This year has seen predictions of either a bumper or a lean year for that scourge of walkers, the Scottish midge. Once again the Scottish Midge Forecast will be providing forecasts of the level of midges in each area to help you plan your outdoor trips. Now in its seventh year, the Midge Forecast uses actual midge catch data recorded from special traps combined with weather forecast data from the MeteoGroup. The Midge Forecast says, “Since it was first trialled in 2004, the midge forecasting system has proven to be as accurate as other established forecasts such sun and pollen…

Mountain Aid have organised a talk on Mountaineering Incidents by Bob Sharp, former Lomond Mountain Rescue Team leader and co-author of Mountain Rescue, a history of Mountain Rescue, to coincide with their AGM on 30 May. Bob was involved in Mountain Rescue for around 30 years and took part in more than 250 call-outs and hopes his talk will be entertaining as well as informative presentation. The talk will start at 8pm, 30 May at Stirling Rugby Clib and is free and open to all, the Rugby Club bar will be also open. Mountain Aid will be holding their AGM…

The Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival (EMFF) and the Mountaineering Council of Scotland (MCofS) have joined forces this year to expand their popular and long running mountain writing and photography competitions. The Mountain Article competition has categories for prose and poetry with 1st prizes of £150, plus a free EMFF weekend pass for the prose category and £100, plus EMFF pass for the poetry class with substantial 2nd and 3rd prizes on offer too. For the Photography competition there are two categories this year entitled; Focus, and Mountains and Me. Winners will receive £25 cash prize, 1 year free MCofS individual…

A new festival gets underway this Wednesday (16 May) offering a variety of walks and other activities based at St Abbs nature reserve. Running for one week, the festival is a joint venture between the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) which manages the reserve and the local community. The festival aims to celebrate everything which makes the area special, from its seabirds to diving history, from its archaeology to its surf breaks, from its fisherman to its artists. There are walks, talks and films, surfing lessons and arts and crafts to enjoy. St Abb’s Head artist-in-residence Sarah Riseborough who has…

This Sunday (13th May) 5 year old Molly, a Collie from Aviemore, is aiming to complete her final Corbett, possibly making her the first canine to climb all the Corbetts. Molly will be accompanied by her proud owner Anne Butler an avid Munro and Corbett bagger. There are 220 Corbetts, Scottish mountains between the height of 2500 and 2999 feet above sea level. The list was collated by John Rooke Corbett in the 1920s. Kitchy the Shetland Collie, with his owner Hamish Brown, was the first recorded canine to finish the Munros in the 1960s. Many Munro baggers go on…

Strathclyde Police have announced that the body of a hillwalker missing on Arran has been discovered. Paul Henry, from Stranraer, was last seen at the Ardrossan ferry terminal on Saturday 5 May and is believed to have spoken to a family member on Sunday when he said he was in the Brodick area on Arran. Earlier today, Police appealed for walkers to look out for the missing 31 year old who was a keen hillwalker. This afternoon Police confirmed that a body had been recovered in Glen Rosa and formally identified. A Police spokesperson said that there appeared to be…