Agitated is how I feel when I can’t get out onto the hills. I find it unbearable therefore I am unbearable and a bit of a nightmare to live with for most of January and February (though my partner Paul may argue I’m a pain most of the year round). I swear the skin on the tips of my forefinger and thumb have virtually worn away from the constant swiping as I check and re-check forecast updates. One storm system after the other has swept in over Scotland from the Atlantic. Conditions on the mountains have been fairly grim, and…

The Beaches of Scotland is a new guidebook by Dr Stacey McGowan Holloway, a guide to over 150 hand-picked beaches around Scotland’s coast, stretching from the mainland to the Outer Hebrides before sweeping north to Orkney and Shetland. Here Stacey explains why she loves to swim in the sea, and picks some personal favourites. The Scottish coastline extends nearly 19,000 kilometres in length including some 900 islands, several of which were formed and shaped by volcanoes, and is scattered with beaches. I currently live on the coast, and being able to look out daily to the sea and the Isle…

Heavy Whalley has spent a life in love with the hills and in the service of others, holding key roles in Mountain Search and Rescue over several decades. David Lintern met up for a chat. Please introduce yourself. My name is David ‘Heavy’ Whalley. I was born in Ayr and brought up to love the mountains and wild places. I was a bit of a wild kid and there were very few jobs about in Ayrshire at that time. I joined the RAF in 1971. Where did your passion for the mountains start? My Dad and Mum gave me a huge love…

If any four words can make me spill my mug of tea on my legs as I leap up from the sofa, it’s these. If any four words can, in so doing, make me scald my delicates without stopping to check they’re okay, it’s these. If any four words can have me tripping over the death-trap of boots at the front door as I stumble blindly outside into the darkness whilst screwing my camera to its tripod with one hand, tying my laces with the other and simultaneously trying to pull a woolly hat down over my head…..yep, it’s these.…

We’re working with Scottish Mountain Rescue to bring you some of the human stories behind the rescue headlines, hopefully giving more insight into what and how things can go wrong in the mountains and the people who volunteer to help. Here Niall tells of his experience after falling through a cornice in poor visibility on Beinn an Dothaidh. Tell us a little bit more about yourself? I am a tour guide based in Edinburgh and a keen hill wallker. I am currently building up my experience on the hills with a view to taking the Mountain Leader course in the…

David Lintern rounds out the weirdest of years with a quiet walk through a multi-storied landscape. Today, I’m hitting the pause button. There’s a brief lull in my schedule that coincides with a break in the weather, a benign day between early winter storms, with slowly clearing skies and a thaw after the first big dump of snow. Maybe even a glimpse of sun? After the year we’ve had, I’ll take it. I’ve long had an eye on a giant cleft on the map, a sort of secret doorway to the plateau of the central highlands. Given the recent access…

We’re working with Scottish Mountain Rescue to bring you some of the human stories behind the rescue headlines, hopefully giving more insight into what and how things can go wrong in the mountains and the people who volunteer to help. Here Fiona Bennett tells of her experience following a serious accident in the Cuillin. Tell me a little bit more about yourself? I am 31 years old, from Glasgow and work as an Accountant for the Scottish Government. My accident happened in 2014 when I was 25. I am a keen hill walker and have been since I was very…

In 1997, at the age of 24, Sarah Jane Douglas lost her mother to breast cancer. Alone and adrift in the world, she very nearly gave up hope, but she’d made a promise to her mother that she would keep going no matter what. So she turned to the beautiful, dangerous, forbidding mountains of her native Scotland. Her book Just Another Mountain was shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award last year, and it was a Waterstones Book of the Month.  ‘Which is your favourite mountain?’ is a question I’m frequently asked, but there are so many of outstanding…