer and journalist Nick Thorpe. This year's speakers include Mark Cooper, ultra runner who completed a run from Amsterdam to Barcelona, award-winning photographer Anna Henly, and outdoors writer, photographer and sometime Walkhighlands contributor, David Lintern. The Night of Adventure will be held on Monday 2 September at Vue Cinema, Omni Centre,…

The programme has been finalised for this year's Isle of Harris Mountain Festival and there seems to be an intriguing mix of walks, talks, films, challenges and fun events. The Festival runs from 14 to 21 September and will include walks led by Alison O’Neill the “Barefoot Shepherdess” (footwear optional), golden eagle spotting and deer rutting walks, mountain walks, and the Harris 5 Peak Challenge. Chris Townsend will give a talk about his recent Scottish watershed walk, and there are also talks by Cameron McNeish, and photographer Laurie Campbell. Other events include a raft race, sea kayaking, paddle boarding, surfing,…

Budding writers are being sought by the Mountaineering Council of Scotland for its long-running literary competition. Since 1987 the MCofS has run its Mountain Article Competition, seeking out the best in mountain writing, whether fact or fiction, prose or poetry. Articles should have some connection with mountains and mountaineering, rock or ice climbing, walking or ski mountaineering. Winning entries get a cash prize and the chance to see their piece in print in The Scottish Mountaineer, the quarterly MCofS magazine which goes out to more than 11,000 members. The first-placed winners in the prose and poetry categories will also receive…

A feature length film showing the beauty and harshness of the Cairngorms during the winter months will be shown in Inverness on 28 August. Billed as a celebration of the UK’s largest and highest National Park, The Cairngorms in Winter with Chris Townsend, takes the viewer on a spectacular 96 minute journey through awe inspiring scenery in the heart of Scotlands mountains. Filmed during the winter of 2012, the film is a very personal account from experienced long distance walker, writer and photographer, Chris Townsend on why he loves the Cairngorms and always looks forward to returning despite having walked in some of…

A biography of Scottish climbing legend, W H Murray, will be launched at a special event in Glasgow's Argyle Street Waterstones on 22 August. Robin Lloyd-Jones will be discussing his new book The Sunlit Summit, described by Robert Macfarlane in his foreward as a “subtle and wonderful biography – there need never be another account of Murray's life.” William Hutchison Murray (1913 – 1996) was one of Scotland’s most distinguished climbers in the years before and after the Second World War. As a prisoner of war in Italy he wrote his first classic book, Mountaineering in Scotland, on rough toilet…

Hillwalkers are being reminded to register for an emergency text service which allows people to text 999 when voice calls cannot be made but there is sufficient signal to send a text. This is often the case on the hills and the system has been used successfully to call out mountain rescue. Heather Morning, Mountain Safety Advisor at the MCofS, said, “You can contact the 999 emergency services by SMS text from your mobile phone. This is particularly useful for those needing 999 assistance in the hills when mobile reception is poor and there is not enough signal to make…