I’m horrified to discover that the main Board of the Ramblers is proposing to close down their Scottish and Welsh offices making 14 staff redundant. Each office could be replaced by two people who will work from home, on reduced salaries.

I’m not certain about what goes on in Wales but as someone who has served as president of Ramblers Scotland on two separate 3-year terms and is currently a Vice President I am aware of the high quality of the staff in the Scottish office in Milnathort, staff that could shortly be served with redundancy notices. Why is this happening? Because of a shortfall in donations, apparently caused by the recession, the Ramblers feel they have to make budget cuts of £1M and £300,000 of those cuts will land in Scotland.

This proposal by the Ramblers Board has potentially catastrophic consequences. The Land Reform (Scotland) Act is still in its infancy and it is absolutely vital that the Ramblers have a strong and active presence in Scotland to campaign against the various issues that will arise. The organisation must be able to continue with the Court of Session case in March 2010 with the Euan Snowie appeal – the outcome has huge implications for the implementation of our right to roam legislation in Scotland. Another Anne Gloag-type outcome would be disastrous for the future of the legislation and would affect all of us who have come to cherish the access provisions of the Act.

We have to remember that the majority of visitors who come here to walk from England and other European countries see Scotland as a country that enjoys the best access legislation in the world.

For some time now I’ve been concerned by the London-centric attitude of the Ramblers who seem to becoming too involved in ‘walking for health’ and promoting ‘urban walking’ at the expense of countryside and wild land walking. This ‘London-centricity’ of Ramblers  has gone from bad to worse, with the latest example being the London urban skyline that is printed as a footer on the emails that I receive from the Ramblers. What’s all that about?

Over the last few years the work that has been carried out by Ramblers Scotland is exemplary and members appreciate that. The latest issue of Climber magazine (July 09, p 35) contains this comment by my good friend, the well respected outdoors writer and journalist, Ed Douglas:

“At the moment, however, many conservation agencies will wonder what such issues have got to do with the BMC,  Isn’t it just a sporting organisation?  It often looks like one.  But that’s not a question that gets asked of the Ramblers’ in Scotland, where Dave Morris and and his team have defended Scotland’s wild places with terrier-like ferocity for decades and made valuable contributions to policy and legislation”.

There is also a paranoia within the Ramblers about rights of ways in the Home Counties, even though, according to many, the right of way situation in England has improved enormously, both on the ground and in legislative terms, and yet the Ramblers maintain a huge section of their staff in London to fight this cause. Read these words by John Andrews, a long time RA member who has worked on these issues until very recently. Indeed he was made a life member of the Ramblers for the work he had done on rights of ways;

“The great majority of people that run the Ramblers in London do not understand how different the organization is in Scotland and how differently everything works. In Scotland we are in the early stages of implementing the Land Reform legislation. We need lots of support for this and staff in London cannot help – they have virtually no knowledge of the legislation itself, its origins, how it is applied today and the issues that arise on the ground. In England the need for the Ramblers to have a big rights of way team in their London office is fading because most of the legislative work has been done. So much has already been achieved. There is only one outstanding legal case which I also happen to be involved in from the days when I lived in England. We do not need to preserve a large team of people working in the London office on rights of way. For 30-35 years I worked very closely with the Ramblers rights of way team in London and over the last two years have worked with Scottish staff since I moved to live near Perth. The need for staff support is far greater in Scotland because of the stage that we are at with the Land Reform legislation. The Ramblers needs to focus its resources on Scottish access legislation and the big challenges that we face in securing its successful implementation.”

This fully concurs with a letter I received from Hugh Westacott, a walking holiday operator and well known writer, who complained that the Ramblers were wasting their resources on rights of way in England since the main problems have long been eradicated. My own suspicion is that there is more to this than budget cuts. Dave Morris, director of Ramblers Scotland, is a skilled, eloquent and hard working political operator. I would go as far as to say that it had not been for him and Alan Blackshaw, we wouldn’t have been successful in the Land Reform campaign here in Scotland. As President at the time of that campaign I worked very closely with Dave and was constantly astounded by his tactical skill and political knowledge. I know for a fact that there are those on the Ramblers board who see Dave Morris as something of a maverick, with too much power. There are also those on the board who are of the opinion that the Scots, generally, are oversubsidised as a nation and at the moment, with a deeply unpopular Scots Prime Minister and Chancellor, it’s simply not cool to be Scots.

If the Ramblers continue with their proposal to make their most effective operator and campaigner, and his excellent team, redundant, then it will be utter madness. Chief Executive Tom Franklin should be taking a close look at the motives behind his board’s proposal and root out and get rid of those who have come up with this nonsensical plan. If he doesn’t, then I fear it could be the beginning of the end for the Ramblers, an organisation with a long and proud record, especially so here in Scotland. 

Below: Alan Blackshaw, Dave Morris, Pauline McNeil MSP and Rennie McOwan celebrating the publication of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act, the future of which could be in doubt if the London Ramblers board get their way

Just returned from a fabulous week’s backpacking on the Isle of Skye, wandering through two of the most amazing landscapes in the country.

Most hillgoers will be well aware of the savage grandeur of the Cuillin but I wonder how many are familiar with the high level promenade down the length of the Trotternish peninsula? Gina and I started our little odyssey from the ruined castle of Duntulm, in the north of Trotternish. The old castle was once a fort of the Macdonalds of the Isles. Before that it was used by Vikings - to this day you can see the scratch marks of the Norse longboat keels on the rocks close to the castle.

Our route took us south over the incredible landscapes of Trotternish visiting the area’s two iconic landmarks - the Quiraing, and the Storr Rock. We spent almost three days on the ridge, drinking in the most incredible views from the hills of Assynt in the north-east and out to the mountains of Harris in the west. We explored the hidden recesses of the Quiraing, watched a pair of sea eagles and were in turn watched by a golden eagle, and dropped down to have a close-up view of the Old Man of Storr.

We traversed the full ridge as far as Portree, then the next day took the quiet minor road through Braes to the footpath that runs along the north shore of Loch Sligachan. Braes has particular historical relevance in the whole Land Reform story - the last Battle of Britain took place here in the late 1800’s when local crofters, when trying to secure tenure of their crofts, were set upon by a team of policemen brought from Glasgow. Curiously enough I met an old friend at Upper Olach who had recently retired after 29 years in the police service. He reckoned it was a shameful event, although he did say it was mostly the women who took on the police - he reckoned the men probably stayed indoors and smoked their pipes!

From Sligachan we hiked down the glen to Coruisk where we spent the night - the most magical camping spot you could imagine, before heading south by the shores of Loch Scavaig (and the infamous Bad Step) to Camasunary (where we met my old friend Colin Prior and some of his photography class) before continuing to Elgol.

The walk was a recce for this year’s Adventure Show Christmas Special, and I’ll be heading back to Skye at regular intervals over the summer and autumn to film it. Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a fantastic walk through the finest scenery in Britain then Duntulm to Elgol takes some beating.