The Coire Gabhail bridge, used to access routes into the Lost Valley and Gearr Aonach in Glencoe has is now open following repair work. The essential repairs work were carried out by the National Trust for Scotland and were initially due to be completed in mid-august, but unforseen circumstances meant the project over ran and the bridge has only now re-opened.

Today (20 October) marks the end of the Scottish stag stalking season and SNH would like to know more from hillwalkers about the information that would be helpful when planning walks. If you have been hillwalking this year, please fill in the survey here. Three years ago SNH set up the Heading for the Scottish Hills website. The web service has proved popular with walkers with 7500 visits last year. This year, in a collaboration between SNH and Walkhighlands, the detailed information from the Heading for the Scottish Hills were also be directly available on the relevant hill routes on…

Forestry Commission Scotland has had to close off the bridge leading into the Glengarry woodland until next Tuesday (16th Oct) due to essential repair work. This affects the Allt na Calliche Trail and the Gleann Laogh Trail which are currently closed along with the car park. Last Thursday evening, a small side section of the embankment beside the bridge collapsed into the river and now civil engineering specialists are carrying out work to fix it. Kevin Peace, Forestry Commission Scotland’s District Manager in Lochaber said: “In these circumstances we always put public safety before anything else, so whilst the work…

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has launched a survey to ask hillwalkers how they find out about deer stalking before heading for the hills and how useful the online information about stalking is. The results will be used to improve the information provided in future years. Whether or not you have used the stalking information, if you have been hillwalking since the start of July, please fill in the survey here. The stag stalking season (1st July to 20th October) is a popular time of year for walkers, so three years ago SNH set up the Heading for the Scottish Hills…

Highland Council says that it will start removing the 'no overnight parking' signs from roadside lay bys that it is responsibile for following a committee decision yesterday (Thursday 20 September). Transport Scotland has already committed to removing approximately 50 notices from trunk roads. There has been some general discussion about the legality of the signs in the last few years and the latest move by Highland Council comes after lobbying by Andy Strangeway. Mr Strangeway, from East Yorkshire, is a regular visitor to the Scottish Highlands, in 2007 he completed his aim to sleep on all of Scotland’s 162 islands…

The Isle of May is celebrating its first-ever Seal Open Day on Sunday, 23 September, opening a new world for visitors used to coming to the island to see its seabirds. Up to 100 grey seals can be seen around the island at any time of year, but their numbers increase in Autumn and Winter when up to 4,000 seals haul themselves onto the rocky shores of the island to have their pups and mate. This makes the Isle of May the fifth largest breeding colony of grey seals in the UK, and the largest on the east coast of…

The pay phone at Derry Lodge, in the Cairngorms (NO 041 934) will cease to be operational from the end of this month. Calls have dwindled from the pay phone as a result of the increased use of mobile phones by the walking and mountaineering community and the age of the line is showing by the frequency of faults. Braemar Mountain Rescue Team was instrumental in getting the payphone installed at Derry Lodge in an era before mobile phones and when the long walk out to the Linn of Dee or even Braemar might have caused serious delays to the…

The Coire Gabhail bridge, used to access routes into the Lost Valley and Gearr Aonach in Glencoe is to remain closed until further notice. Essential repair work is being carried out by the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) and was due to be completed in mid-august. The NTS now says that ‘unforseen circumstances’ means the repairs are taking longer than the planned 8 weeks and that as the bridge has been removed and there is no safe crossing point where the bridge was, walkers and climbers should use an alternative approach. The alternative bridge is at Coire Nan Lochan (NN…