Hill runner Jamie Aarons has smashed the record for a continuous round of the Munros. She summitted her final Munro, Ben Klibreck just before 5pm today, 26th June – in a time of 31 days, 10 hours and 27 minutes. Jamie began her round on May 26 at 6:30am on the Isle of Mull. Her round was undertaken on foot, bike and kayak. The route involved 1,315km of running and another 1,249km of cycling, 11km of kayaking, with a total of over 120,000m of ascent. The previous record was set by Donnie Campbell who completed the round in just over 31…

Andrea Britton an ecologist at The James Hutton Institute asks hillwalkers to help with important research. Everyone who enjoys Scotland’s Munros already knows that our spectacular mountain landscapes are home to some amazing wildlife: from majestic Golden Eagles and enigmatic Mountain Hares through to the multi-coloured carpets of lichen and moss that thrive in what – to us as least – appear to be sometimes hostile habitats. But how much do we actually know about the life beneath our walking boots as we bag our next Munro? It’s a question that we ecologists at The James Hutton Institute have been…

A share of the car parking fees from the new Beinn a’ Ghlo car park at Loch Moraig are to be invested in Outdoor Access Trust’s annual mountain path maintenance volunteer programme. John Swinney, MSP for Perthshire North, has today opened a new 60 space car park for hill walkers on Beinn a’ Ghlo and its three Munros, near Blair Atholl on the southern edge of the Cairngorms National Park. The £172,000 partnership building project was spearheaded by the Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland (OATS), a leading environmental charity promoting sustainable public access, and funded by both the Cairngorms National…

The title of last month’s winning Walk Report says it all. Foil Blanket, Mobile Phones, Helicopter Rescue, Broken Bones is gld73’s gripping tale of how easy a relatively straightforward hillwalk can go horribly wrong. The guys at Highlander who sponsor the competition said they were speechless reading this report, describing it as an incredible (and lucky) story shared with the community – well worthy of the £100 voucher prize. May’s runner up was tomyboy73’s account The Aonach Eagach at last. A great mix of fear, fun, atmospheric photos and great memories is described as a group of friends tackle this…

Many of Scotland’s most popular natural sites are receiving a staffing boost this summer, with Scottish Government funding of £900,000 to support better visitor management and help safeguard the environment for visitors and local communities. The NatureScot Better Places funding will go directly to 24 countryside, coast and island projects across Scotland, enabling an additional 62 staff to be employed this summer across Scotland. The extra ‘boots on the ground’ will promote the Scottish Outdoor Access Code (SOAC) and help manage visitor pressure in Shetland, Glencoe, the Pentlands, the Cairngorms, Loch Lomond, Arran, NC500, and various locations around East Lothian,…