Ramblers Scotland is calling on walkers to urgently email local councillors to ensure upcoming budgets safeguard investment in walking, paths and outdoor access.  The charity says that most Scottish councils have squeezed the money they spend on walking throughout the past decade. Long-term budget cuts have led to fewer staff to support access, complaints about blocked paths increasingly going unanswered, and insufficient funds to maintain popular trails. A new webpage has been launched at ramblers.org.uk/accessbudgets to help walkers find and email their local councillors.  Ramblers Scotland director Brendan Paddy said: “Right now, councils across Scotland are setting their 2025/26 budgets. It’s vital that…

Daily Avalanche Reports for the 6 areas – Lochaber, Glencoe, Creag Meagaidh, Southern Cairngorms, Northern Cairngorms and Torridon regions – will be issued daily by the Scottish Avalanache Information Service (SAIS) from tomorrow, Thursday 12th Dec 2024. Some reports and the SAIS Blogs (useful for snow cover reference) have already been issued. The Scottish Avalanche Project began in 1988 as an avalanche forecasting service funded by the Scottish Sports Council and operating in 2 areas, Glencoe and the North Cairngorms. This ran for 2 winters, with the addition in 1989-90 of Lochaber and a weekend pilot scheme on Lochnagar.  After this the…

Popular walking destinations in the Trossachs including Ben A’an and Ben Ledi will have a shuttle bus service this summer.  In a bid to help reduce emissions, congestion and parking issues, Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park Authority is introducing the Trossachs Explorer.  The bus will run between Aberfoyle and Callander during the peak summer months and will stop at several popular visitor locations on the route, including Loch Katrine, Ben A’an and Ben Venue.  The seven day a week service has been planned to tie in with bus services from Stirling and Glasgow to allow visitors from those…

The “It’s Up to Us” campaign to help fund repairs to Scotland’s mountain paths has raised over £218,000 of its £300,000 target to help repair 3.2km of path on An Teallach. Path contractors have so far completed 340m of path building and maintenance work on the mountain, funded by the campaign and supported by a team of enthusiastic path maintenance volunteers. The three-year campaign, run by Mountaineering Scotland and the Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland, has so far received generous donations from the Scottish Mountaineering Trust, European Outdoor Conservation Association, and other charitable trusts (£154,858), a major private donor (£25,000),…

Highland Council has issued a notice that the road up Glen Garry, passing Tomdoun and on to Kinloch Hourn is to be closed from Monday 13th May, until Friday 20th December. This affects a huge number of walking routes, including the Munros on either side of Loch Cuaich (formerly Quoich on maps), and road access to the Cape Wrath Trail at Kinloch Hourn. However, the closure order is only be in force between 9am and 12 noon, and 1pm to 3pm each day. We have been further been advised that SSE will only enforce on weekdays and will allow vehicles…

New research from walking charity Ramblers Scotland has revealed that Scots living in more deprived areas have far fewer local paths than their wealthier counterparts.  Data-crunching by the walking charity has found shocking inequality in the number of ‘core paths’ that communities can enjoy.  ·         Residents in the most deprived* half of society have a total of 4,579 miles of local core paths, compared with 10,351 miles within the least deprived half of Scotland.  ·         People in the healthiest** 10% of areas have nine times (1,891 miles) more local core paths than the least healthy communities (211 miles).   Core paths are legally designated by Scottish councils…

Campaigners today marked the fifth anniversary of Edinburgh’s Radical Road closure with an urgent call for Historic Environment Scotland (HES) to “see sense”.  HES shut the iconic 200-year-old path on 11 September 2018 due to concerns about rockfall. It is one of the most popular ways up Arthur’s Seat – Edinburgh’s top attraction on TripAdvisor – yet five years on, it remains blocked and ringed by ugly fencing.  Stakeholders including Ramblers Scotland, Cockburn Association, Edinburgh Geological Society, Mountaineering Scotland and ScotWays are urging HES to make a more holistic assessment of risks.   They want HES to weigh the low risk…