Magazine

Hebridean Way guide launched on Walkhighlands

Posted on May 1, 2022 by Paul Webster

We’re delighted to launch our new guide to the Hebridean Way, the unique 253km walking route which begins on the island of Vatersay, and visits Barra, Eriskay, South Uist, Benbecula, Grimsay, North Uist, Berneray and Harris and Lewis, finishing in the capital of the Western Isles, Stornoway. Our full guide: https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/outer-hebrides/hebridean-way.shtml We’ve fully detailed descriptions of the route in 12 stages in our usual style, all illustrated with photography and full Ordnance Survey mapping. If doing the route in stages, you can record your progress stage-by-stage. You can also record your own experiences of walking the route and read those…

Posted in Access issues, Magazine, News, Walkhighlands news

Exclusive endurance race accused of vandalism on Goatfell

Posted on April 29, 2022 by Paul Webster

The exclusive Highland Kings race – which charges entry fees of £15,000 per person – has been accused of vandalism after daubing yellow arrows on rocks where the route heads over Goatfell on Arran. Local mountain guide Lucy Wallace – a contributor as Walkhighlands and a member of the local mountain rescue team – raised the issue on her Facebook page: “Last night while I was having a brilliant time on Goatfell with my friends, (yet somehow leaving no trace of our presence), we saw that the mountain had been daubed in hundreds of these sprayed on yellow waymarks. I…

Posted in Magazine, Nature, News

Lynx to Scotland research – “Not now, but not never”

Posted on April 28, 2022 by Helen Webster

There is sufficient appetite from a diverse cross-sector of rural stakeholders to examine whether potential barriers to a trial reintroduction of Eurasian lynx to Scotland can be overcome, says the first detailed study into the social feasibility of the species’ return. The research, commissioned by the Lynx to Scotland project, spent a year consulting a wide range of national stakeholders and local communities in the Cairngorms National Park and Argyll. It was organised by charities SCOTLAND: The Big Picture, Trees for Life and Vincent Wildlife Trust. Previous research suggests the Highlands has enough habitat – and roe deer, the animal’s…

Posted in Magazine, Nature

Cape Wrath Trail photobook launched to benefit Ukraine appeal

Posted on April 13, 2022 by David Lintern

A new book mixing landscape and portrait photography with stories from one of Scotland’s longest walks is to be published, with all proceeds donated to refugee relief efforts in Ukraine and Afghanistan. Thunder Road – voices from the Cape Wrath Trail features portrait and landscape images that photographer and writer (and Walkhighlands regular) David Lintern made while walking the trail in May 2021, alongside the personal testimonies of those he photographed – both visitor and resident. The 240 mile Cape Wrath Trail begins in Fort William and ends at the lighthouse at the most north-westerly point of Scotland, Ministry of…

Posted in Features, Magazine, Photography

In Between Days – the cure for winter blues?

Posted on April 2, 2022 by Ben Dolphin

As something of a winter enthusiast I have a hard time letting go of the coldest season, even when…as this winter has been…..it’s the warmest, least frosty and most snow-starved winter I’ve experienced since moving to the Lomond Hills in 2010. Under those trying circumstances I stubbornly ignore the exit signs for as long as possible, not least the big patch of snowdrops that appears outside the house. For weeks I have to pass it every morning, but I make a point of looking in the opposite direction as I do so because I’ve no interest in looking at flowers…

Posted in Features, Magazine

First eagle nest camera feed in the UK opens at Loch Garten

Posted on April 1, 2022 by Helen Webster

In what has been hailed as a first for the UK, a new live camera feed at RSPB Scotland’s Loch Garten Nature Centre is giving visitors an up-close look at Scotland’s largest bird of prey. A pair of white-tailed eagles, Shona and Finn, have established a nest in the vast landscape of the Cairngorms Connect partnership, of which RSPB Scotland is part, with their activities beamed live to the Loch Garten Nature Centre at the charity’s Abernethy nature reserve. Using methods successfully trialled in other countries including Estonia and Latvia and under special license from NatureScot, experts from Wildlife Windows…

Posted in Magazine, Nature, News

Scottish Nature Photography Awards winners revealed

Posted on March 30, 2022 by Paul Webster

The Scottish Nature Photography Awards 2021 winners have been selected by the judging panel, photographers Kit Martin, Rebecca Nason and Niall Irvine. Scottish Nature Photographer of the Year 2021 is landscape photographer Darren Cole, whose winning image portrays a dramatic scene of a muirburn fire below snow-covered peaks near his home on the Isle of Harris. Ice and Fire won the Environmental category before being chosen as the overall winner against stiff competition from a range of abstract, botanical, wildlife and landscape categories. Kit Martin said: “Ice and Fire is stunning. The competition was fierce in the Environmental category, but…

Posted in Magazine, News, Photography

Countryside Ranger funding no more than “sticking plaster”

Posted on March 18, 2022 by Paul Webster

ScotWays (The Scottish Rights of Way & Access Society) gave qualified support to today’s announcement that Scottish Government Ministers have allocated up to £1.5 million for a third instalment of the Better Places Fund for seasonal posts to help manage recent vastly increased pressure on Scotland’s countryside. The early summer of 2020 saw unprecedented numbers of people heading into Scotland’s countryside following the lifting of the pandemic lockdown restrictions. Unfortunately, the sheer pressure of numbers caused problems – not enough parking places or toilets, traffic-jams at popular spots, over-crowding on paths and land managers struggling to cope with the impact…

Posted in Access issues, Magazine

Conditions over Ambitions

Posted on March 12, 2022 by Sarah Jane Douglas

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…

Posted in Features, Magazine

A love of Scotland’s beaches

Posted on March 5, 2022 by Dr Stacey McGowan Holloway

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…

Posted in Features, Magazine