Walkhighlands beat stiff competition from the National Trust for Scotland and Wilderness Scotland to win the innovation category of the Scottish Thistle Awards, from a field of almost 70 entrants. The award was presented by veteran comedian Ronnie Corbett, who confirmed that he was indeed the first person to climb all the Corbetts and that they were named after him. This conversation took place during an evening when much food and drink was consumed and we may have misheard him slightly. VisitScotland’s Thistle Awards are regarded as the Oscars of the tourism industry and are now in their 17th year.…

Walkhighlands has reached the final shortlist of four for this year’s Highlands and Islands Tourism Awards in the Best New Business category. These prestigious Awards will take place on 21st November 2008 at the Drumossie Hotel in the heart of the Highland region, Inverness. The awards recognise excellence in the tourism sector. This is in addition to being earlier announced as a finalist in the Scottish Thistle Awards, the winner of which will be announced later this month. Walkhighlands is thrilled to be shortlisted for this award and would like to give a huge thank you to the thousands of…

Walkhighlands.co.uk is one of 41 top tourism businesses which have made it through to the finals of VisitScotland’s prestigious Thistle awards this year. The coveted accolades, regarded as Tourism’s Oscars, celebrate quality and innovation. The 2008 winners will be announced at a glittering ceremony in Edinburgh on the 24th October. Now in their 17th year, the awards are open to all businesses operating in Scotland’s tourism industry and businesses can enter as many of the 11 categories as appropriate. Walkhighlands has been shortlisted in the Innovation category, sponsored by Scottish Enterprise, and faces stiff competition from Edinburgh-based Wilderness Scotland and…

Quo digital mapping is offering 15% off any of its products and maps until 25 August. Quo first came to our attention due to its low prices for digital Ordnance Survey maps – up to half the price of its competitors. Would the downside be software that was difficult to use or with less options than Memory Map or Anquet? To our surprise, we found that the answer is no – we found Quo to be the easiest to use and most fully featured mapping software on the market. We like it so much that we partnered with Mapyx to…

Walkhighlands is offering the chance to win a set of 6 guidebooks from Pocket Mountains. The competition is open to anyone in the UK who signs up for Walkhighlands’ monthly newsletter before 30 September 2008. Anyone already signed up will be automatically entered. For further details and how to enter click here.

We’re proud to announce not one but two new features on Walk Highlands. Virtual Highlands is a 3D model allowing website visitors to explore Scotland’s mountainous landscape online. It allows users to visualise and explore our 500 walks and see how the routes fit into the landscape. You can switch to a first person view at any time, so you can see the views as from the ground and identify what you’ll be able from the top of your target hill or mountain ridge. You can even walk around in the virtual world and check out all the views along…

Walk Highlands have teamed up with Mapyx to bring you a great and exclusive special offer on mapping software for your PC. QUO PRO Scotland – which includes the full version of Quo and the complete Ordnance Survey 1:50 000 Landranger mapping for Scotland – is available at a 20% discount via the Walk Highlands website until the 31st May 2008. The normal price is £54.95 but this offer saves you £10.99 to give you all the mapping for Scotland and the best GPS software for walkers for just £43.96! Check that out against the huge cost of the high…

Today we’ve launched a new section of Walk Highlands – this news service. Come to www.walkhighlands.co.uk/news for the latest walking and outdoors news from around Scotland. The service will highlight areas such as access and new paths, conservation news and campaigns as well as the latest events, festivals and special offers. We’ll also add posts to let you know what are the latest developments with the Walk Highlands website itself.  We’re also launching a regular email newsletter service. To sign up for this simply enter your email address at the top of the bar on the right and press submit.