IT turned out to be a much more enjoyable walk than I’d expected. As someone who regularly backpacks in the wilds of the highlands I was a little worried about tramping round agricultural fields and trying to find somewhere to camp close to towns and villages. It not only turned out well but I discovered lots of places I want to return to, and I’ve realised the full value of Core Path Networks.

After a train and a couple of buses I spent the first night in the very comfortable Border Hotel in Kirk Yetholm. The staff assumed I was heading off on the Pennine Way, for this is the traditional finish to the PW, but I told them I was heading north, not south. A good first day took me over the delightful Wideopen Hill, past Morebattle (too much road walking) and on past Harestanes where I camped on the old Roman Road of Dere Street.

The first couple of days were spent on the very well signposted St Cuthbert’s Way as far as Melrose. Then it was the Southern Upland Way for a day or so into Galashiels, over the hill to Yair Bridge, then up and over the delightful Minchmoor, always a favourite walk. Camped in the forest to get a bit of shelter from gale force winds then

REACTING to the news that Scottish Energy Minister Jim Mather has insisted on proper mitigation measures for the Beauly Denny powerline in the Stirling area, Scottish Ramblers boss Dave Morris has called for planning and financial approval for the whole powerline to be withdrawn.

In a letter to the press, Morris said: “This powerline with its accompanying swathe of windfarms down the western side of the Cairngorms National Park will cost billions – most of it is loaded onto our already inflated electricity bills and then into the pockets of the Directors and Shareholders of the multinational energy companies.”

Ramblers Scotland, despite an almost deathly hush on the subject of windfarms from the Ramblers London office, have been fiercely critical of the Government’s plans to build an onshore powerline instead of using extra cables on existing east coast pylons or using subsea transmissions.

“For all who seek elections to the Scottish Parliament in a few weeks Beauly Denny is the crucial test for their commitment to sound energy, environmental and economic policy,” said Morris. “Are our candidates for people and communities and our beautiful wild places or is their number one priority to touch their forelocks to the energy companies?”

In his letter Morris also commented on the revelation that visitScotland has airbrushed the pylons out of promotional posters of Kilchurn Castle in Argyll.

“Should we be really be fooling prospective visitors into thinking that we have wonderful, unspoilt scenery – and pretending the industrial pylons and turbines are not really there?”

THERE are still some tickets left for my talk tomorrow night in Paisley. It’s at the West of Scotland Uni - the old Paisley Tech in the High Street, and I’ll be talking about Trails and Climbs for Television. Tickets available from Summits in Paisley. See you there…

Life’s a beach at Husinish, west Harris

GOT home after a week of rain and gales on the Outer Hebrides. Despite the weather we managed to complete the rather loose itinerary we had prepared which included walking to Reinigeadal and climbing Clisham as a recce for a BBC programme we’re filming this summer. Also managed to squeeze in a visit to the excellent Hebridean Celtic Music Festival and saw Runrig, along with about 4000 others in the Big Blue Tent in the Lews Castle grounds in Stornoway. Runrig were superb, it was just a pity about the Hebridean weather the rest of the time.

Back across to Harris later this week to start filming our Hebridean Journey, which should be broadcast round about Christmas. It looks like being a combo cycle/walking journey. I tried walking the length of the Hebrides a few years ago but there was just too much road walking involved in connecting up the good bits. Makes sense to use a bike for the long road sections. Despite that, we’ll still have some good walks, including the 26 mile Harris Walkway which I had the pleasure of officially opening away back in 2001. We’ll also take a long trek north of Clisham through the hills of North Harris and visit the old village of Kinlochresort.

But in between all of that I’ll be helping present a big rock climbing outside broadcast from Stron Ulladale. Put it in your diary now - Saturday August 28, BBC 2 Scotland and Sky Channel 990. Tim Emmett and Dave MacLeod will be attempting a new route on the extravagantly overhanging cliffs of Stron Ulladale and there will be lots of pieces about the Hebrides in general, including film of the two lads climbing five new routes on five different islands on five consecutive days. I haven’t seen the films of that yet but I’m told it’s brilliant.

Standing stones at Callanish, and below, a dour day on An Clisham

I hope to meet up with some of you in the next couple of weeks at a couple of talks I’m giving, one in Fort William and one in Stockport.

The Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team Base in the Nevis Industrial Estate is the venue for my second talk on Mountain Safety, organised by the Mountainering Council of Scotland. That’s on this coming Thursday, Feb 25th at 8pm and entry is free. I gave a talk here at the end of January and we had a pleasant informal evening in the superb surroundings of the Lochaber MR Tea, base. Even if you don’t want to hear me it’s worth coming along just to get a conducted tour of the rescue base!

On March 9th I’ll be travelling down to Stockport as guest of the Rucksack Club. I’ll be doing my Wilderness World talk at the Heaton Moor Sports Club in Green Lane, Stockport SK4 2NF at 7.30pm. Tickets cost £2 for members and £4 for non-members on the door and the evening has been arranged by my good friend the photographer John Beatty. I’m looking forward to it and it’s a great chance to be able to give a talk in an area I don’t get to visit very often.

Meanwhile we’re still battling abnormally cold temperatures here in the Scottish Highlands. I think the temperature went down to something like -13 last night and it was -10 on Saturday night in Fort William. I was over there as host of the annual Nevis Partnership dinner where our guest speaker was Charles Kennedy MP, the Patron of Friends of Nevis. He gave a very funny and lively account of the current atmosphere in the House of Commons, and somehow, don’t ask me how, managed to link it all to Ben Nevis. Finding a parallel between the Ben and John Prescott is not an easy thing to do!

Our West Highland Way DVD is starting to sell well now and we’ll be turning our thoughts on what we’ll be filming this year. We have a big project planned out in the Hebrides and I’ll be doing some work on a brand new web-based television stream that’ll be starting later in the spring. It’s all exciting stuff but meanwhile, I have to go and chop some wood so we can continue to stay reasonably warm. It’s been bitterly cold but very sunny and everywhere looks absolutely beautiful. Having said that, my thoughts are beginning to turn towards spring and some warmer weather…

Photo: Temperature Inversion in Strathspey from above Allt na Criche

Like thousands of others I was very disappointed (but hardly surprised) at the way Donald Trump gained planning permission for his Menie Estate golf development. The cow-towing of politicians and business folk was embarassing and put a shame on the SNP government. If, like me, you’d like to give Donald trump an award - the worst planning decision of the year - in the 2009 Carbuncle Awards go to http://www.architecturescotland.co.uk/ and enter Donald and his couterie of pandering politicians and councillors for the Pock-Mark Award. Do we need more unspoiled sand dunes in Scotland? I think we do. Do we need more top class golf courses in Scotland? Certainly not. Do we need a planning process that is truly democratic and safe from the intervention of politicians? Up till now I thought we had one!

I’m delighted to say I’ve been asked to deliver the Annual Lecture of the Munro Society on Saturday April 18 at the Birnam Institute, Birnam, Perthshire.
I’ll be talking about Wild Scotland – A Spirit of Place, and will self-indulgently concentrate on those areas that have formed the bedrock of my outdoors career, the hill and mountains of the Scottish highlands and islands. With Scotland being able to boast some of the finest access legislation in the world, I’ll discuss the opportunities that are available for climbers, hill-walkers, Munro-baggers and backpackers, including some footage from my recent BBC television programme on the Sutherland Trail. However, the underlying theme will beone of protection and conservation and why it is the responsibility of outdoor folk to care for the wild places of Scotland..
The Munro Society was founded in 2002 and is open to anyone was has completed a “round” of the Munros. Much of the thinking behind the Society’s formation was to “give something back to the mountains”, a concept that strikes a chord among many hill-goers and a theme that I’ve discussed often enough on this website.

Among the initiatives undertaken so far by the Society are the following:
1) Establishing an Archive dedicated to preserving material relating to Munros and Munroists.
2) Monitoring the condition of Munros and Furths in terms of erosion and other man-made intrusions (the Mountain Quality Indicators, or MQIs for short). This is an ongoing process and a central database has been established.
3) The Society has organised the re-measuring of those mountains just above and below 3,000 ft with the latest measuring equipment, completing this task for Foinaven and Beinn Dearg (Torridon) in 2007.
4) The Society has actively supported campaigns such as that to extend the Cairngorm National Park and that against the Beauly to Denny power line

The Munro Society encourages new members from the ranks of Munroists and an application form can be downloaded from the Society’s website at www.themunrosociety.com. There is an active social side with an Annual Dinner and several weekends throughout the year spent among the hills.