Online start-up Walkhighlands.co.uk has walked away with both the Tourism Award and the trophy for the Overall Winner at the Herald Digital Business Awards. The awards were presented on Friday 4 December at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow, by David Milne, the Digital Editor at the Herald and Times Newspaper Group. The judges said that the panel was unanimous in its decision to declare Walkhighlands the overall winner across all business sectors, despite fierce competition from some of Scotland’s biggest digital media companies. Walkhighlands won the award for being able to demonstrate how digital technologies help attract more visitors to…

The Walkhighlands website has been shortlisted for the Herald Digital Business Awards – having made it through to the final two in the Tourism category. The winners, chosen by a judging panel headed by David Milne, editor of HeraldScotland, will be announced on Friday 4th December. These exciting new awards are to recognise businesses from all sectors that have seized the opportunities offered by digital technologies to drive success and competitive advantage. They are a chance to celebrate Scotland’s digital success stories.

To celebrate the end of the Year of Homecoming, Historic Scotland is flinging open the doors of over 40 properties, free of charge, this weekend. The weekend of 28 and 29 November, just before St Andrew’s Day, has been chosen to give everyone the chance to enjoy these historic buildings and sites for free. The attractions included in the free weekend include the fascinating Dallas Dhu Distillery in Morayshire, Edinburgh Castle (which will also be open free on St Andrew’s Day), Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness, and Iona Abbey. A full list of the participating properties can be found at…

Steve House’s book, Beyond the Mountain, has been awarded this year’s Boardman Tasker Prize at the Kendal Mountain Festival. The £3,000 prize commemorates the lives of Pete Boardman and Joe Tasker and is given to the author of an original work which has made an outstanding contribution to mountain literature. On 17 May 1982 Pete and Joe were last seen on Mount Everest attempting to traverse The Pinnacles on the unclimbed North East Ridge at around 8250 metres. Their deaths marked the end of a remarkable era in British mountaineering and the two men left a long-lasting legacy of quality…

The Prime Minister and Communities Secretary John Denham has announced that the public will have more access to Ordnance Survey maps from 2010, as part of a Government drive to open up data to improve transparency. Speaking at a seminar on Smarter Government in Downing Street today, attended by internet inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Professor Nigel Shadbolt, Gordon Brown set out how the Government and Ordnance Survey, Great Britain’s national mapping agency, will open up its data relating to electoral and local authority boundaries, postcode areas and mid scale mapping information. The proposals, which are being consulted upon, will…

The first beaver lodge to be constructed in the wild for over 400 years has now been built in Scotland, it has been revealed by the Scottish Beaver Trial, following the release of three beaver families which were released into Knapdale Forest, Mid-Argyll, in May. Project Manager Simon Jones, who discovered the lodge, said: “We are thrilled to see that one of our beaver families has now constructed their own lodge., marking the first-ever formal reintroduction of a native mammal in the UK. This is a fantastic sign that these beavers have settled into the area. They are following their…

A team of green-fingered volunteers from Moray-based conservation charity Trees for Life braved the elements to plant over 1,500 native trees on the Dundreggan Estate, Glen Moriston on Sunday November 1st, 2009. The sponsored tree planting event marked the beginning of Trees for Life’s programme of forest restoration on Dundreggan, which lies to the west of Loch Ness. Alan Watson Featherstone, Executive Director of Trees for Life, said: “I’d like to thank everyone who turned out for this special event despite the very wet weather. The team were fantastic, smiling and even singing in the rain as they worked. “It…

With the clocks having gone back this past weekend we will soon have winter upon us. Hillwalkers and climbers will be looking out their ice axe, crampons and headtorches, but it takes much more than just these to be ready for winter. To help hill walkers and climbers prepare for winter the MCofS (Mountaineering Council of Scotland) is providing a free Winter Safety programme. The programme includes free Winter Safety Lectures and a range of webpages with comprehensive guidance on mountain safety in winter. In addition to this specific winter programme, the MCofS also funds the Mountain Weather Information Service,…

The Mountain Bothies Association (MBA) has issued a reminder to commercial organisations that they must not use bothies that are maintained by the Association without first securing the consent of the owner. The MBA maintain a number of buildings in remote areas for use as shelters open to all. These buildings do not belong to the MBA, they remain in private ownership. From time to time, there is evidence, either in the form of actual use or in advertising, that some of these bothies are being used by commercial organisations as overnight accommodation for their clients. Such use is not…

Despite 18,000 objections, the controversial proposed power line between Beauly and Denny – running through some of the most beautiful parts of the Highlands, is expected to get the go ahead from the Scottish Government in the next few weeks, according to the BBC and other sources. The new line, which will involve the building of 600 pylons of up to 200 feet in height, is to stretch from Beauly near Inverness to Denny near Falkirk. The former MSP Dennis Canavan, president of the troubled Ramblers Association Scotland, said on the BBC Politics show, “If it does get the go-ahead…