Cameron McNeish examines the lessons he has learned from Nan Shepherd’s writings NAN SHEPHERD, the woman-on-the-five-pound-note, was a reasonably successful novelist and poet but her work as a ‘geopoet’, if I may use such a term, has been widely acclaimed by literature experts and academics alike, as well as by those of us who love the hills. The focus of that work, a slim volume called The Living Mountain has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity, championed by respected writers like Robert MacFarlane and others. Now I’m not an expert in literature and I’m certainly not an academic, but I am a writer and a…

Walkhighlands regular contributor David Lintern has written the first complete guide to mainland Britain’s big hill running Rounds –
– part guidebook, part social history. Here, he focuses on the man and the story behind the Scottish Round.

Since re-locating to the Highlands six years ago, I’ve made hundreds of journeys up and down the A9 and the Highland Main Line, to keep up with family and friends in Perth and Edinburgh, and to honour work commitments in the Central Belt. I nearly always tackle the journey in one go, setting the cruise control if travelling by car, or loading up my laptop on the train, focused on getting to my destination with as few interruptions as possible. As I mentioned in my last article, setting aside free time for myself has become something of a challenge over…

In my last column I wrote about my innate urge to collect natural objects and my growing unease with how that hobby sits within the whole ‘leave no trace’ ethos. The question I considered was an ethical ‘should I?’, but in this column I’m considering a different question – a very matter-of-fact ‘can I?’ Collecting natural ‘stuff’ and even taking photos might seem the most inconsequential of pursuits, but it isn’t as straight-forward as you might think. Some things might need landowner permission before you remove them. Other things are generally okay to take but only if you are sparing…