Autumn 2010

AWARD WINNING MAGAZINE

WALKING THE SKYE LINE Savour epic landscapes on the Misty Isle

Autumn 2010 £3.80

CARBON CONSCIOUS

Restoring Scotland’s vital peatland habitat

GOING WITH THE FLOW

A descent of the River Spey by open canoe

GORDON BUCHANAN

The wildlife filmmaker living a life less ordinary

PLUS: Search and rescue dog training • Hill skills • Win a luxury weekend on Skye

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01-02_CONTENTS_SO_AUT10_Layout 2 copy 6 30/08/2010 10:17 Page 1

CONTENTS

EXPLORE: SKYE AND THE SMALL ISLES

38 Long way down

Fancy a long-distance walk with a difference?

Paul and Helen Webster introduce a personal Skye Trail – a week-long epic that showcases the very best of the island’s landscape and cultural history

44 A Rum do

Once strictly off-limits, the rugged Isle of Rum is now easier to reach than ever before. Marieke McBean returns to an island where nature rules the roost

50 Over the sea

FEATURES

From exploring remote coastlines to enjoying the very best of local produce, Skye and the Small Isles have something for everyone. Here are just a few suggestions

CONSERVATION

Peat practice Scotland’s peat bogs may seem bleak and lifeless, but appearances are deceptive. They also have a pivotal role to play in combating climate change, as Ida Maspero reports

ADVENTURE

Going with the flow A descent of the Spey by open canoe offers a classic journey on one of Scotland’s great rivers. It’s also a perfect challenge for the first-time paddler, discovers Richard Rowe

STEPPING OUT

54 Mutley crew

Ever thought of training up your pooch as a search and rescue dog? SARDA Scotland handler Tom Gilchrist explains just what is involved

WILDLIFE & ECOLOGY

58 Swan song

Caerlaverock on the Solway Firth is famous for its wintering barnacle geese, but it is the enchanting whooper swans that draw Tom Langlands back year after year.

Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010 01

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A WORD FROM THE EDITOR Forgive us if we navel-gaze for a moment, but with this being our tenth issue since launching two years ago, it feels like we should celebrate the mini-milestone.

With hindsight, launching a magazine just in time for the biggest recession in living memory wasn’t the best planning in the world, but we like a challenge! Despite the economic gloom, we have been overwhelmed by the response and with an ever-growing number of readers, subscribers, advertisers and stockists have been able to continue growing the publication. Thank you all.

In this issue, our quest to showcase Scotland’s natural riches takes us on a long walk through Skye, training search and rescue dogs with SARDA Scotland, wildlife watching on the Solway Firth and a classic journey by open canoe down the River Spey.

We also look closely at one of Scotland’s less-heralded environments – its peatlands. Although something of an ugly duckling compared to other landscapes, peatlands and blanket bogs are surprisingly species-rich and play a vital role in reducing carbon emissions. Turn to page 22 for more.

CONTENTS

Enjoy the issue.

REGULARS

Richard Rowe Editor

04 READER ADVENTURERS Reader photographs of wild getaways

06 ECO-VIEW

WINNER Best small publishing company magazine PPA Scotland Awards 2009

Peter Cairns explores our rather fickle public attitude to living alongside predators

08 NEWS

Find us online at www.scotoutdoors.com and sign up for our e-newsletter to receive regular updates

Outdoor news from around Scotland

12 EVENTS

COVER PHOTOGRAPH: CAMASUNARY COTTAGE AND BLAVEN, ISLE OF SKYE, BARBARA JONES/WWW.PHOTOSECOSSE.COM

Get active with our round-up of the best outdoorsy events

CONTENTS PHOTOGRAPHY: MARIEKE MCBEAN; GRAHAME MADGE/RSPB-IMAGES; WALKHIGHLANDS; RICHARD ROWE; TOM LANGLANDS; SARDA SCOTLAND; DAVID NOBLE; RORY SYME; GORDON BUCHANAN

14 OUTDOOR INNOVATIONS A glance at some of the most innovative new outdoor products

16 DAY IN THE LIFE OF...

Stephen Pyke, Ultra-distance fell runner, Staffordshire

18 BOARD AND LODGING: THE LOVAT, FORT AUGUSTUS Danny Scott takes a solo trip to the banks of Loch Ness for a weekend of eco-friendly luxury

Editor: Richard Rowe t 01721 729876 e richard@scotoutdoors.com Associate Editor: Ida Maspero t 0131 538 0348 e ida@scotoutdoors.com Copy Editor: Ruth Noble

19 COMPETITION

Editorial Board: Nick Williams, Chris Surgenor, Charlotte Manwaring, Andy Ross

Win a fantastic weekend break for two at Duisdale House Hotel on the Isle of Skye

Advertising sales: Alison Fraser t 0141 946 8708 e alison@scotoutdoors.com

20 OUTDOOR PASSIONS

Design & Production: CMYK Design e production@scotoutdoors.com w cmyk-design.co.uk

Raised on the Isle of Mull, Gordon Buchanan is a highly-respected wildlife filmmaker who has shot to prominence through the success of series such as Autumnwatch and Lost Land of the Volcano

64 OUTDOOR SKILLS In the first of a new series of articles, Nigel Williams from Glenmore Lodge explains why hill walkers should give orienteering a try

02 Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010

Subscriptions: Please contact subscriptions@scotoutdoors.com Printing: J Thomson Colour Printers Published by: Big Bend Publishing, 16 Rosetta Road, Peebles, Borders EH45 8JU, Scotland Scotland Outdoors is published quarterly. It is available by subscription and through in-room

copies at high-quality accommodation providers; Green Tourism Business Scheme and Wild Scotland members; leading wildlife and adventure travel companies; activity and visitor centres; outdoor retailers and other specialist suppliers. For a full list of stockists see: www.scotoutdoors.com ISSN 1757-224X All contents © Big Bend Publishing (2010) This magazine is printed on Claro Silk, which is FSCcertified and produced using ECF pulp.

03_SUBS_SO_AUT10_Layout 2 copy 5 31/08/2010 13:56 Page 3

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WALKING THE SKYE LINE Savour epic landscapes on the Misty Isle

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CARBON CONSCIOUS

Restoring Scotland’s vital peatland habitat

GOING WITH THE FLOW

A descent of the River Spey by open canoe

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LIFE THROUGH A LENS

You don’t always need a tent for overnight adventures

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How to create wildlife images to be proud of

HAVE TRAILER, RETURN OF PLUS: The joys of hill running t Polly

Murray t Win

a wilderness walking break WILL TRAVEL THE DAMMED Mountain bike touring in the Cairngorms

Beavers are back, but are they welcome?

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04_READER-ADV_SO_AUT10_Layout 2 copy 5 30/08/2010 10:27 Page 4

OUTDOOR • ADVENTURERS

1

CHECK OUT OUR SELECTION OF THE BEST READER PICTURES SUBMITTED IN RECENT MONTHS

2

Who done it?

1 – Lost lamb, Orkney, Piers Shaw 2 – Glamping in Glen Brittle, Skye, Alan Gale 3 – On top of Tom na Gruagaich, Torridon, Craig Stewart 4 – Enjoying the tunes at the Big Tent Festival, Falkland, Anna Levin 5 – Looking down on Inveraray, Charl van Tonder 6 – High above Loch Tay on the Tarmachan Ridge, Duncan Ross

PLEASE KEEP THE PICTURES COMING:

3

Show us what you get up to and we will publish the best pictures in our next issue. Just tell us where you are and what you are doing.

Email your high-resolution images to: adventures@scotoutdoors.com

6

54

Scotland Outdoors Contributors

Gordon Buchanan

Paul and Helen Webster Marieke McBean

A highly-respected cameraman and presenter with a string of TV credits to his name, Gordon Buchanan has the enviable job of travelling to the world's wild places in search of fascinating wildlife. He tells us how a childhood growing up on Mull shaped his love of the outdoors.

Outdoor passions, p20

Founders of the award-winning website Walkhighlands, Paul and Helen Webster have a lifelong love of walking – particularly the really big treks. Paul and Helen introduce a week-long epic that showcases the very best of Skye’s remarkable landscape and cultural history.

Long way down, p38

04 Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010

Born in the Netherlands, but now married to a Scotsman and living on the shores of Loch Tay, Marieke McBean fell for the rugged charms of Rum on a first visit many years ago. She returns to find an island easier to reach than ever before, but where nature still rules the roost.

A Rum do, p44

Tom Langlands An architect by trade but also an accomplished photographer, Tom Langlands has long had a fascination with the whooper swans that migrate from Iceland to Caerlaverock on the Solway Firth each year. Here, he explores just why the area is so ideal for these elegant long-distance travellers.

Swan song, p58

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PHOTOGRAPHY: PETER CAIRNS/WWW.NORTHSHOTS.COM

ECO-VIEW • LIVING WITH PREDATORS

Fickle fingers RATHER THAN BEING CELEBRATED, THE RECOVERY OF ONCE VULNERABLE SPECIES OFTEN SERVES TO HIGHLIGHT A RATHER FICKLE PUBLIC ATTITUDE TOWARDS PREDATORS, AS PETER CAIRNS EXPLAINS

I

don’t particularly enjoy having a finger jabbed at me but I’m prepared to run with it. “You see, they fly over the fence and attack my birds. They belong in woodlands, not gardens.” I consider the irate lady stood before me, her finger planted firmly in my chest, but before I can respond she resumes her tirade. “There are definitely too many.

Someone needs to control them.”

The target of this venomous outburst is the sparrowhawk, an audacious raptor that in recent years, thanks to our growing inclination to feed ‘our’ birds, has discovered a plentiful supply of prey in our gardens no less. Our gardens! You know those places where admission is only granted to species that don’t dig, burrow, defecate or, worse, kill things that we like. The sparrowhawk is guilty of the latter and my sparrowhawk-hater is not about to let me forget it.

“By ‘control’ I take it you mean killed?”

I intervene before she marks my chest permanently. “Well, someone has to do something,” she retorts, carefully avoiding the word ‘kill’. Now we’re getting to the nub of it. “So how many sparrowhawks need to be killed before there are no longer too many?”

I ask. This is it, I’m sure there’s now a hole in my shirt, but I know this emotive outburst is based on zero rationality so I eagerly await the response. “Quite a few,” she says.

The jabbing stops and so does the discussion.

I thank her for her contribution and leave.

Quite a few! How many is ‘quite a few’? Ten? A thousand? Ten thousand?

This discussion took place several years ago when I was photographing for a project exploring our fickle attitudes towards predators.

Since then I’ve been the victim of more

06 Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010

finger-jabbing assaults as folk vent their fury about almost every other predator that has clung to a tenuous existence and clawed its way back.

Depending on where you look, there are too many seals (according to some salmon anglers); too many buzzards (according to some gamebird breeders); too many pine martens (according to some capercaillie conservationists); and too many peregrines (according to some pigeon fanciers). But what does ‘too many’ actually mean?

In conservation terms, we’re charting new waters. There are now more predators in Britain than at any time in recent history and it’s something we’re not used to. We’re being asked to make value judgements on which species should live where and to whose benefit.

For the majority of people, the resurgence in predator populations is something to celebrate. They represent an island of hope in an ocean of environmental despair. They enhance the natural wealth of Scotland and are symbolic of a wildness we once knew. But for others, expanding predator numbers – and the legal protection they’re afforded – is an alien concept, one that has been forced upon hard-pushed communities by do-gooders who know little of rural life.

I can see both points of view. The ecological argument that predator numbers are simply a barometer for the abundance of prey is a valid one. Equally, if you perceive a threat to your stock by a predator you’ve not had to worry about for decades, ecology is irrelevant – it’s a simple case of hard economics. Or is it?

Predator perceptions are often based on a wide range of social, political and cultural influences: it’s about what the predator

How many is too many? The osprey and pine marten are among those predators to have enjoyed something of a renaissance in recent years

represents rather than what it actually is.

Somewhat dangerously, anecdotal evidence becomes the foundation on which predator attitudes are exchanged. Under these conditions it is easy to see how ‘too many’ is quickly adopted as fact.

And there’s another facet to this: change – something to which we’re inherently resistant.

Only decades ago there were ‘too many’ red squirrels and ‘too many’ otters. In a short space of time society’s sensitivities have shifted and are being imposed upon values that have remained unchanged for centuries.

As we continue to plough resources into conserving and expanding the historical range of high-profile predators, how long before others creep closer to that ‘too many’ line? Will ospreys eventually become ‘too successful’?

Wildcats perhaps? And what about sea eagles, already implicated in unacceptable levels of lamb predation?

We’re entering a period where some predators are returning to the levels at which they were found before our ‘management’ dictated their demise.

But if, as it seems in some quarters, we’re unable to stand by and allow predator–prey dynamics to flourish, then what criteria should we use to measure ‘too many’? The answer to that will depend on whom you ask, but must surely start with science-based dialogue rather than cursory claims and gritted teeth chest-jabbing? Apart from anything, it damned well hurts. g Peter Cairns is one of Europe’s leading nature photographers, specialising in the wildlife of northern Europe and our relationship with it. He is based in the Cairngorms National Park. www.northshots.com

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08-11_NEWS_SO_AUT10_Layout 2 copy 5 30/08/2010 10:37 Page 8

Run, cycle, party, collapse SOME 600 participants took to the Rob Roy Way over the summer for the fifth annual Martin Currie Rob Roy Challenge.

Tough but achievable, the Challenge places a firm emphasis on having fun.

A variety of teams including many in fancy dress and accompanied by their dogs covered 55 miles of the Rob Roy Way, from Drymen to Kenmore. The first 16 miles were completed on foot before competitors switched to bikes at Callander and cycled the remaining 39 miles to the finish at Kenmore.

More than £1.5m has been raised by the Challenge since it began in 2006

and this year teams were raising money for Sightsavers, The Prince's Trust, The Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust and NSPCC. Competitors, supporters and volunteers with energy left in the tank celebrated their achievement with a party on the banks of Loch Tay, complete with a hog roast and ceilidh. (See our online feature written by Moses Chege from Kenya who travelled 4,000 miles to participate in the Challenge – his first ever visit to Scotland.) www.scotoutdoors.com www.robroychallenge.com

PHOTOGRAPH: CHRIS GOMERSALL/2020VISION.

OUTDOOR • NEWS

My cover shot, Barbara Jones CAMASUNARY COTTAGE AND BLAVEN, ISLE OF SKYE I captured this image on a typical bank holiday weekend … blustery showers and the light dead flat.

No matter, Camasunary is a delight whatever the weather, so off we went.

As we sat by the wall for shelter and to drink our flask of coffee, there was a brief interlude of sun, so there was a frantic setting up of the tripod – not easy when the ground is all moss.

The wind was pretty strong, so I hung my camera bag on the tripod for extra stability. I managed to crack off a few shots before the sun disappeared for the rest of the day. It then rained all the way back to the car park. www.photosecosse.com

08 Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010

Wire bridge is back WALKERS IN Glen Nevis will be pleased that the wire bridge at Steall has reopened following several months out of action. The bridge was closed in May after a party of walkers overloaded it, causing one of the foot cables to break.

Offering an adventurous crossing at the best of times, the three-wire bridge provides a vital link to the Steall bothy and the wider Mamores. The John Muir Trust, which manages the surrounding area, was anxious to finish the repair work before the Water of Nevis rose to its winter levels, when fording the stream on foot is often not an option. www.jmt.org

08-11_NEWS_SO_AUT10_Layout 2 copy 5 30/08/2010 10:37 Page 9

Nature cure BRITAIN’S MOST ambitious photography-based conservation initiative ever, 2020VISION, is now underway.

The multi-media project sees 20 of the country’s top wildlife and nature photographers come together with leading conservation partners to document the value of restoring Britain’s fragmented and battered ecosystems.

From autumn onwards, a crack photo-team will carry out 20 flagship assignments that between them will demonstrate the link between a healthy natural landscape and the wellbeing of local people.

The photo-team, which includes top photographers such as Chris Packham, Joe Cornish and Andy Rouse, will be joined by videographers and sound recordists. Together, they will visit key locations throughout Britain where large areas of habitat are being restored or re-connected not just for the benefit of the wildlife that lives there, but for people too.

The thousands of images, such as this shot of The Wash in Norfolk, and hours of footage generated will then be woven into compelling narratives and presented in innovative ways up and down the country – again working with local partners and communities.

As the project organisers highlight, while the idea of ‘ecosystem thinking’ is something that is now prevalent in the scientific and conservation community, the value of a wilder Britain where ecosystems function as they should has not previously been communicated on such a grand scale. 2020VISION is an attempt to bridge that gap using the motivational language of inspiring photography.

Scotland Outdoors is delighted to lend its support to this ambitious and compelling call for action. www.2020v.org

Backing bats at Threave A PIONEERING approach to bat conservation began this summer when the National Trust for Scotland launched the nation’s first ever dedicated bat reserve at Threave Estate in Dumfries and Galloway. It is hoped that the reserve will become a centre of learning and research on bats and also increase public awareness of how to live in harmony with these nocturnal animals.

Bats and their roosts are protected by law in the UK. Over the past century, their populations have suffered serious decline, but there are now signs that numbers of some species have begun to stabilise and recover.

Visitors to Threave can take part in a

Bat Trail and learn more about where the seven species of bat that are believed to be present roost around the property.

During the day, a special Bat Mobile now tours the estate, prompting visitors to learn more about these fascinating creatures. Visitors can also pick up batdetecting skills and listen for species such as the pipistrelle (pictured).

“Threave is the perfect spot for Scotland’s first bat reserve,” commented Lindsay Mackinlay, Nature Conservation Officer. “We invite folk to come down, open their minds and be amazed by these quite extraordinary, yet badly understood animals.” www.nts.org.uk/Property/61

Stepping out FOR THE first time since it opened a decade ago, passengers on the Cairngorm funicular can now enjoy direct access to the Cairngorm plateau.

Previously, amidst fears that large numbers of walkers would damage the fragile arctic-alpine environment, passengers were not allowed to step directly onto the plateau and instead had to be content with enjoying the views from inside the Ptarmigan Top Station. Outside the skiing months, those who wanted to experience the plateau itself had to do so the hard way, by walking up.

The radical change of policy, agreed by Scottish Natural Heritage and Highland Council, means that passengers can now pay to take part in guided circular walks to the summit of Cairn Gorm – the UK’s sixth highest peak. The walks, which last around 90 minutes and involve groups of no more than 10 people at a time, are part of a three-month trial that will run until 31 October.

The trial has led some walking groups to call for a complete rethink on access to the northern side of the Cairngorms. “Guided walks to the summit are just a small step in the right direction,” commented Dave Morris, Director, Ramblers Scotland. “But we must now ask questions about access in general – fundamental to this is whether we should continue to drive up to 2,000 ft on Cairn Gorm.

“Lessons from other skiing areas suggest that it is far better, environmentally and economically, to park the car in the forest zone at the foot of the mountain. On Cairn Gorm, if new parking provision was made within the Glenmore forest everyone could travel from there to the upper mountain slopes either by a shuttle bus service on the existing road, or by a new gondola system travelling through the forest.” www.cairngormmountain.co.uk

Camp champs SCOTTISH SITES scooped two places in a recent competition run by outdoor chain Cotswold Outdoor to find Britain’s top five campsites. Campers from across the UK were asked to nominate their favourite sites, with the judging panel – that included Scotland Outdoors – selecting the five best based on location, facilities, customer service, entertainment and their beautiful outdoor settings.

The two Scottish winners, Marthrown of Mabie in Dumfries & Galloway (pictured) and Applecross Campsite in Wester Ross, joined Nantcol Waterfalls in North Wales, Great Langdale in the Lake District and Billycan Camping in West Sussex in the top five. www.marthrownofmabie.com www.applecross.uk.com/campsite

Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010 09

08-11_NEWS_SO_AUT10_Layout 2 copy 5 30/08/2010 10:37 Page 10

OUTDOOR • NEWS

The eyes have it

Funding success

PHOTOGRAPH: HELEN ROGERS

e

Calling all nature snappers ENTRIES ARE now invited for the Scottish Seabird Centre’s 2010 Nature Photography Competition and Exhibition. Amateur photographers of all ages are encouraged to enter pictures in five categories: Scottish wildlife, world wildlife, landscape, creative visions of nature and environmental impact, plus a junior category won last year by Helen Rogers with 'Rock star' (pictured).

Now in its fourth year, the competition typically attracts more than 400 entries with shortlisted photographs exhibited at the Seabird Centre from November to February as part of a public vote that counts towards the final judging. The closing date for entries is 31 October. www.tinyurl.com/yboh5jx

Marine marvels MARINE SCIENTISTS are busy exploring the Firth of Clyde and surrounding sea lochs to confirm the presence of some of Scotland’s most important marine wildlife features.

A team of marine biologists from SeaStar Survey, an independent marine survey company from Southampton, will chart the quantity, quality and distribution of habitats and species of high conservation importance, known as priority marine features. These include horse mussels, flame shell beds and the rare but beautiful fireworks anemone (pictured far right).

Scientists hope to expand the current knowledge of marine wildlife in a survey area that extends from

10 Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010

BORDERS FOREST Trust has been successful in its application for funding through the Scottish Government and European Union’s Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP) for woodland habitat creation at Corehead Farm near Moffat.

The Trust has been awarded almost £928,000 to create 194 hectares of new native woodland in three valleys at Corehead. Work is scheduled to begin this autumn, with 104 hectares being planted in 2010–11.

The planting of native species such as oak, ash, birch, willow, rowan, hazel and holly will create new woodlands on the hills, providing a valuable habitat for wildlife, and a place for people of all ages to enjoy. Part of the SRDP funding will also go towards improving access on site, creating paths and installing finger post signs for walkers.

“This award will enable one of the south of Scotland’s most significant conservation projects to get underway,” commented Willie McGhee, Director of Borders Forest Trust.

“We plan to restore the woodlands that once cloaked the hills and valleys at Corehead, creating a new and diverse landscape across the Southern Uplands.”

Borders Forest Trust took ownership of 1,580 acres of land at Corehead in July 2009 following a successful public fundraising appeal. The native woodland planting is the first stage in bringing the site into conservation management with the aim of greatly improving its biodiversity value. www.bordersforesttrust.com

the upper reaches of Loch Fyne south to Campbeltown Loch and which includes Arran, Irvine Bay, Great Cumbrae, Bute, the Clyde estuary and surrounding sea lochs. Previous surveys in the area have revealed the presence of several priority marine features, including Iceland cyprines (pictured right), tall sea pens and beds of maerl and seagrass.

The Firth of Clyde survey is one of a series of such studies that have taken place in recent months as part of the Scottish Marine Protected Areas Project. Other areas being surveyed in 2010 as part of the wider project include the waters around Rockall, Fair Isle, the Ullapool Approaches and the Sound of Canna.

The final report of the findings will be published in spring 2011. www.tinyurl.com/2wd6n8z

08-11_NEWS_SO_AUT10_Layout 2 copy 5 30/08/2010 10:37 Page 11

PHOTOGRAPH: PETER CAIRNS

THE RECENT Hope Endurance Downhill, one of the most gruelling mountain bike events of the summer, saw 80 armour-clad riders tackle the fearsome downhill track at Nevis Range, Fort William. Competitors were tasked with riding what is considered one of the toughest courses on the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup Circuit as many times as possible in six hours.

The event began with a Le Mans-style mass start which saw competitors sprint along a forestry track to collect their bikes, before an uphill ride to about three quarters of the way down from the top gondola station where they joined the track for the first run down.

With seven of the riders who took part completing an impressive 16 runs in the allotted time, it all came down to individual run times. James Shirley from Roy Bridge completed his 16 descents in a total of 1:36:50 (not including gondola rides and pit stops) to take first place. www.nofussevents.co.uk

The Tweed Valley - Scotland’s natural playground Situated in the heart of Peebles we are a family run hotel totally geared up to providing you with a wonderful active break.

With a unique combination of adventure, activity, culture and tranquility on offer, the Tweed Valley really is Scotland’s natural playground.

For mountain bikers we are only 3 miles away from the world famous Glentress Centre and for walkers we have some of the finest walking in Southern Scotland on our doorstep including the Southern Upland Way and John Buchan Way. As sponsors of Freedom of the Fairways – the best selling golf passport in Scotland – we provide superb golfing breaks and with our enviable location overlooking the River Tweed we are the perfect choice for fishing.

And when you come in from the great outdoors you can be assured of our own great service and food. With 36 en-suite bedrooms, secure storage, drying room and private parking for our guests we really are the perfect base for an active break.

Whatever your interest, with our local knowledge, warm hospitality and activity expertise we will make sure you have an excellent stay.

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12-13_EVENTS_SO_AUT10_Layout 2 copy 4 30/08/2010 10:08 Page 12

OUTDOOR • EVENTS

Inspirations - what’s caught our eye for the months ahead • Join Craignish Cruises for wildlife boat trips onboard the Sea Leopard II – a purpose-built new catamaran now being used to cruise the Gulf of Corryvreckan from Ardfern Yacht Centre, Argyll. The vessel, which has been adapted to accommodate people with limited mobility, offers an ideal platform for photography and wildlife-viewing. www.craignishcruises.co.uk • Need to brush up on your mountain skills in the months ahead? Starting in September, the Mountaineering Council of Scotland will run a series of navigation and winter skills courses, including avalanche awareness (pictured left).

PHOTOGRAPHY: HEATHER MORNING

www.mcofs.org.uk/events.asp

The Lammermuir Festival, East Lothian Billed as beautiful music in beautiful places, this new festival offers music-lovers the chance to explore the hills and coastline of East Lothian by day and enjoy world-class music from major artists, ensembles and orchestras by night. Venues include an aircraft hangar housing Concorde, a medieval church and the 13th century home of the Duke of Hamilton. www.lammermuirfestival.co.uk

9–17 October Wild Connections, Perthshire

Experience the very best of this fantastic island with mountain walks to suit all abilities, plus evening presentations from the likes of Doug Scott. Participants even receive a free copy of Scotland Outdoors! www.arranmountainfestival.co.uk

9–17 October Crieff and Strathearn Drovers’ Tryst Walking Festival Launched this year, Wild Connections is an exciting new festival designed to showcase the wild side of Perthshire. Events include bat and red squirrel walks, wildlife photography master classes and a special Wild Gathering launch event in Dunkeld on 9 October. www.WildConnections.org.uk

17–20 September PHOTOGRAPHY: DROVERS' TRYST

PHOTOGRAPHY: ARRAN MOUNTAIN FESTIVAL

Arran Mountain Festival

12 Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010

www.torridonseatours.com guided walks that range from challenging mountain routes to easier themed rambles.

There are even mountain bike events for those who prefer their outdoor action on two wheels. www.droverstryst.com

PHOTOGRAPHY: VISIT EAST LOTHIAN

10–19 September

• Torridon Sea Tours, a new marine tourism business based in Shieldaig, offers day and evening trips in and around Loch Torridon, as well as full-day excursions to the Isle of Rona.

Relaxed and informal, the tours are an ideal way to experience the area’s spectacular scenery and wildlife. Trips run until October.

Now in its ninth year, the Drovers’ Tryst celebrates the cattle drovers who made Crieff one of the most important places in Scotland during the 1700s. Come and enjoy

16–17 October Scotland’s Ski, Snowboard and Xtreme Show, SECC, Glasgow A new show designed to get boarders and skiers in the mood for the winter season, although there are plenty of other outdoor activities represented in a dedicated extreme sports and adventure area. www.scotlandsskishow.co.uk

12-13_EVENTS_SO_AUT10_Layout 2 copy 4 30/08/2010 10:08 Page 13

• Join fellow paddlers on a special Tay Descent (pictured right), a new event designed to tie in with the Scottish Canoe Association’s Paddle 2010 exhibition in Perth (23-24 October).

Choose from three courses ranging from five to 23 miles – with the shortest course suitable for most recreational canoeists.

www.taydescent.org

(PHOTOGRAPHY: SCOTTISH CANOE ASSOCIATION)

• Oban-based Stramash offers a two-day (13-15 November) introduction to open canoeing course that is ideal for those who want to learn about exploring remote lochs and navigating safely down rivers. See page 28 for much more on open canoeing.

www.tinyurl.com/26ps5cc • Head for Fort William and check out the new High Wire Adventure course at Nevis Range. With four courses and more than 60 obstacles between them, there is more than enough to keep even the most adventurous high-wire artists happy.

www.nevisrange.co.uk

23–24 October Paddle 2010, Bells Sports Centre, Perth

PHOTOGRAPHY: DAVID RAVANEL

Scotland’s annual canoe and kayak show takes place in Perth to coincide with the Tay Descent (see Inspirations above). In addition to a host of stands from leading manufacturers and retailers, the event features a full programme of talks and practical workshops covering every possible aspect of paddling. www.canoescotland.org

26–27 November

21–24 October Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival The Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival returns with another stellar line-up of inspiring speakers and films featuring fearless adventurers from around the world, plus plenty of homegrown offerings. www.emff.co.uk

Perthshire’s award-winning outdoor sound and light show returns to Faskally Wood near Pitlochry. With dazzling visuals, sumptuous sounds and interactive displays, the Enchanted Forest offers a very different outdoor experience this autumn. www.EnchantedForest.org.uk

Dundee Mountain Film Festival It’s festival season alright, with outdoor lovers flocking to Dundee for a selection of breathtaking films, live music and presentations – including an appearance by legendary French climber Catherine Destivelle. www.dundeemountainfilm.org.uk

22 October – 7 November

PHOTOGRAPHY: RENE ROBERT

PHOTOGRAPHY: ANNA HENLY

The Enchanted Forest: Force of Nature, Pitlochry

Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010 13

14_INNOVATIONS_SO_AUT10_Innovations Spread v2 30/08/2010 10:39 Page 14

OUTDOOR • INNOVATIONS

FROM BASE LAYERS TO TRAIL SHOES, HERE’S OUR PICK OF SOME OF THE BEST NEW PRODUCTS FOR THE MONTHS AHEAD If you would like to submit details on innovative new products or send samples for testing, please contact the Scotland Outdoors team at products@scotoutdoors.com

Base layer, Finisterre

Hybrid hiker, Keen

I have always been sceptical of outdoors enthusiasts who rave about their ‘base layers’, but I have to say the Merino wool ‘Eddy’ base layer from Finisterre has converted me. It is so lightweight I barely noticed it next to my skin, and is close-fitting without being constricting.

I first tried it on a muggy July evening, with a t-shirt on top, but soon shed the t-shirt to run in just the base layer. It was ideal, keeping me cool as I ran, and when I stopped for a few minutes there was none of the usual chill setting in as the base layer kept me nice and toasty. And as someone who normally perspires generously while running, I also noticed the welcome absence of damp patches.

Last but not least, the garment washes well at 30°C and dries quickly. It comes in a range of colours, while the Merino wool is ethically produced from happy sheep.

Having spent a fair amount of time in North America, I have long been a fan of Keen – a relatively new outdoor brand based in Oregon.

It’s good to see then that Keen is gaining a presence on this side of the Atlantic, particularly when we get to try out a sample, such as the new Siskiyou trail shoe.

The name may be almost unpronounceable, but the shoe itself has all the usual Keen attributes: comfort, durability and rugged good looks. Billed as a ‘hybrid hiker’, the Siskiyou has many of the benefits of a serious hiking boot: it is lightweight, comes with a waterproof/breathable membrane and provides good cushioning while eating up the miles.

It’s an excellent all-rounder that also stacks up well on price when compared to other trail shoes.

SRP: £70.00 www.keenfootwear.com

SRP: £40.00 www.finisterreuk.com

Ethical t-shirts, Intuitive Organics and gael8 Okay, so we are heading into the colder months, but there’s always time for a t-shirt – particularly funky, ethical ones from two new Scottish brands spotted recently at the Big Tent Festival in Fife.

Intuitive Organics produces ethically-traded organic cotton clothing, with its t-shirts (pictured) printed using water-based inks and designs linked to Scotland and outdoor sports. Additional products are planned in time for Christmas, including heavyweight organic hoodies and recycled camping accessories.

Similarly, gael8 offers a range of t-shirts made from organic cotton, hemp and bamboo – among the most sustainable and durable fibres available. Designs based around sea kayaking and other outdoor activities are a nod to the founder’s day job as a kayak and mountain guide.

Superlight cookset, GSI Outdoors Just when you thought that camp cooksets couldn’t get any smaller, up steps GSI Outdoors with the incredibly lightweight Halulite Minimalist Cookset.

A packable collection of accessories for eating, drinking and cooking, this compact set has been designed to also house an ultra-light stove, plus a 110g gas canister.

Comprising five components, the set includes a 0.6 litre pot that can be mounted on a stove to heat water or food, plus a rubber finger gripper that allows the pot to be removed safely from the heat. The pot then doubles up as a mug (with lid) for drinks or a pot for eating, with a removable sleeve to

protect your hands and keep the contents warm. A collapsible combined spoon and fork completes the set. A bit fiddly, but ingenious.

SRP £26.00 www.rosker.co.uk

Motion sensitive torch, Maglite Hand-held torches are pretty simple, right? You just switch them on and switch them off. Not so with Maglite’s new XL100 – the world’s first motion sensitive torch.

At its basic level, the XL100 works as a slim, powerful and ‘outdoor-proof’ torch, with a tail cap button and a range in excess of 130m. But the real innovation comes when using the various advanced modes – including dim, SOS, strobe and signal – that are controlled simply by holding the torch and rotating your wrist.

It even has a soft ‘nite lite’ function that means you can stand the torch on its end to leave by your side when sleeping. If needed during the night, you just grab the torch and it returns to full power.

SRP: £59.99 www.maglite.com

SRP: £17.00 (Intuitive Organics), £19.99 (gael8) www.intuitiveorganics.co.uk; www.gael8.co.uk

We have a busy few months of testing ahead with several new products ready to be put through their paces. Look out for reviews in our next issue of Páramo’s Pájaro trousers, the latest addition to the brand’s wildlife watching range; Brasher’s B1 crampon-compatible Kanaga GTX mountain boot; and the Sirocco performance stove from GoSystem.

14 Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010

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16_DITL_SO_AUT10_Layout 2 copy 4 30/08/2010 10:43 Page 16

PHOTOGRAPHY: RORY SYME; MIKE NELSON

OUTDOOR • PEOPLE

Day inthe life of...

Stephen Pyke Ultra-distance fell runner, Staffordshire Waking early and peering out of my tent, I can see low cloud hanging in a dense blanket over the surrounding hills. I am camped at Barrisdale Bay in Knoydart, a place where on my first visit a decade ago I spent two days climbing the three Munros nearby. This time the pace is more urgent. It is 19 May and I am 25 days into an attempt to climb Scotland’s 283 Munros in a continuous self-propelled round.

The previous day I’d cycled from Glen Nevis via three Munros to arrive at Kinloch Hourn in darkness. There, I met my campervan support, packed fresh kit and headed on foot along the rough coastal path to Barrisdale, arriving at 1.30am.

It’s been a short sleep. I get up at 7.30am and pack camping equipment to be collected later by friends, but am still loaded down with a pack containing 2kg of food; my daily energy requirement on these big hill days is more than 8,000 calories.

The itinerary for the day is to climb the three Knoydart Munros and then head south to Sgurr na Ciche and on over a further four Munros strung along the south side of Loch Quoich.

This is a committing route in one of the most remote parts of the Highlands. With the weather looking distinctly unfriendly, I have misgivings.

16 Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010

After a large breakfast and with the cumulative tiredness of many long days, my progress is sluggish as I begin the climb into Coire Dhorcaill – an estate to the northeast of Ladhar Bheinn that is owned by the John Muir Trust. The climb is made unnecessarily tricky as I’m tempted into taking too direct a line towards the head of the Coire, giving myself a nervejangling scramble up steep vegetation and slippery rocks to reach the northeast ridge. From here, it’s a short distance to the main summit ridge, although there are no views today.

From the summit cairn, I re-trace my steps and pick up the rocky path down to Mam Barrisdale, briefly dropping out of the cloud before starting the climb up to my next Munro.

Back into the low cloud my route finding again goes slightly awry: following the well-worn path I assume will take me up Luinne Beinn, I realise I’m heading too far west and need to climb a wet, grassy rake to my left. My anxiety at the steepening gradient propels me rapidly upwards and I am relieved to emerge close to the summit.

No further alarms now as I head onwards to Meall Bhuidhe. From here, I take a bearing to make a long, rough descent to pick up the track down to the ruins at Carnoch – nowadays a truly remote location many miles from the nearest permanent habitation. I cross the outflow of the River Carnoch before the steep tussocky flanks of Sgurr na Ciche lead me back into the drizzling clag. Ninety minutes later I arrive at the summit – at 1,040m, the highest in Knoydart.

From Sgurr na Ciche a rocky path weaves its way over Gharbh Cioch Mor and Sgurr nan Coireachan and onwards to Sgurr Mor. Later, the ridge drops sharply to a low watershed before Gairich – the eighth, and final, Munro of the day – rises steeply in front of me. I climb briskly, spurred on by the encroaching dark,

High life (clockwise from above): coming off Ben More, Mull; taking in the view from An Stuc; cycling on Mull; Stephen celebrates on Ben Hope

and cover the 600m of re-ascent to reach the summit cairn in under an hour.

The cloud has thinned briefly to provide the first summit views of the day. The silhouettes of Sgurr a’ Mhaoraich, Gleuoraich and Spidean Mialach are clearly visible to the north, but the summits I’ve climbed remain shrouded. I linger to eat the last of my sandwiches before setting off on the final rocky descent after which there’s still a long bog-trot with tricky navigation to find the path to Loch Quoich Dam. I finally arrive at 12.35am. After 16 hours and 4,500m of ascent over 50km of incessantly rough terrain, it’s been my longest day yet. I shed my backpack and wet gear before pulling on a dry top and collapsing into the back of the campervan to tuck into the mountain of food that my friend has prepared.

But the pace of this adventure is relentless and I’m soon re-packing kit and discussing logistics for the next day. It’s well after 1am before I finally crawl into my sleeping bag and fall into a deep sleep. g

Further details Beginning with Ben More on Mull on 25 April and finishing just 39 days, 9 hours and 6 minutes later on Ben Hope in Sutherland, Stephen completed the fastest ever round of the Munros – shattering the previous record by more than 9½ days. In doing so, he raised awareness and funds for the John Muir Trust.

For more on Stephen’s exploits or to donate to the John Muir Trust, visit munros2010.blogspot.com; www.justgiving.com/spykes-munro-round

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18_LODGING_SO_AUT10_Layout 2 30/08/2010 10:46 Page 18

PHOTOGRAPHY: DANNY SCOTT; JOHN PAUL

BOARD AND LODGING • THE LOVAT, LOCH NESS

Green and supreme DANNY SCOTT TAKES A SOLO TRIP TO THE BANKS OF LOCH NESS FOR A WEEKEND OF ECO-FRIENDLY LUXURY

I

felt a degree of trepidation about spending a weekend on my own in Fort Augustus.

I had images of being stuck by the Caledonian Canal surrounded by hordes of Nessie-spotters grappling with snow globes in gift shops. But by the time I had wandered through the well-preserved town, past the dramatic canal locks and into a warm reception and incredible room at The Lovat, my worries had long since washed away.

I had read all about the hotel’s history on the bus journey up. A grand Victorian building, The Lovat stands on the site of the old Kilwhimen Barracks at Fort Augustus. It even houses the west curtain wall of the original fort, complete with gun embrasures.

The Lovat had seen better days when, five years ago, and in search of a new challenge, managing partner Caroline Gregory drove up from London to reinvent the hotel in a joint venture with her parents David and Geraldine – the retired owners of the Torridon Hotel. Since then Caroline has presided over a major – and eco-conscious – refurbishment. A computerised biomass wood chip burner has been installed and every effort is made to reduce the hotel’s impact on the environment, from using beer mats made from recycled tyres to the planting of wild flower gardens.

I spent a few minutes marvelling at my room’s antique wooden furniture, the bay window view over the south of the loch and in-bathroom television, before deciding to work up an appetite with a stroll by the canal. The five locks in Fort Augustus lie one street over from the hotel. Between them, they raise or lower boats the 13 metres between Lochs Ness and Oich and also provide a great start point for a walk south along the towpath.

Returning for dinner, some tough choices were needed as I navigated my way through three delicious courses. The Lovat's kitchen is moving towards sourcing all ingredients from

18 Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010

within a 40-mile radius, but despite such selfimposed restrictions – or maybe because of them – the hotel continues to gain a reputation for inventive yet well-balanced dishes. Fresh, seasonal produce is combined to create dishes that range from the traditional (battered Mallaig haddock with hand-cut chips) to the modern (seared sea bass with orange-scented couscous and scallop carpaccio).

As attractive as the hotel’s menu is its location, with an almost endless list of activities possible from the front door – not least fantastic walking and cycling. The Lovat recently added to this mix with the introduction of photography weekends and also plans to launch a two-night running and fitness break in November.

I was only staying two nights so I decided to cover lots of ground by spending Saturday on two wheels. Setting off on the quiet roads to the east of Loch Ness the steep climbs were amply rewarded by views of Glen Mor and the rugged Monadhliath mountains. On a particularly beautiful stretch that wound

Garden state: colourful gardens at The Lovat (above left); limbering up for the new fitness weekends (top); Caledonian Canal views (middle); one of The Lovat's luxurious bedrooms (bottom)

through natural pine woods towards the Falls of Foyers – and despite my singing – an osprey swooped overhead and perched in a nearby tree.

Pedalling back in the rain all I could think of was watching a film on my bathroom television while wallowing in the freestanding bath tub. And later, while soaking in sea kelp-scented, ethically-heated water, I began to wish that all such indulgences could be as guilt-free.

The Lovat’s combination of eco-conscious luxury, excellent customer service and attention to detail has been rightly applauded by many. And as I rounded off the weekend with a visit to the canal’s visitor centre I was struck by the parallels between the two. The canal demonstrates that we can work with rather than at the expense of nature for transport, while the Lovat proves that luxury does not have to cost the earth. g

Essentials  The Lovat Rooms from £100 per night B&B (based on two people sharing). Packages available as are discounts for walkers, cyclists and guests arriving by public transport. Check out the hotel’s new photography and fitness weekends. www.thelovat.com In the area  Urquhart Castle A honeypot, but rightly so – on the banks of Loch Ness, this is one of the most dramatically set castles in Scotland. www.historic-scotland.gov.uk

 The Caledonian Canal Great for walking, cycling and days out for young and old. Look out for the new Great Glen Canoe Trail, coming soon. www.scottishcanals.co.uk  Great Glen Way Official guide to the 73-mile walking route from Fort William to Inverness. www.greatglenway.com  Take to the water Local operators Cruise Loch Ness (www.cruiselochness.com) and Jacobite Cruises (www.jacobite.co.uk) offer a variety of boat trips – from calm and tranquil to fast and frenetic.

19_COMPETITION_SO_AUT10_Layout 2 copy 4 30/08/2010 10:47 Page 19

COMPETITION • DUISDALE HOUSE HOTEL

Win a luxury weekend on Skye

I

f Scotland is the queen of scenic destinations then the breathtaking Isle of Skye is one of the jewels in her crown. At the south end of the island, overlooking the Sound of Sleat, lies the all new Duisdale House Hotel – a vibrant and exciting mix of the contemporary and historic. In recent years, the hotel has been transformed into the epitome of style and luxury which, combined with the stunning views and fabulous food, makes it the place to stay during a visit to the island.

A perfect retreat at any time of year, the hotel offers a range of contemporary rooms with sea or garden views. Duisdale’s restaurant comprises a handsome room with a real fire linked to a conservatory overlooking the garden, while the menu is full of modern Scottish cuisine using carefully-selected suppliers, including many local Skye partners.

Duisdale House Hotel has teamed with Scotland Outdoors to offer readers the chance to win a fantastic prize of two nights’ dinner, bed and breakfast for two people. The winner of this prize, along with a friend, will find plenty to occupy them, including a new outdoor hot

tub in the garden and walks in the ancient Duisdale Forest, part of the hotel grounds.

Owners Anne Gracie and Kenneth Gunn also own nearby Toravaig House Hotel and operate the beautiful luxury yacht Solus na Mara, which offers guests sailing trips from spring to autumn.

Of course, Skye is an outdoor lover’s playground, with fantastic walking, climbing, mountain biking and wildlife watching to be had around almost every corner. Hotel staff will be happy to provide advice on the very best places to explore.

How to enter To enter, see this page or visit www.duisdale.com to find the answer to the following question:

What is the name of Duisdale House Hotel’s sister hotel, also on Skye?

Please send the answer together with your name, address and telephone number in an email headed ‘Scotland Outdoors competition’ to competition@scotoutdoors.com

Prize details The prize is for two nights’ dinner, bed and breakfast for two people at the Duisdale House Hotel on the Isle of Skye. The closing date for this competition is 5 November, with the winner notified shortly afterwards by email.

The prize must be taken by the end of March 2011 (subject to availability and excluding the Christmas and Hogmanay periods).

Getting there Drive to Kyle of Lochalsh, cross the Skye Bridge and at the left turn marked A851, head towards Armadale. Continue along the road for approximately seven miles to Duisdale and the hotel is signed on your right.

If arriving at Armadale via Mallaig, drive along the coast to Duisdale and the hotel is on your left.

Terms and conditions Visit www.scotoutdoors.com/competition

Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010 19

20-21_OUTDOOR_PASSIONS_AUT10_Layout 2 30/08/2010 10:48 Page 20

OUTDOOR • PASSIONS

Gordon Buchanan Wildlife filmmaker, 38, Glasgow RAISED ON THE ISLE OF MULL, GORDON BUCHANAN IS A HIGHLY-RESPECTED FILMMAKER AND, MORE RECENTLY, HAS ALSO BECOME KNOWN AS A PRESENTER THANKS TO THE SUCCESS OF SERIES SUCH AS AUTUMNWATCH AND LOST LAND OF THE VOLCANO. WE CAUGHT UP WITH HIM BETWEEN TRIPS

When did you realise that wildlife filmmaking was for you?

I was lucky to land the job of field assistant when I was still at school, but really it was the only option I had at the time. It wasn’t until I was past my twenties that a genuine passion for filmmaking took hold. Before that it was the fear of failure and of being ‘found out’ that dominated my career.

When was your first big break?

I got to know Nick Gordon who was a wildlife filmmaker living on Mull. He had an 18-month project to make a film in Sierra Leone and needed an intelligent donkey. It was an amazing opportunity and one of the most formative experiences in my life, but also one of the loneliest.

What is it about filming wildlife that touches you so deeply?

I can’t talk about my job without sounding smug! I work in some of the most incredible places on our planet and get to film things that few people will ever have the chance to witness. I suppose what I love most is the simplicity and perfection of nature – a thing far more impressive than humans have ever created.

Do you have a strong affinity for a particular species?

I’ve done a lot of work with big cats over the years but I can take as much pleasure in filming the most unassuming animals. I was never really big into birds until recently and now I love them.

How would you describe your style of camera work?

For me the most important part of my job is to convey the splendour, beauty and intricacy of the natural world. It’s quite a traditional approach but simple always seems to work.

I strive to get to the heart of the story and tell it in the most natural way possible.

How often do you get the chance to film in Scotland these days?

I am as happy (if not happier) filming in

20 Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010

Scotland as I would be filming on a volcano in Papua New Guinea. It’s great being involved in Springwatch and Autumnwatch; before them, it was quite hard to film on my own doorstep.

Is there a particular bit of filmmaking that you are especially proud of?

The annoying thing about what I do is that you are never fully satisfied. I always think that I could have done better or worked harder.

I’m proud of the Lost Land of the Jaguar series [which ran on the BBC in 2008]. It showed what that rainforest is really like, and I hope has gone a little way to protecting it.

Wild about the wild (clockwise from right): searching for golden eagles on Mull; high in Bhutan, filming for Lost Land of the Tiger; satellite tagging a sea eagle chick; in the crater of Papua New Guinea's Mount Bosavi filming on Lost Land of the Volcano

And what about the ones that got away?

For every piece of amazing footage I shoot there are always more things I’ve seen but been unable to film. We don’t talk about those. There is a saying in wildlife filming ‘if you didn’t film it, it didn’t happen’.

How have you found the adjustment to being in front of the camera?

In recent years I have done as much jigging about in front of the camera as I have behind it. I didn’t set out to be a presenter, I kind of fell into it. Like falling into a Scottish bog, it’s horrible at the time but good fun when you look back on it.

How has wildlife filmmaking changed over the years?

When I started, conservation films were becoming unpopular – they were too preachy and worthy. For a long time they weren’t really made for the mainstream, but now with a bit more sophisticated story telling you can make a conservation film without the viewer necessarily realising it.

Where are you now and what are you working on?

I’m just back from Bhutan filming a series called Lost Land of the Tiger, but am currently sitting on the Gatwick Express on my way to a meeting about a man-eater series I am doing for National Geographic. I’m heading back to northern Minnesota next week to carry on filming a series for BBC2 about black bears.

Are there any particular animals still on your filmmaking wish-list?

I really want to get into the water with killer whales. It’d be scary, but I like scary. g Interview: Richard Rowe

PHOTOGRAPHY: GORDON BUCHANAN

To what extent did a childhood growing up on Mull shape your love of wildlife?

The older I get the more apparent it is that growing up on Mull not only shaped my love of the outdoors and everything in it, but really defined me as a person and dictates the things that I think make my life better.

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“I ALWAYS TRY TO TELL A STORY IN THE MOST NATURAL WAY POSSIBLE”

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PHOTOGRAPHY: IDA MASPERO; ANDY HAY/WWW.RSPB-IMAGES.COM; NORMAN RUSSELL; DARIN SMITH; SCOTTISH WILDLIFE TRUST

CONSERVATION • PEATLAND MANAGEMENT

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PEAT PRACTICE

SCOTLAND’S PEAT BOGS MAY SEEM BLEAK, BUT THEY HAVE A PIVOTAL ROLE TO PLAY IN COMBATING CLIMATE CHANGE. PREVENTING FURTHER DAMAGE TO THESE FRAGILE AND SPECIESRICH HABITATS IS CRITICAL – WITH EFFORTS TO RESTORE THEM GAINING MOMENTUM, AS IDA MASPERO REPORTS SUMMER’S AFTERNOON on Red Moss near Balerno: after a short shower, the dark clouds begin to retreat; beyond the birch woodland, patches of blue open up above the rounded forms of the Pentland Hills. It’s warm, a little muggy in fact, and with the air full of the hum of a thousand insects, it feels almost tropical. All around, Mad about the bog a multitude of bees work the heather. (clockwise from top left): I kneel on the boardwalk for a closer look at a patchRed Moss near Balerno; golden plover; spaghnum work quilt of colour and texture at ground level. There are moss – a key peat-building tussocks of common and bell heathers, some interwoven ingredient; bog pool by grey tangles of lichen; in depressions are velvety bordered by sphagnum, Trumland RSPB Reserve, carpets of vibrant red and green mosses; while here and Rousay there, clutches of sundew – tiny carnivorous plants – glint ruby-red. And, in places, damp patches of near-black, spongy-looking earth lies exposed among the vegetation – peat, the very foundation of this place.

Here, so close to home in Edinburgh, I’m looking at a relic of ancient wilderness, a raised peat bog of the kind found in the lowlands of central and southern Scotland. It is thought to have been formed some 10,000 years ago, after the last Ice Age: what was once a shallow lake gradually filled in with vegetation, the trapped rain-water turning it into a bog. Here, mosses thrived, died and then built up in layers that over millennia formed a raised dome.

It is here in these five or so vertical metres of peat that carbon, present in the atmosphere many thousands of years ago, has remained locked up. The peat bog of Red Moss, managed as a reserve by the Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT), covers a relatively small area, but it’s in good health. Sphagnum mosses still thrive, continuing the cycle of carbon sequestration as they grow and die, building up and eventually forming peat.

A

CARBON SINKS As we walk, Julian Warman, SWT Reserves Manager for Lothian and Borders, points out patches of exposed peat: “If the bog dries out, the surface of the peat will oxidise, releasing stored carbon back into the atmosphere. With five metres of carbon laid down here, we want to keep it wet but ideally still active so that it adds to the carbon storage.”

For Warman and his team, this involves blocking drainage ditches dug in the past to reclaim the bog for

grazing. “It also means keeping the encroaching birches at bay – they suck out the water. We’re trying to keep the water level high and the bog wet.”

As with forests, peatlands act as carbon ‘sinks’, with the mass of living, growing plant matter helping to remove carbon from the atmosphere. But this only works as long as peatlands remain in good health and that carbon remains locked up. Damaged, degraded bogs, where peat has dried out or eroded, actually do the exact opposite and release centuries-old carbon back into the atmosphere.

“At a global level, 10% of the climate change solution rests with peatlands,” says Rob Stoneman, Chairman of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) UK Peatland Programme, which is overseen by a coalition of environmental bodies including SWT, RSPB, the John Muir Trust and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. “Compared to other climate change mitigation measures, peatland restoration is also relatively cheap, so if you want a quick win in terms of mitigating climate change, go for peatland conservation.”

For Stoneman, the concept of carbon storage offers a new way of looking at and placing a value on peatlands.

“The climate challenge gives renewed impetus to the campaign for peatland conservation,” he says. “Whereas in the past, this campaign was based on the biodiversity value of bogs, the climate challenge has given new emphasis to their plight.”

What is clear is that lowland raised bogs such as Red Moss represent just fragments of a habitat that has been exploited and damaged down the ages. Their peat has been cut for fuel and for horticultural use; they have been burned for managing grouse; planted with timber trees; and drained to reclaim land for farming. Today, raised bogs are considered one of Britain's rarest habitats.

By contrast, the peatlands found in the far north of Scotland are on a massive scale, totally dominating the Flow Country of Caithness and Sutherland. Here, thanks to a unique combination of geological and climatic factors, blanket bog – where peat forms not only in wet pools but covers large areas of ground – defines the landscape.

“The Flow Country represents the largest continuous extent of blanket bog in Europe; we think it’s probably the largest in the world,” comments Andrew Coupar, Policy and Advice Manager for Uplands and Peatlands at Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH).

As with the smaller areas of peatlands further south, these extensive blanket bogs have also been subject to damage through burning, drainage, planting and peat-cutting. The Flow Country may seem a vast

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wilderness, but it bears obvious scars of past afforestation and drainage.

This is perhaps most evident at Forsinard Flows, at 19,500 hectares the largest of the RSPB’s reserves. Site Manager Norrie Russell explains the history: “From the 1940s to 1970s, hill drains were put in to try and improve the grazing value of the open bog. Then, in the 1980s, forestry came along; the naturally treeless landscape was planted with timber conifers. In just a decade, the Flow Country went from being devoid of trees, its natural state, to having 70,000 hectares under plantation.”

The irony is that land drainage and afforestation was undertaken with public money, adds Stoneman. “Pretty much every peatland in the UK is damaged. There are no real pristine peatlands of any kind left.”

Where peatland sites are in private hands, damaging activities continue today. “Traditional cutting of peat for use as a domestic fuel in the crofting areas is certainly more sustainable then mechanised harvesting at the industrial scale,” notes Coupar. “Even here, however, it is important that good practice is employed; avoiding sensitive areas, not cutting any more than can be used in the year, and replacing the turf at the bottom of the bank to encourage regrowth of the bog.”

Meanwhile, peat extraction for horticultural use such as grow bags is still undertaken on a commercial scale. “It’s

24 Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010

like knocking down a medieval cathedral to build a garden path,” remarks Stoneman. Peat alternatives are freely available and the public awareness campaign to have them used continues.

If not managed carefully, burning for grouse also does great harm as it removes the top layer of spongy sphagnum moss – the key peat builder. “It won’t form peat and instead you just get a heather monoculture,” says Stoneman. “This is not great for juvenile grouse, which need a range of habitats. It’s not about not having grouse, but about better management.”

CINDERELLA HABITATS In terms of conservation awareness, peat bogs suffer something of an image problem. Unlike native woodlands, for example, they are not charismatic or instantly attractive; there is no getting away from the fact that peat bogs can seem bleak and dreich – particularly when you disappear up to your knees in one on a hill walk.

What’s more, their very nature makes access difficult; you’re unlikely to take the family for a stroll across a bog, so we seldom get the chance to look closely at one and appreciate its detail.

“Peatlands are ‘Cinderella’ habitats,” remarks Stoneman. “They are often described as unproductive wastelands or wet deserts, but that’s absolutely not the case.”

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BOGGY BUSINESS WHAT IS PEAT? It is usually defined as an accumulation of semi-decayed vegetable matter laid down when plants partially decompose in acidic, waterlogged conditions, where the lack of oxygen prevents the plant matter from decomposing fully. It forms in wetlands – bogs, mires or fens – and does so very slowly: at about 10mm per decade.

IUCN figures make a compelling case for the conservation of peatlands as an inexpensive way of mitigating climate change: • Carbon capture and storage by technical means costs around US$10 per tonne of carbon, while protecting peatlands or tropical forests costs US10 cents per tonne • Peatlands cover 3% of the earth’s land surface, but store roughly the same amount of carbon as forests (which cover 20% of the earth’s land surface)

Instead, Scotland’s various peatland types are hugely bio-diverse, full of highly-specialised bog plants such as cranberry, cotton grass, bog rosemary and bog asphodel, not to mention many insects including dragonflies and the rare large heath butterfly.

A range of wetland and wading birds also feed and breed on the bogs. The RSPB’s Forsinard Flows reserve, for example, harbours golden plover, dunlin and a large percentage of the UK breeding population of greenshank. On lochans, black-throated divers and the red-listed common scoter can also be found.

“All these birds are very dependent on the quality of the habitat,” explains Norrie Russell. “Our studies with species such as dunlin have shown a clear link between the health of the sphagnum moss and the bog, and the density of the population. So, just in terms of birdlife and biodiversity, there is a case for restoring the bogs.”

Conservation organisations such as RSPB and the government agency SNH have, historically, sought to protect peat bogs for their biodiversity value. However, as Andrew Coupar points out, it’s only in the last decade or so that the links between that biodiversity interest and climate change have begun to come together. “Fortunately, it seems to be the case that, if you manage peatlands for biodiversity, it will benefit the carbon side of things as well,” he notes.

“JUST IN TERMS OF BIODIVERSITY, THERE IS A CASE FOR RESTORING BOGS” PRACTICAL RESTORATION For those managing Scotland’s protected bogs on a dayto-day basis, this means a renewed sense of urgency when it comes to restoration work. Back at Red Moss, visitors strolling along the boardwalk may be taken aback to find corrugated sheets of plastic poking out of the heather.

They may look out of place, but the use of such sheets to block drainage ditches and create dams is a relatively simple measure to keep the bog wet, allow mosses to re-colonise bare patches and, hopefully, reverse erosion of the peat.

At Forsinard Flows, Russell and his team have not only sought to block hill drains but also remove those pernicious plantations planted in the 1980s. “Over the last 15 years, the RSPB has been buying up and felling plantations that are affecting the blanket bog negatively. But there are still thousands of hectares of forestry in the Flows, planted inappropriately on deep peat. Removing them is an ongoing process.”

“Restoring peat bogs boils down to pretty simple stuff,” adds Stoneman. “Basically, you’re trying to get the water level high – where there are ditches, block them

Peat performance (clockwise from top right): greenshank breed in significant numbers at Forsinard; bog pools surrounded by conifer plantation at Forsinard; dragonflies thrive on healthy peatlands; although relatively small-scale, the cutting of peat for domestic fuel must still be sustainable

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CONSERVATION • PEATLAND MANAGEMENT

up. Where there are trees, remove them. And if you can get the land around the bog wetter, that helps, too. It’s not high science.”

While restoration continues apace on reserves, such sites account for just a small percentage of Scotland’s overall peatland habitat. Most peat bogs are on private land. This is where SNH comes in, advising landowners on how to adopt a more sensitive approach to managing peatlands.

“In a case where heather is being burned for grouse, for example, a burning plan would be agreed – although these are voluntary arrangements,” explains Coupar. Management schemes also provide payment as an incentive, although it is a system currently being rationalised with a variety of local management schemes brought together under the Natural Care Scheme. The intention is that these will be subsumed within the Scotland Rural Development Programme, a unified scheme that provides funding for rural areas across industries such as agriculture and forestry.

However, for Coupar, the true value of such schemes lies in the opportunity for building positive relationships.

“Clearly the financial aspect is important for landowners, but the schemes also give the opportunity to create a dialogue. That is worth a huge amount in itself.”

Interestingly, Coupar hints at the possibility of carbon off-setting initiatives being set up in Scotland, allowing landowners to derive an income from conserving bogs.

“No carbon off-set initiatives are up and running yet, but people are looking into it,” he says. “Private landowners are exploring the business end, while scientific research is underway to determine how best to make the calculations.”

POLITICAL WILL There seems little doubt that peatland restoration represents exceptionally good value – the basic measures needed are relatively simple, with positive results for

26 Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010

ESSENTIALS Scotland’s peatlands make intriguing places to visit, though they may require a bit of imagination and closer inspection to be fully appreciated.

The Scottish Wildlife Trust manages a number of peatland sites in central and southern Scotland. Besides Red Moss at Balerno, lowland raised bogs include Tailend Moss near Livingston and Carsegowan Moss near Newton Stewart, Dumfries & Galloway. In the Borders, Gordon Moss near Earlston is an example

of a fen habitat. www.swt.org.uk The RSPB’s Forsinard Flows reserve in Caithness and Sutherland has two flagstone bog pool trails, as well as a visitor centre, and offers weekly guided walks. www.rspb.org.uk Scottish Natural Heritage manages several National Nature Reserves with peatland habitats, including Flanders Moss near Stirling, Blawhorn Moss near Armadale and Claish Moss near Acharacle. www.nnr-scotland.org.uk

biodiversity and climate change mitigation. But, says Stoneman, there is still some way to go in terms of actual policy. “A year or so ago, the [UK] Government announced 20 things it would do to reduce the amount of carbon entering the atmosphere, but peatland conservation was not included. Yet the effect that you could achieve should put it high on that list. This could be made to happen tomorrow if there was the political will.”

Scotland has its own climate act and sets its own annual carbon reduction targets. This year, says Stoneman, the IUCN UK programme has persuaded the Scottish Government to include peatland restoration as part of its annual carbon reduction targets – an important step given that Scotland holds the majority of the UK’s peatlands.

Stoneman is adamant that the IUCN UK Peatland Programme will continue its advocacy well beyond its formal completion in 2013, and stresses how the UK, and Scotland in particular, has a chance to take the lead in global peatland conservation. “Looking at the UK, about 20% of which is covered in peatland, we are a carbon-rich nation and still an influential nation, so we can set an example to other countries and start the ball rolling.” g

Species rich: the carnivorous sundew (bottom left); exploring the bog pools at Forsinard

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GOING FLOW WITH THE

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ADVENTURE • SPEY DESCENT

A DESCENT OF THE SPEY BY OPEN CANOE OFFERS A CLASSIC JOURNEY ON ONE OF SCOTLAND’S GREAT RIVERS. IT’S ALSO A PERFECT CHALLENGE FOR THE FIRST-TIME PADDLER, DISCOVERS RICHARD ROWE N A DARK POOL framed by overhanging trees just below the footbridge at Aviemore, the River Spey is in benign mood. Deep, dark and slow-moving, it’s a perfect spot for learning the strokes that will transport our mini-flotilla some 60 miles to the sea at Spey Bay. But right now, paddling haphazardly as we practise, the salty waters of the Moray Firth seem a long way off.

Our team of four paddlers in three canoes, each bulging with provisions for what will be a leisurely four-day journey, is being led

by Dave Craig from Spey Descent. We couldn’t be in better hands. A long-time Scottish Canoe Association River Advisor for the Spey and a veteran of more than 140 descents, Dave has a deep love for the river, not to mention an encyclopaedic knowledge of the people and places that have shaped it down the years.

Our journey will see us paddle from the heart of the Cairngorms National Park to the shifting shingle beaches that guard the mouth of the Spey at Tugnet. Along the way, we will pass some of the 50 distilleries that make Speyside such a place of pilgrimage for whisky aficionados. We even had one amongst us: fellow paddler, Andy – here with his partner, Kate – had the splendid job title of UK Ambassador for The Balvenie, one of several distilleries at Dufftown. I’d never paddled an open canoe before, let alone in the company of an ambassador.

While my paddle partners promised lively company – not least as Andy had packed plenty of samples – the river itself would also be full of interest. Rising from its source at Loch Spey high in the Monadhliath, it travels northeast for almost 100 miles before discharging into the Moray Firth. It is possible to begin a descent at Loch Spey itself, but more often the river is paddled from Newtonmore, Kingussie or, in our case, Aviemore.

Unusually for a major Scottish river, the Spey remains lively for much of its length, actually speeding up as it approaches the sea. While the middle section where our journey would begin sees a broad, slowmoving channel, its character changes around Grantown on Spey with a very obvious increase in gradient. It is from here that rapids with ominous names such as the ‘Washing Machine’ would test our newfound paddling skills.

I

ON THE WATER While each of us had kayaked before, we were all novices when it came to open canoes. Fortunately, conditions had improved in recent days with steady rain topping up previously low water levels. This was a relief given what happened on a descent earlier in the year when one of the group’s boats was wrecked on a boulder left exposed by low water levels. Cruelly, after four days of paddling and just an hour from the

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sea, the group could go no further. One of the paddlers from that day was so eager to complete the journey that she planned to join us for the latter part of our own trip.

With the canoes loaded up with watertight barrels containing provisions, and an assortment of dry bags full of personal kit, we pushed off from the sandy beach by the Old Bridge Inn. I had always imagined that open canoeing involved sitting upright on comfortable wicker seats, but soon understood why we had been given knee-pads and advised to kneel instead. With knees planted on each side of the hull and my backside wedged firmly against the edge of the seat, the heavily-laden craft felt much more stable.

With Andy and Kate in one canoe and me soloing for the first half of the journey, Dave talked us through each stroke in turn. “I don’t want any of that Hollywood Indian stuff,” he called, referring to the changing of sides when paddling. It was easier said than done. Unlike kayaking where each dip of the paddle helps correct the line, paddling solo in an open canoe felt like trying to push a supermarket trolley with a wonky wheel. I just couldn’t keep the big brute straight.

It is said that there is a canoe stroke for each day of the year, but fortunately we only needed to concentrate on the essential few. Slowly, we got to grips with the sweep, pry, hanging draw and, most importantly for keeping a solo paddler straight, the J-stroke – a normal forward stroke that, with a downward twist of the hand, ends with the paddle making the shape of a letter ‘J’ beneath the water.

STARTING OUT And that was it – we were off on an initial 13-mile stretch ahead of an overnight camp at Boat of Balliefurth. Leaving Aviemore behind, we followed Dave’s line with the Speyside Way and, for a moment, the Strathspey Railway steam train keeping us company on the left bank.

The early miles passed in a blur of concentration, with every hazard appearing fraught with danger. Up ahead, I could hear Andy and Kate discussing in the way that couples do just who exactly was responsible for steering. But gradually, on what was a largely forgiving stretch of river, we began to relax, absorb the scenery and enjoy Dave’s commentary on the landscape as we cruised past.

River life (clockwise from Our senses heightened, the right): fishing on the Spey; river began to come alive: prod- approaching a fishing lodge; Dave cooking up a ded by our gentle wake, a storm; Strathspey Railway; goosander ploughed upstream, blissful camping; Kate in sailing mode her brood falling in behind; a roe deer, utterly at ease, glanced up and watched nonchalantly as we drifted past; while on the more eroded sections of bank, sand martins streamed in and out of holes dug in the loose soil. And every now and then we were treated to the sight of a salmon leaping high in the air.

As we travelled to the limits of the Rothiemurchus Estate, snow banks still visible in the Northern Corries behind, the mountains retreated and we paddled into a flatter, more fertile land. But it paid not to get too relaxed by the scenery. V-shaped ripples in the water warned of rocks lurking beneath, while just as ominous were the

“EVERY NOW AND THEN WE WERE TREATED TO THE SIGHT OF A SALMON LEAPING HIGH IN THE AIR”

30 Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010

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man-made rock shelves – or croys – that jutted out from the banks.

FISHING FOR COMPLIMENTS The Spey is, of course, one of Scotland’s major salmon rivers, with world-famous beats that command fees of several hundred pounds a day. That’s a lot of money to throw a line in and is perhaps one source of the conflict that can surface between anglers and canoeists. The attitude on some estates is that the river is no place for canoes – they disturb the fish, the clients, or both, they say.

Such feelings have led to some amusing stand-offs.

Canoeing etiquette requires the lead paddler to catch the attention of any angler encountered and ask which side of the river they would like the group to pass on.

Once, an estate owner, a retired Brigadier, erected a particularly lifelike scarecrow of an angler that succeeded in the aim of frustrating canoeists as they repeatedly asked it which side of the river they were to use.

Over the years, Dave has done as much as anyone to smooth relations and is on first-name terms with many of the ghillies on the Spey. “It’s not as bad as on other rivers such as the Tay, and in fact relations are much improved,

but problems do still occur,” he explained.

And it wasn’t long before we encountered our first anglers. It was a classic Speyside scene with a client casting his line, the estate ghillie at his shoulder and a landing net sprawled on the grassy bank beside them.

Thankfully, our first encounters went smoothly and set the tone for the rest of the trip. “Friendly bunch so far,” noted Dave as we continued on our way.

Later, as the wind picked up on an arm-busting stretch of slow water leading to Broomhill Station – Glenbogle in Monarch of the Glen – Dave decided it was time for a helping hand. We rafted together and rigged up a spinnaker to speed us along, with Kate gamely taking on the task of holding the mast in place. We made good progress, although nearly lost Kate to a gust of wind on several occasions.

Aided by the sailing, it wasn’t long before we arrived at Boat of Balliefurth and an idyllic campsite. Tucked away in a riverbank meadow just off the Speyside Way, the campsite is a favourite among walkers and paddlers, although we had it all to ourselves on this occasion. Hobbling out of the boats, our knees complaining loudly, we had our first taste of Dave’s boutique approach to

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camping. As our small team got to work pitching tents, he erected a communal tepee before unveiling a ridiculously well-stocked camp kitchen. “Olives anyone?” he asked before settling us down for a Thai curry.

Sitting in the tepee door afterwards enjoying a dram of Balvenie, the late evening sun casting shadows across the meadow, we all agreed that it had been a perfect first day on the river.

WILDER WATER But this being summer in Scotland, such tranquillity was not to last. We woke to a day as wet and grizzly as the previous evening had been blissful and so wasted little time in getting packed up.

Once back on the water, we found ourselves on a very different kind of river. Swollen by overnight rain and with a meandering channel full of small but technical rapids, the river suddenly seemed in an awful hurry to reach the sea. “It now really feels like we are heading downhill,” said Dave with a smile.

Judging by the number of anglers along the banks, we

had also reached some of the prime fishing beats. The trickier conditions led to some stressful moments, particularly when one old boy up to his waist in the water beckoned for us to pass through a small space behind him.

Instantly, I had visions of broad-siding him, setting back canoeist–angler relations 20 years. As a result, I overcompensated on the steering and was spun round by the current, eventually passing exactly where he had requested, only backwards. “Much better way to travel,” he suggested cheerfully.

As we travelled, flanked by the Hills of Cromdale to the east, the river took on a more rugged aspect, the lush tree cover along the banks broken only by clearings cut for an assortment of fishing lodges. The carefully manicured greens around the lodges stood in stark contrast to the wild canopies of willow, birch, alder and ash on the opposite banks – an indication of what the river must have once looked like along more of its length.

The removal of trees has also left the banks more vulnerable to erosion and so, in places, they were fortified with jagged blocks of rock. “It costs thousands of pounds to put those in, but many don’t last beyond the first big spate,” noted Dave as we passed one particularly long

32 Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010

stretch of rock emplacements.

Other hazards were more subtle, but potentially just as damaging. Beneath my paddle, I could make out the green sheen of a flowing plant that seemed to have become thicker the further downstream we travelled. “That’s Ranunculus, an invasive weed that is choking parts of the river,” Dave explained.

Meanwhile, on the banks, we could see trees that had been stripped almost bare, leaving skeletal branches draped in what looked like thick spiders’ webs. This, it turned out, was the work of the caterpillar of the ermine moth, with hundreds of the little beasties feeding on host plants from within their protective webs.

Elsewhere, there was a less destructive kind of nature to be enjoyed. Passing through Tulchan Estate, we spotted an osprey pair chasing off an intruding buzzard, while later we had a brief glimpse of an otter as it fished in the middle of the channel.

But we finished with what, for me, was the most welcome sight of all. Pulling in to the bank, our paddling over for the day, we were met by Sylvia who would join us for the remainder of the trip. The new arrival meant I would no longer be paddling solo. I gave Sylvia a hug

Wading in (from top): floating the canoe out to deeper water; playing in the rapids at Knockando

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ADVENTURE • SPEY DESCENT

and thanked her in advance, before we pulled the boats out of the water and carried our gear to a campsite on the platform of the now disused Ballindalloch Station.

DOUBLING UP What a difference having a partner makes. I’d enjoyed my days of soloing, but the arrival of Sylvia in the front of the boat suddenly made for effortless paddling. A retired primary school teacher with a love of long-distance cycles – she recently spent six weeks pedalling to the North Cape in Norway – Sylvia was as fit as a flea and a dab hand with a paddle.

Having such a skilled partner was particularly welcome on a day that promised the biggest rapids yet. “Beware the ‘black hand’ of the Spey,” warned Dave as he described some of the treats in store, including Blacksboat Rapid – otherwise known as the ‘Washing Machine’.

At the start of the trip, the thought of encountering rapids with standing waves large enough to fill the boat would have filled me with horror, but now with a little paddling experience and a partner up front who knew what she was about, I felt ready for anything.

As it turned out, the Washing Machine came and went without incident, although the ‘black hand’ did reach out when we leant the wrong way turning sharply into the slack water of an eddy. Other exciting sections followed – the bailers tied to the boat coming into their own – and we chuckled at Andy and Kate’s faces as their canoe disappeared into deep holes only to pop out moments later, their grimaces replaced by broad grins.

We were now also in the very heart of whisky country, with every bend seeming to hide the pagodas of yet another famous name. Below the Tamdhu distillery, we stopped at a shingle beach where Dave took Andy for a play in the Knockando rapids – a section often used as a white-water training area thanks to an agreement with the Knockando Estate. A gorgeous spot, the bleached white of the shingle and heavily-wooded river banks created a scene plucked from the Canadian wilderness.

Although our shortest day yet in terms of paddling, it was easily the most exhausting and it was five tired paddlers that trudged into a café in Aberlour to slump over steaming mugs of hot chocolate. We just about summoned the energy to continue on to our final camp at Craigellachie where we treated ourselves to a Saturday night pub meal and a couple of drams at the Fiddichside Inn.

FINAL PUSH It was strange waking up the next morning knowing that our journey was nearly over. But Dave assured us that the final stretch to the sea offered some of the most picturesque paddling yet. Being a Sunday, we could also relax knowing that there would be no anglers to negotiate.

We repacked the boats one last time and jumped in with renewed vigour, soon passing Rothes and the heavilyforested slopes of Ben Aigan, the last real hill of any size before the sea. As Dave had hinted, the river was not quite done with us yet and continued to throw up plenty of testing obstacles, including a series of sneaky croys lurking just beneath the surface and a car-sized boulder in the middle of the flow.

The river continued through a section of heavilyforested hillside that tumbled down to end abruptly in

34 Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010

steep sandstone cliffs, known as the red cleuchs. In places, the sandstone had been weathered into peaks and pinnacles, some of which looked as if they might not be standing for much longer.

And then, at last, we came to Sylvia’s low-point from the previous trip. “If you get past that rock up ahead, she’ll have gone further than last time,” shouted Dave with a mischievous grin. We paddled carefully, this time negotiating the rocks without incident and continuing on towards the sea.

By the time we reached the two bridges that span the Spey at Fochabers, we could almost taste the salt. Not for the first time we were glad to have Dave up ahead, carefully guiding us through shallow channels and banks of shingle deposited by the river. As the floodplain broadened, the shingle islands grew in size, many littered with the carcasses of trees and massive boulders – a testament to the power of the river when in spate.

Passing beneath the girders of the Garmouth viaduct, we could see the day-trippers exploring the nature reserve at Spey Bay – our final destination. With the wind blowing hard, we strained to reach the final bank of shingle before, suddenly, finding ourselves in the open sea, the gulls and terns squawking overhead.

All that remained was a slightly lame attempt to surf onto the beach following by the crunch of pebbles as we skidded onto dry land. A couple walking past stopped to watch as we hauled ourselves out of the boats and embraced, our grins as wide as the Moray Firth.

It marked the end of a magical journey – one that, almost immediately, I wanted to make all over again. g

Journey's end: paddling into the sea at Spey Bay (above); celebrating on the beach afterwards

Scotland Outdoors would like to thank VisitCairngorms for the kind assistance with this article.

FURTHER INFO The Spey is an ideal river for canoe touring. Dave Craig runs regular descents from April to October, plus a series of introductory days for those who don’t yet want to commit to the full trip. Pre- or post-trip accommodation is available at The Beeches, a luxurious guest house in Newtonmore run by Dave and his wife Jude (who also offers a range of complementary therapies). www.speydescent.com; www.thebeechesnewtonmore.com

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PINE TREES HOTEL PITLOCHRY Enjoy the peace and quiet of this former Victorian mansion. Pine Trees has 19 comfortable, well appointed rooms and one luxury suite, all non-smoking. The hotel is located five minutes walk from the centre of Pitlochry, but is secluded in its own garden and woodland.

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EXPLORE

Skye and the Small Isles

F

or many, the Isle of Skye has a certain romance, a special almost mythical feel that elevates it above all other Scottish islands. There is certainly something about the place.

At around 50 miles in length and 25 miles from west to east at its widest point, Skye is the largest of the inner Hebridean islands, although its jagged coastline and wing-like peninsulas can make it feel bigger still. It is this complex geography and an often remarkable landscape that lends Skye a drama and mystique unlike anywhere else in Scotland.

The weather aside – which can be truly wretched – Skye has an embarrassment of natural riches. Strong walkers and climbers come for the Cuillin, by some stretch the UK’s most formidable range of mountains, although others are just as enrapt by the Red Hills, the Trotternish Ridge and the breathtakingly elemental landforms of the Quiraing.

Nature-lovers marvel at a wildlife as red in tooth and claw as the mountains themselves, while others are content to simply enjoy the clarity of light that comes when the sun breaks through an often brooding sky to dance on rock, moor and loch.

It is impossible to see all of Skye in a

single visit, or even ten, but there is one way of at least beginning to do it justice. Our writers offer a personal slant on the Skye Trail, a challenging, if unofficial, long-distance trek that takes walkers from Rubha Hunish in the far north to Elgol and Broadford via the Trotternish Ridge and the Cuillin. Walk the full length of this route and you will gain as good a flavour of Skye as any.

But it would be wrong to become so fixated on Skye that you forget about the Small Isles, a collection of islands that lie just to the southwest. Although all are dwarfed by their illustrious neighbour, the wild Isle of Rum does its best to keep up appearances with a bruising Cuillin of its own.

A once secretive place that was the plaything of wealthy owners before becoming a centre of nature conservation, Rum now attracts a steady stream of adventurous visitors, eager to explore its hills and savour the island’s own challenging beauty.

By comparison, Canna, Eigg and Muck are very small isles indeed, but are no less enchanting. Each has the unhurried pace you might expect of a small Hebridean island, complete with the strong sense of community often required to live in places that are off the beaten track. g

Kyle of Lochalsh Skye Glenelg

Canna Mallaig Rum Eigg Muck

Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010 37

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EXPLORE • SKYE & THE SMALL ISLES

Long way down FANCY A LONG-DISTANCE WALK WITH A DIFFERENCE? WALKHIGHLANDS FOUNDERS PAUL AND HELEN WEBSTER INTRODUCE A PERSONAL SKYE TRAIL – A WEEK-LONG EPIC THAT SHOWCASES THE VERY BEST OF THE ISLAND’S LANDSCAPE AND CULTURAL HISTORY

W

PHOTOGRAPHY: WALKHIGHLANDS

ith time often short, the tendency these days is to simply drive to the start of a walk, spend the day outdoors and then drive home again at the end. We pick and choose individual locations to inspire us or catch our imagination, whether it be stomping up Munros, exploring sandy beaches, climbing crags or paddling frothy rivers. But one escape from such an approach is to tackle a longdistance walk; a multi-day trek forces us to see the landscapes we pass through in a more complete way. The long-distance walker soon hits a rhythm of walking and then heading for food and shelter, with time taken to discover the people, wildlife and history in a landscape, as well as absorbing its physical beauty.

Skye – the Winged Isle – became our home in 2006. We moved to the Trotternish peninsula, the island's northernmost ‘finger’, to combine our passion for walking with a desire to run our own business. As we became involved in writing walking routes online through Walkhighlands, more and more people contacted us to ask if we could suggest a challenging, week-long route that would give a more complete view of Skye than that experienced by those who rush straight to the Cuillin.

38 Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010

Long ago, the writer David Paterson suggested such a route in his inspiring photographic book A Long Walk on the Isle of Skye but we felt it included some uninspiring stretches of boggy moorland, as well as missing some real delights. As we came to know the landscape and its townships we developed our own version of a Skye Trail – a north to south route that includes some of our favourite spots and showcases the lives of communities sadly long gone. It takes in the very best wildlife spots on the island, as well as breathtaking scenery. The route includes some challenging mountainous and coastal sections with some easier interludes, and the stages all start and finish at locations with public transport.

It should be said that the Skye Trail is nothing like the West Highland Way or other formal routes. There are no signs and not even a path for some of the route. Self-reliance, fitness and good navigational skills will all be called upon.

And whether making use of island hospitality or opting for the freedom of a tent, the continuous route represents a real challenge High time: the restored coastguard hut at Rubha Hunish (opposite); razorbills are one of many seabirds that breed along the coast (below)

and a fitting match for the epic landscapes found on the Isle of Skye.

STARTING OUT The most obvious start point, Rubha Hunish on the most northerly tip of Skye, just happens to be our favourite place in Scotland. We’ve yomped over the moors to reach it on countless occasions, but no two visits to Rubha Hunish are ever alike. Here, through the Mountain Bothy Association, we’ve helped to restore an old coastguard lookout. This tiny shelter which stands atop formidable cliffs looks down onto a raised beach that juts boldly into the Minch with the Western Isles laid out beyond.

There could not be a wilder or more impressive start point for a long journey on foot. However, a cleverly constructed old path that scrambles down the cliff reveals human influence even here. The crofters of nearby Erisco, now a string of crumbling ruins on the moor, once farmed their lazybeds at the foot of the great basalt columns. The ridge and furrow patterns can still be clearly made out from above, although to the modern eye there is nothing lazy about their construction or maintenance.

During the summer months, a walk around the edge of the Hunish reveals a mass of nesting seabirds swirling around the arches, sea stacks and geos (deep inlets) that fringe the headland.

At the far end, the water is on a constant rolling boil as the strong currents of the Minch compete for supremacy. Such disturbance brings minke whales close inshore to feed – so close that on one unforgettable occasion we could actually hear the whale song.

Be sure to keep quiet on the walk back from the point as Rubha Hunish is popular with the local otter population. We have spotted these shy creatures swimming in the bays on many occasions, but even if you don't catch sight of one the coast is dotted with tell-tale bright green grassy mounds, often littered with fresh white spraint. The animals’ droppings are so full of nitrogen-rich fish bones and crab shells that they fertilise the ground, gradually building up into mini-hillocks that serve as pungent territorial markers.

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EXPLORE • SKYE AND THE SMALL ISLES

“THE TROTTERNISH RIDGE IS ONE OF THE GRANDEST HILL WALKS IN SCOTLAND”

From this northerly headland the obvious route would be to head across the bleak moors to climb onto the Trotternish Ridge – an impressive escarpment that runs all the way to Portree. However, having already had a taste of the dramatic coastline, most walkers will want to continue atop the cliffs and avoid the dreary bogs that protect this end of the ridge. There are also many contorted basalt formations to enjoy on the wild walk to Flodigarry which offers a choice of hostel or hotel accommodation for the night.

Directly above Flodigarry rises the Quiraing, one of the most photographed landforms on Skye. Here, an otherworldly mass of rock pinnacles and cliff-rimmed platforms stand proud below the towering east wall of Meall na Suiramach. It is said that people once hid their livestock up here and that shinty matches have been played on the largest of the grassy platforms, known as the Table. In more recent times, local tales tell of a crofter's wife who drove her horse over the cliffs having just seen the first tractor arrive in the nearby township and glimpsed the mechanised future.

Once past the road that climbs from Staffin in a series of heart-stopping hair-pin bends, the

40 Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010

Crown jewels (clockwise from above): Trotternish Ridge; Sligachan and the Cuillin; Portree; the Old Man of Storr

Trail takes to the Trotternish Ridge itself – one of the grandest hill walks in Scotland, with a series of grassy hilltops cut away by a tremendous eastern escarpment formed by Europe’s largest landslide. Away from the Storr and Quiraing the ridge sees few visitors and it is possible to walk for whole days without seeing a soul. The lack of walkers means much of the ridge is pathless, and whilst in theory it should be easy to follow a ridge with a yawning drop on its eastern side, the complex geography provides a series of twists, turns and steep drops that can make navigation confusing, particularly in mist.

The ridge peters out on the approach to Portree, but the Skye Trail drops down much earlier to pass the iconic monolith of the Old Man of Storr. Familiar from countless calendars, the Old Man is surrounded by a lesser retinue of pinnacles and contorted rocks that give the appearance of a rock-climbers’ playground.

Actually the climbing here is notorious, with the Old Man itself being described on its first

ascent – by the irascible Lancastrian Don Whillans – as having the “consistency of porridge”. But this didn't deter later climbers.

Chris Bonington once got stuck on the unstable summit of the Cathedral Rock beside the Old Man, leaving his partner Tom Patey to consider abandoning his pal to a fate as crag-top tourist attraction.

From the Storr, the route takes once more to the coast and along the tops of some of the highest sea cliffs on Skye. Up here, the rugged islands of Rona and Raasay are seen at their best, with the hills of Applecross and Torridon beyond. Only the occasional nuclear submarine gliding silently past gives a nod to the modern world that will have seemed a world away over the last couple of days.

VILLAGE PEOPLE Portree can come as a shock to the senses after the wild expanses of the Trotternish. Known locally as ‘the village’, it is really a small town with an attractive multi-coloured harbour.

Perhaps of more interest to those arriving on foot, it offers accommodation to suit all budgets, fish and chips, fine dining, a launderette and welcoming pubs, often boasting

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live music (check out The Isles on the Square).

If celebrations on arrival are overdone, the following stage runs through a much softer landscape, passing round Portree Bay and then along the tiny road through the Braes.

Now a peaceful backwater, a roadside stone memorial cairn is testament to a livelier past.

In 1882, local crofters protesting against rent increases and evictions across the island caused a national scandal after summonses for the arrest of five men were burnt. Reinforcements in the shape of 50 truncheon-wielding police officers from Glasgow were shipped in. Although they managed to take the wanted men, the officers were ambushed on their return by over 400 crofters, including many women, armed with kitchen pans and farm implements.

In the ensuing violence, seven women were seriously hurt and the resulting public outcry was key in the growing tide of public sentiment against such evictions. After more trouble in Glendale, in northwest Skye, a public enquiry was set up, eventually leading to crofters’ rights of tenure and the end of the Highland Clearances.

As the last house of the Braes is left behind, a lonely section of lochside path leads on towards Sligachan and the distant toast-rack skyline of jagged peaks that make up the Cuillin – the only mountains in Britain to offer scrambling and climbing of Alpine quality.

Though some of the summits are within reach of experienced hill walkers, many are more committing and hire of a local mountain guide comes highly recommended. Names such as Am Bastier (The Executioner) give a clue as to their character, not to mention the Inaccessible Pinnacle – a thorn in the side of many Munro-baggers.

The old Sligachan Hotel – complete with campsite and bunkhouse – makes for an ideal overnight stop. Even if you aren't staying here, pop into the bar to sample the Cuillin Ales and gawp at photos of mountaineers past conquering the peaks in their tweeds and hob-nailed boots. The celebrated Victorian climber and scientist Norman Collie spent his last days here, sitting at the window gazing longingly at peaks he could no longer reach.

From here, the Skye Trail embarks on a long walk through Glen Sligachan, providing a fresh perspective on both the Cuillin on one side and the scree-girt Red Hills on the other. This section of the walk provides a link between the two coasts of Skye and is one of the few places on the island where you are likely to see red deer.

Ghost stories abound on Skye, from old tales based around the Celtic influences of second sight, changelings and faeries, to more modern ones that feature driverless cars and flashing lights. However, once deep in this empty glen it is easy to imagine the presence of people who passed this way before, from mountaineers to crofters, landowners’ tacksmen and clan chieftains.

Bonnie Prince Charlie was another to tread this part of the trail as he fled from Portree to Elgol in the dead of night. Nearby, the Bloody Stone – still marked on maps – is a reminder of an even more violent time when the slaughtered bodies of feuding Macleod and Macdonald clansmen were piled up

Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010 41

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EXPLORE • SKYE AND THE SMALL ISLES

around the rock, and faeries made bows and arrows from their bones.

BAY WATCH Once the secluded bay at Camasunary is reached, a perilous cliff-path leads on to Elgol – home of giant scones, modern-day feuds between rival boat trip operators and possibly the most idyllically situated school you’ll ever see.

Whichever operator you choose, the tour boats transport visitors to Loch Coruisk in the very heart of the black Cuillin – a journey that was once part of the 'Grand Tour' for Victorian travellers, and made famous by Ruskin, Turner and Scott. After just half an hour on the water passing seals and, if lucky, the odd porpoise or otter, you will set foot in what seems like a different world. The loch is enclosed on three sides by soaring walls of dark gabbro peaks; those with binoculars might be able to pick out climbers making their way along the ridge high above.

From Elgol some more sedate coastal walking leads to Torrin, home of Skye's marble quarry. It provided the surface for the island's roads prior to the arrival of tarmac, leading visitors to remark that the roads would sparkle in the sun.

The final stage from here to Broadford is perhaps the most haunting of the whole walk, as an old path links the former coastal villages of Suisnish and Boreraig. A visit to the crumbling ruins of these settlements, especially Boreraig with its beautiful green sward sloping down to the sea, cannot fail to move.

The families that lived here were brutally evicted from their homes to make way for sheep, years before the unrest in the Braes when crofters began to organise and resist. The geologist Archibald Geikie was an eye witness of the

clearances here and his recollections leave no room for doubt as to the injustice of what took place: “A strange wailing sound reached my ears … I could see a long and motley procession winding along the road that led north from Suisnish ... There were old men and women, too feeble to walk, who were placed in carts; the younger members of the community on foot were carrying their bundles of clothes ... A cry of grief went up to heaven, the long plaintive wail, like a funeral coronach, was resumed ...

The sound re-echoed through the wide valley of Strath in one prolonged note of desolation”.

Standing amidst the tightly clustered buildings it is easy to imagine the sounds of a busy community whose descendants are now scattered across the globe. On the climb over the hill, it is hard to resist a last look back over Boreraig and to think how this place might have been.

After the sadness, something of a triumph – the walk is almost over. An old railway line, built to ferry marble along the strath, leads to Broadford (pictured right), the final destination.

The second largest village on Skye, Broadford offers plenty of opportunities to celebrate your achievement.

It is likely that during the week or so of tramping through Skye every type of weather will have been experienced, a good cross-section of modern day Sgiathianachs met and plenty of clues to the island’s troubled history uncovered.

The sighting of a dolphin in Broadford bay or a sea eagle soaring overhead may perhaps be too much to hope for, but along the way you will have caught more than just a glimpse of Skye’s unique magic. g Paul and Helen Webster are founders of the award-winning Walkhighlands – a fantastic online resource for walkers.

Further info SEE AND DO Museum of Highland Life, Kilmuir Experience crofting life in a restored blackhouse village. One man's collection and passion for local memories makes this a truly personal place to visit. Flora MacDonald's grave is right here, too. www.skyemuseum.co.uk Boat trips, Elgol Travel by sea into the heart of the Cuillin with a choice of two operators: Bella Jane Boat Trips (www.bellajane.co.uk) and Misty Isle Boat Trips (www.mistyisleboattrips.co.uk).

Talisker Distillery, Carbost Skye's only distillery has a perfect sea loch setting, with a sandy beach close by on which to walk off the warming effects of any drams. www.discoveringdistilleries.com/Talisker Brightwater Centre, Kyleakin If you haven't yet spotted an otter, take your chance on a visit to Gavin Maxwell's old haunt, Eilean Ban – an island between Skye and the mainland where you can visit his home and an otter hide. www.eileanban.org MOUNTAIN GUIDES Richard ‘Paddy’ Maguire www.blavenguiding.co.uk

The route

Tony Hanly www.climbskye.co.uk

Rubha Hunish

The full Skye Trail route is 78 miles (127 km) long, split into seven sections and crosses the island north to south from Rubha Hunish to Broadford. It follows much of the Trotternish Ridge and later passes beneath the shadow of the Cuillin. Other sections follow remarkable but little visited coastal cliffs, take in steep trails above high drops, or pass through deserted villages. Intrepid walkers may wish to continue to the ferries at Armadale or Kylerhea (summer only). This unofficial route is not way-marked and is pathless for sections. It requires good navigation skills and mountain walking experience. For the full route – including accommodation options – see www.walkhighlands.co.uk/skye/skye-trail.shtml

Trotternish Ridge

Portree

Broadford

Elgol

Winky O'Neale www.skyeguide.co.uk RANGER-LED WALKS Highland Council rangers in Skye and Lochalsh run a series of guided walks, including a linked series that follows this route. Contact John Phillips, t. 01471 820 526, e. john.phillips@highland.gov.uk www.highland.gov.uk SUGGESTED READING Collins Ramblers Guide – Isle of Skye, Chris Townsend A reliable and varied guide written by a keen long-distance hiker.

Isle of Skye – 40 Coast and Country Walks, Paul and Helen Webster Pocket-sized guide to half-day and shorter walks across Skye and Raasay.

Tramping on Skye, Ben Humble Re-issue of a classic and fascinating account of a walking trip around the island from the1930s.

West Highland Free Press Get a feel for local life and find out where the nearest Soup and Pudding is taking place in the local weekly paper.

42 Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010

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SKYAK ADVENTURES

F O R

T H AT P E R F E C T A U T U M N B R E A K O N T H E I S L E O F S K Y E

Sea kayak expeditions, courses and guiding. All BCU courses.

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The Inn offers the perfect getaway from the hustle and bustle of city life. Mobile phones don’t work in the building and we don’t have televisions.

So come and enjoy what Stein and Skye have to offer, whether that is:mountains or walking at a lower level • climbing watching • bird the fabulous scenery from your car • enjoying what is at the end of each of the • investigating little roads sampling the local brews •• tasting the freshest of shellfish and other local produce

• visiting the local craft shops and exhibitions, of which there are many near to Stein on Waternish.

3 Nights for 2 b&b Nov-Mar, excluding Xmas and New Year.

Stein Inn, Waternish, Isle of Skye IV55 8GA Tel: 01470 5923620 E: angus.teresa@steininn.co.uk www.steininn.co.uk

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B O O K I N G

E S S E N T I A L

Explore Skye and the Small Isles from Mallaig, with sailings to Armadale, Canna, Eigg, Muck & Rum.

Visit Fort William Tourshop for ideas and advice on short breaks and holidays to Scotland’s west coast islands, and a range of day trips and excursions to Skye and the Small Isles.

Caledonian MacBrayne Tourshop, Railway Station, Fort William. Tel: 01397 705 285.

Have a Caledonian MacBraynewave Caledonian MacBrayne and CalMac are trading names of CalMac Ferries Limited

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EXPLORE • SKYE & THE SMALL ISLES

A Rum do ONCE OFF-LIMITS, THE ISLE OF RUM IS NOW EASIER TO REACH THAN EVER BEFORE. MARIEKE MCBEAN RETURNS TO AN ISLAND MUCH CHANGED SINCE HER LAST VISIT, BUT WHERE NATURE STILL RULES THE ROOST

A

lthough its imposing silhouette is clearly visible from the fishing port of Mallaig, for many years the Isle of Rum was a secretive place visited by only a select few. Back in the 1970s, a permit was required to visit an island considered of such ecological importance that visitors were discouraged from making the journey across the Sound of Rum. But much has changed since then and visitors are now encouraged to come and experience the island’s dramatic landscape and abundant wildlife for themselves.

When I first visited Rum in 2002, the large Caledonian MacBrayne ferry could not dock at the island. At the time, a little fishing boat would transport visitors from the ferry to a small jetty at Kinloch, the island’s one remaining village. Today, the ferry is accommodated at a new pier, making life much easier for

44 Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010

transporting tourists and supplies to and from the island.

But some things remain. Only residents are allowed to bring cars to the island, although – if able to – visitors would not find much use for their vehicles. The only real road is a halfmile stretch from the quayside to Kinloch. From there, a narrow track snakes west before splitting, with one branch heading north to Kilmory and another south to Harris. The track is much-improved from the pot-holed, bonejarring experience of years gone by, but is still best tackled on foot, by bike, or in a sturdy four-by-four.

The islanders cluster around the heavilywooded confines of Kinloch village. Until recently, most were employees of Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), the government agency that runs the island as a National Nature

Reserve. The island is blessed with a particularly rich natural heritage – from wild goats to otters and red-throated divers – and is known as something of an outdoor ‘laboratory’: it was here in the 1970s that sea eagles were first successfully reintroduced to Scotland; the island’s red deer are the subject of a longrunning study examining behavioural ecology; while the Rum Cuillin – a jagged mini mountain range named after its more illustrious cousin on Skye – is home to the world’s largest colony of manx shearwater, a timid seabird that lives in burrows dug high in the hills.

In the past, accommodation on Rum came with the job, meaning that few people lived here to a ripe old age, as they would lose their housing as soon as they left their jobs.

But this all changed in March when SNH sold a large chunk of Kinloch village to the Isle of Rum Community Trust. The Trust now owns land, housing, a campsite, community hall, shop and crofting land, and for the first time residents can rent a house without relying on employment with SNH.

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Mountain magic: (clockwise from left): the familiar outline of the Rum Cuillin seen from neighbouring Eigg; red deer at Kilmory; Rum's one-stop-shop

“It is an exciting time to be here,” admits David Frew (pictured right) who was appointed Development Officer for the Trust in June.

“Things are moving on and we’re hoping to attract more residents to the island. More people means more jobs and that’s what we’re hoping to create.”

Frew is standing in the village hall in front of a set of architect’s drawings that feature a brand new community centre, complete with cafe and craft shop. Once built, the islanders hope that such a facility will provide a warm welcome for visitors and a source of employment for future residents. The challenge now is to source sufficient funding to help realise the plans. “I spend most of my time looking into grants,” explains Frew.

Now that the Trust owns housing on the island, it has an income generated by rent and can also earn money through the sale of assets gained last year. “Tattie Cottage in the north of Kinloch village was our first private sale,” recalls Frew. The buyers were a young couple from Wales who wanted to make the

house their permanent home and start an outdoors centre and B&B in the building – exactly the kind of thing that islanders hoped would happen.

STEEPED IN HISTORY Part-community ownership is just the latest chapter in a colourful story of human habitation on Rum. First inhabited during the Stone Age,

the island was later part of a Viking kingdom that extended along the west coast of Scotland. The Norse legacy is clear from names given to hills such as Askival (‘val’ meaning mountain) and glens such as Dibidil (‘dil’ being a corruption of ‘dal’ meaning dale or valley).

By 1800, the island’s population peaked at around 440 thanks in large part to the humble potato – a newly-discovered crop that was intensively farmed in lazybeds that can still be seen decorating hillsides today.

Sadly, the Clearances also left their mark.

On 11 July 1826, the then landowner shipped most of the islanders to Nova Scotia so that the land could be let to a single tenant farmer to manage what was considered a more lucrative asset: sheep. The islanders were supposed to have left voluntarily, but a shepherd who was moved to the island to look after around 8,000 sheep recalled later how “the wild outcries of the men and the heartbreaking wails of the women and children filled all the air between the mountainous shores”.

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EXPLORE • SKYE & THE SMALL ISLES

Nowadays, Rum is perhaps best known for the remarkable Kinloch Castle – a hunting lodge cum pleasure palace used to entertain Edwardian high society. Commissioned in 1897 by the island’s owner, the Lancastrian textile magnate George Bullough, and constructed using red sandstone imported from Dumfries-shire, it took a team of 300 men nearly three years to build. It cost an estimated £250,000 – or £15 million in today’s money – and, once finished, played host to lavish parties, with guests well looked after by a staff of almost 100 people.

In its day, Kinloch Castle was something of a grand design. It featured sophisticated power showers, central heating, electricity, a conservatory and a glass-roofed veranda. It was also the first residence in Scotland to have an internal telephone system. Meanwhile, in an adjacent botanical garden, special buildings were constructed to accommodate hummingbirds, turtles and even alligators. One day the alligators escaped and were subsequently shot for fear that they might “interfere with the comfort of the guests”.

Such extravagance came to an abrupt end with the onset of the First World War. All male servants were sent to the front and only two returned. The newly knighted Sir George and his wife, society beauty Monique Lilly de la Pasture, returned to the castle after the war, but stayed there less often. The heating system failed and the hummingbirds died. A lack of staff meant the gardens became overgrown and the glasshouses collapsed. Sir George died in 1939 and his widow later sold the island, the castle and outbuildings to the Nature Conservancy (now SNH) in 1957 for £23,000.

Monique died in 1967, aged 98, and now lies next to her husband in a suitably ostentatious mausoleum at Harris in the south of the island.

Today, guides offer entertaining tours of this faded but still incredibly lavish house. In 2003, the castle featured in the BBC series Restoration and made it to the semi-finals of the competition. It remains in dire need of repairs, but help is at hand. The Prince’s Regeneration Trust is helping SNH to develop plans for the building, including a hostel upgrade, the creation of a small number of flats for hire and restoration of key parts of the castle.

NATURE CALLING For some visitors, Kinloch Castle is the main attraction, but for many it is the sheer wildness of the landscape beyond the castle grounds that exerts the most powerful draw. Rum is a volcanic land of mountain and moorland, sheer sea cliffs and equally dramatic climate. Low cloud and rain – almost four metres of it a year – are common and there are days when it is hard to imagine the wind ever not blowing.

Cruelly, when it does stop, it is easy to understand why many people swear that Rum is home to the fiercest midges in Scotland.

Walkers come for the Rum Cuillin, a volcanic chain of hills that might not quite match its Skye namesake for length or difficulty but still presents a gruelling challenge. Tackled in a single day, the classic round of Hallival, Askival, Trollaval and Ainshval is a test for even the fittest of walker – not least because of the need for scrambling skills in places. In winter, such

46 Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010

“ a route would be a very serious undertaking indeed.

For those not wishing to make the long trek back to Kinloch, there is a fine bothy at lonely Dibidil. Others might choose to wild camp in the hills – an option that brings walkers into contact with some of Rum’s most secretive residents. When not concentrating on picking their way along narrow tracks and clambering over rock pinnacles, walkers high in the Rum Cuillin are often intrigued by sudden expanses of lush grassy slopes each studded with burrows. But there are no rabbits on Rum: instead the burrows are home to an estimated 60,000 breeding pairs of Manx shearwater – almost a third of the world population.

” Built for life at sea and largely defenceless on land, these wary seabirds find Rum’s remote hilltops perfect for their needs and are easily able to dig burrows in the loose scree. The lush slopes, known as shearwater ‘greens’, are the result of the manuring effect of the birds’ droppings.

Shearwaters feed at sea during the day and only return to their burrows on the darkest of nights. Such was the eerie noise of returning birds that Norse settlers believed the hills to be the home of trolls – hence the name of mountains such as Trollaval. If lucky, wild campers may well experience the very same clamour.

Sadly, there are fears that Rum’s shearwaters are under threat from predation by brown rats

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– a problem also encountered on the neighbouring island of Canna. ‘Ratted’ eggs have been found at the colony and studies continue to determine just how much of a problem exists. If deemed to be a significant threat to what is a world-renowned population of birds, solving the problem will not be easy – or cheap.

On Canna – a much smaller island owned by the National Trust – a specialist company from New Zealand was contracted to eradicate rats from the island. The work cost £500,000 but Canna is now believed to be rat-free and seabird populations have begun to recover as a result.

King of the castle: (clockwise from top): the Bulloughs took opulence to another level when furnishing Kinloch Castle; the mausoluem at Harris; a Manx shearwater chick; shearwater 'greens' high in the Rum Cuillin; Dibidil bothy

BEYOND THE CUILLIN But Rum is not just about the Cuillin. Orval, an outlying hill in the west of the island is a little gem, while on a clear day those who make the long trek to Bloodstone Hill will

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EXPLORE • SKYE & THE SMALL ISLES

be rewarded with breathtaking views to Skye and over Canna to the distant Western Isles. Far below, at picturesque Guirdil Bay, is another bothy that, if anything, is even more dramatically located than the one at Dibidil.

Another positive result of the community buyout is that Rum now has its own community ranger service. Mike Werndly is the new full-time ranger and his job is to help interpret Rum’s flora and fauna and make it accessible to the general public. I joined Mike on a guided walk called ‘Where Eagles Dare’, part of a programme of weekly walks now available to visitors.

The walk has a fitting name given Rum’s role in the return of sea eagles to Scotland.

Over a 10-year period, starting in the 1970s, some 82 pairs were re-introduced here. Sea eagles still visit the island, but did not breed on Rum this year – unlike the island’s three pairs of golden eagle which between them successfully reared two chicks.

Although actual sightings are not guaranteed on the walk, we got lucky on ours. After about an hour, I spotted a large bird silhouetted above the hills and sure enough it was a golden eagle.

There can be few wild animals more perfectly suited to their surroundings.

Later, I accompanied Mike on a two-hour walk to Kilmory, an area at the north end of the island that is home to a renowned red deer research project. Run by researchers from Cambridge and Edinburgh universities, it is

Walking wild: Community ranger Mike Werndly (above); village signage (below); preparing the ponies (bottom right); antler graveyard (bottom left)

one of the most complete scientific studies of its kind in the world, with the results long forming the basis for deer management across Scotland.

It is also a spot made famous by the BBC’s Autumnwatch programme, which focused on the lives of the resident deer during the annual rut – a noisy time to be at this end of the island. Earlier I had asked local stalker Marcel Blankers what the chances were of seeing deer at Kilmory. “A hundred percent!” he replied with what turned out to be justified confidence.

Unlike other parts of Rum, stalking is not allowed at Kilmory. This means that the deer are used to people and so it is possible to get unusually close – certainly near enough to see the collars on some of the animals that are used by researchers for tracking purposes.

Down near the beach, an old laundry building dating back to the Bullough days is now used to store research data. It is also stacked with antlers. “One of these is the skull of Caesar,” says Mike, referring to one of the nowdeceased stars of Autumnwatch.

On our return to Kinloch, we visit the Rum ponies – a rare breed that usually roam free on the other side of the island, but have been brought over to help with stalking. Sturdy and sure-footed, the ponies are used to bring deer carcasses off the hill. They are tough animals and the sight of these relatively small ponies carrying a large deer is impressive. It’s something rarely seen in the Scottish hills, but is just one more example of how people have learnt to work hand in hand with nature on this challenging but beguiling island. g

Further info GETTING THERE There are two ways to reach the Isle of Rum: the large Caledonian MacBrayne (www.calmac.co.uk) ferry service from Mallaig, or the smaller sightseeing boat (MV Shearwater) operated by Arisaig Marine (www.arisaig.co.uk). Between them, they provide at least one sailing a day, although it might be necessary to combine the two if wanting to travel on your preferred days.

STAYING THERE Kinloch Castle houses a youth hostel with dormitory rooms, as well as doubles and family rooms. You can even stay in a four-poster bed with original horse-hair mattress. Space is limited, so bookings should be made in advance. Tel: 01687 462037.

A community campsite is located midway between the pier and the village. Much-improved in recent years, it has a shower, toilets, plus a couple of wooden shelters. Midge nets are strongly recommended. Wild camping is also permitted on the island, but campers are asked to advise the SNH reserve office (in Kinloch) before setting out.

Rum also has two bothies at Dibidal and Guirdil.

They are pretty plush by bothy standards, but you will have to take in all supplies (and pack out all rubbish). It’s a long walk in to either, but well worth it.

GETTING AROUND A mountain bike can come in handy for those wanting to visit Harris and Kilmory, or to save a long walk in to more remote hills.

For more information, visit www.isleofrum.com Scotland Outdoors would like to thank Arisaig Marine, CalMac and the Isle of Rum Community Trust for their kind assistance with this article.

48 Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010

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EXPLORE • SKYE AND THE SMALL ISLES

Over the sea PHOTOGRAPHY: SKYAK ADVENTURES; NTS PHOTO LIBRARY/VAL CORBETT; ALAN DONALDSON; RAASAY HOUSE; RUTH MACEWEN; ISLE OF EIGG ARCHIVES

FROM EXPLORING REMOTE COASTLINES TO ENJOYING THE VERY BEST OF LOCAL PRODUCE, SKYE AND THE SMALL ISLES HAVE SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE. HERE ARE JUST A FEW SUGGESTIONS

Skye from the sea SEE SKYE from a different angle by taking to the water with Skyak Adventures, a long-established sea kayaking operator led by the renowned instructor Gordon Brown (no, not that one).

Paddling is a perfect way to explore the nooks and crannies of Skye’s complex coastline, with plenty of scope for multi-day adventures.

Skyak also runs a variety of tailored courses suitable for everyone from complete novices to expedition veterans. Courses match paddlers of similar ability and usually have group sizes no bigger than six.

FURTHER INFO Skyak Adventures www.skyakadventures.com

Switch to Canna time JUST OVER 4.5 MILES in length, tiny Canna stands in marked contrast to the bulk of neighbouring Rum. With no shops, a population of 20 and an electricity supply – powered by diesel generators – that is switched off from midnight to 6am, this is a place where a more gentle pace is guaranteed.

Once owned by John Lorne Campbell, a renowned Gaelic scholar and keen naturalist, before it was gifted to the National Trust for Scotland, Canna has long been treated as a conservation area. Known for its seabird populations, Canna is also a great place to spot eagles, seals and other marine life. And with striking basalt cliffs, white sand beaches and views across to neighbouring islands, the landscape is as extraordinary as its wildlife.

Much of the island can be explored on foot, with a rugged walk along the cliffs that line the north coast as far as Compass Hill and An Coroghon (Prison Rock) offering an excellent flavour of the island.

FURTHER INFO The Isle of Canna is under the management of the National Trust for Scotland. www.nts.org.uk/Property/76

50 Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010

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Time for a treat IT’S NOT EVERY DAY that you get a chance to eat in a world-class restaurant – and certainly not one overlooking a quiet sea loch in a remote corner of a Scottish island.

But if you fancy splurging on some very fine food in one of the less frequented parts of Skye, then a trip to The Three Chimneys at Carbost is about as good as it gets.

Housed within the bare stone walls of a crofter’s cottage, the restaurant has long offered a very special experience with current Head Chef Michael Smith (pictured) continuing the tradition of using fresh, local produce to create dishes that speak directly of the landscape outside the window.

Visitors will understand why influential New York Times food critic Frank Bruni recently revealed that The Three Chimneys is one of his top five favourite places to eat in the world.

FURTHER INFO The Three Chimneys and The House Over-By www.threechimneys.co.uk Taste of Skye www.tastelocal.co.uk

Leap over to Raasay EXTENDING LIKE a crooked finger along the east coast of Skye, and just a 15-minute ferry ride away, the Isle of Raasay boasts wildlife and scenery every bit as impressive as its more celebrated neighbour. Bring a bike and explore the quiet roads and forest paths, or enjoy the many way-marked walks across the island, with a very real chance of spotting sea and golden eagles.

Those looking for adventure should check in at Raasay House Hotel and Activity Centre, which offers a variety of autumn and winter breaks. Activities include gorge walking, Canadian canoeing, abseiling and learning to sail the centre’s Sgoth ‘Oigh Niseach’ (Maid of Ness) – one of only three remaining traditional Lewis fishing boats in the world.

If that all sounds too much like hard work, you can always just relax with a glass of something and watch the sun set behind the Cuillin ridge on Skye.

FURTHER INFO Raasay House Hotel and Activity Centre www.raasay-house.co.uk Walks on Raasay www.tinyurl.com/3y4t6de

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EXPLORE • SKYE AND THE SMALL ISLES

Smallest of the small IF THE OTHER Small Isles are, well, small, then Muck is positively tiny. A little over two miles long and run entirely on wind power, Muck probably fits most people’s idea of a Hebridean idyll.

Easily explored on foot or by bike, Muck’s jagged coastline hides a rolling, fertile landscape. It is well worth a stomp up Beinn Airein for the views down to Camas Mor – a fine example of Jurassic limestone pavement – and across to neighbouring islands.

Many hours can also pass exploring the island’s rocky coves and skerries, with every chance of spotting an otter, or some of the plentiful seals that haul out at favourite spots around the island. At low tide, you can also walk out to Eilean nan Each (Horse Island), but keep an eye on the time to avoid a longer stay than planned.

FURTHER INFO Isle of Muck www.isleofmuck.com

Visit pioneering Eigg MANY VISITORS explore Eigg in a day between ferries, but it would be a shame to rush a trip to this fascinating community-run island. In the news recently for being one of three winners of the Big Green Challenge – a £1 million prize fund to encourage community-led carbon emission reductions – Eigg is bucking the trend of more remote rural communities in having a growing population and attracting young people back to the island.

More varied in landscape than the other Small Isles, Eigg is perhaps best known for An Sgurr, a striking ridge of pitchstone lava that towers over the pier at Glamisdale Bay. In the north of the island, the basalt cliffs at Cleadale preside over a classic crofting landscape which spills down to a beautiful beach at Bay of Laig.

The coast here is easily explored with Laig beach connected at low tide to Camus Sgiotaig – better known as the ‘Singing Sands’ because of the white quartz sand that squeaks underfoot.

FURTHER INFO The Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust www.isleofeigg.net For more on Eigg’s environmental efforts www.islandsgoinggreen.org

ESSENTIALS ISLE OF SKYE

SUPPLIES

Although not everyone’s cup of tea, the shapely Skye Bridge makes it easier than ever to reach the Isle of Skye. Purists may prefer to sail from Mallaig (www.calmac.co.uk) or use the seasonal ferry (Easter to October) between Glenelg and Kylerhea (www.skyeferry.co.uk).

from budget hostels to the swankiest of hotels. For a boutique B&B experience, try The Spoons near Portree (www.thespoonsonskye.com), while we can also recommend the historic Greshornish House near Edinbane (www.greshornishhouse.com).

For much more, visit www.skye.co.uk

SMALL ISLES

Options are more limited when travelling to the Small Isles. Kinloch Castle and grounds (see page 44) provide most of the options on Rum.

You will need to plan ahead when travelling to the Small Isles. Shops are limited on Rum, Eigg and Muck, and non-existent on Canna (although it does have the excellent Gille Brighde restaurant, www.cannarestaurant.com).

CASTLES AND CLANS The Small Isles are served by CalMac from Mallaig (www.calmac.co.uk) and the seasonal Arisaig Marine (www.arisaig.co.uk) from Arisaig. Those in a hurry can also reach Rum, Canna and Eigg by RIB with Aquaxplore (www.aquaxplore.co.uk).

Trips depart from Elgol on Skye and run from Easter to October.

ACCOMMODATION Given its size and popularity, it’s not surprising that Skye has a vast range of accommodation options,

52 Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010

Of the remaining islands, Eigg offers the most choice, including Lageorna at Cleadale (www.lageorna.com) and Glebe Barn Hostel (www.tinyurl.com/327ub3e) which also serves as an outdoor centre. On Canna, try Tighard Guest House (www.peaceofcanna.co.uk), while Muck also has a small number of accommodation options (www.isleofmuck.com).

If castles and clan legend are your thing, then Skye in particular will not disappoint. Built on a rocky outcrop on the shores of Loch Dunvegan, Dunvegan Castle (www.dunvegancastle.com) is the oldest continuously inhabited castle in Scotland and has been the ancestral home of the Chiefs of Clan MacLeod for 800 years. Elsewhere, the imposing ruin of Armadale Castle – home of the powerful Clan Donald – stands in a 40-acre woodland garden (www.clandonald.com). A visit to either will paint a vivid picture of Skye's often bloody history.

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STEPPING OUT • SEARCH AND RESCUE DOGS

MUTLEY CREW EVER THOUGHT OF TRAINING UP YOUR POOCH AS A SEARCH AND RESCUE DOG? SARDA SCOTLAND HANDLER TOM GILCHRIST EXPLAINS JUST WHAT IS INVOLVED UNCLIP ORNA, my collie, and rucksack before slipping the winching strop over my shoulders. I look up to the hovering chopper above me and give the winchman a thumbs-up. He waves back and the strop and wire are gone. Thirty seconds later the aircraft banks away and disappears into the glen below. Suddenly quiet, I unclip Orna’s harness and attach it to my rucksack. This is our first call out together and when I’d put the phone down at four o’clock this morning my first thought was ‘I’m not ready for this’. But Orna is and she knows why we are here. Without encouragement she is off into the corrie we have come to search. Orna’s tail is high. She’s having a ball. It is then, just as the first rays of sun creep over the ridge to our east, it occurs to me that if I had a tail I would be wagging it too because there isn’t anything in the world I would rather be doing. And it was all Hamish MacInnes’ fault.

Were Hamish MacInnes Japanese then he would surely have been declared a living treasure. His prowess as a

I

54 Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010

mountaineer both at home and abroad and the revolutionary equipment he developed are without equal. He is revered throughout the world for his pioneering work in mountain rescue and the specialist equipment he continues to produce. A filmmaker, photographer and writer, Hamish is one of the few in mountaineering who is a well-known name to the non-mountaineering public.

Yet, while we are aware of Hamish’s contributions to our modern mountaineering culture, how many of us realise that he was also integral to introducing search dogs to mountain rescue in the British Isles? Hamish founded the Search and Rescue Dog Association (SARDA) in 1965 – the same year the Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland came into being – and he remains SARDA’s President. This means that search dogs have been a part of the mountain rescue scene from the very beginning.

Combining and adapting training techniques used to train dogs in the Alps and for searching rubble during the blitz, Hamish and his sidekick, the Glencoe policeman Kenny McKenzie, unleashed the first search dogs principally to search for avalanche victims. However, it soon became obvious that the dogs could be used to look for

PHOTOGRAPHY: SARDA SCOTLAND; JON HART

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“POTENTIAL HANDLERS MUST HOLD A MINIMUM OF FIVE YEARS’ RESCUE EXPERIENCE”

missing persons throughout the year, and on practically any terrain. Their vision for SARDA at its inception was for it to simply be Four legs good (clockwise a training organisation; the inten- from left): Tom Gilchrist tion was for each rescue team in (right) and fellow team Scotland to send a team member members; airborne adventures; Corrie na Ciste (with hound) to be trained, after from Tower Ridge on Ben which the dog would become a Nevis – typical avalanche territory; heading home team asset.

However, not every team was interested or able to volunteer a team member. And as dogs have a limited shelf life of between eight to ten years it was impossible to provide every team in the country with one. So an imbalance as to which team had a dog and where they were located soon developed. As a result, dog teams were often called from their own area to assist in another. Often, one dog wasn’t enough and so SARDA acquired a roving commission and, in reality, became a team in its own right – albeit one without a base or vehicles and a membership spread across Scotland. Today, the team has 26 dogs on its call-out list and is pretty much at its logistical limit.

Quick to realise that SARDA was a very good thing, the police and RAF sent their dogs along for training. The RAF

still does, but in this modern world police dogs have enough to do without having to search the hills, so the police now leave mountain searches entirely to civvie dogs. However, police involvement with SARDA is still considerable: in 2009, Northern Constabulary call-outs on mountain searches accounted for 95% of SARDA’s business.

Those who did sign up to become handlers had to follow Hamish’s example and were primarily mountaineers and then mountain rescuers before training as dog handlers. The same applies today, and potential handlers have to hold a minimum of five years’ rescue experience prior to being considered for training. As they often work alone, it would also be fair to say that dog handlers have an above average knowledge of snow and avalanche conditions as well as sound navigational skills.

Interestingly, by my guestimate, only 1–2% of mountain rescue team members north of the border are of the fair and sensible sex. In SARDA, however, more than 20% are women, which is probably why it is such a well-run outfit. In addition, because the star of the show is also the

Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010 55

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STEPPING OUT • SEARCH AND RESCUE DOGS

family pet, and they take two years to train, families tend to be much more involved than with other mountain rescue teams.

SUITABLE DOGS But what of the dogs themselves? In the US, the question of which species makes the best search dog has been widely explored by William and Jean Syrotuck – a husband and wife team who are animal behaviourists, human psychologists and biologists. Their conclusion? That the dog “should possess a long, large nose”.

I don’t mean to sound flippant because I have great admiration for the Syrotucks. What they have done for me is to remove a lot of the snobbery about dogs. Typically, countries that use dogs for rescue tend to use the local working dog, with no sign of pedigrees. In the UK, that means mongrels and – as we all know – the best mongrels are collies. So, collie variations make up the vast majority of SARDA dogs.

Observers are often taken aback that the dogs are smaller than they expect. But a large dog is an unwieldy tool in a rescue situation: they don’t transport easily and can’t be thrown across burns or pushed over deer fences.

And to be honest, even the smallest collie will have more in reserve than its handler at the end of a long day.

But unlike other working dogs, SARDA dogs are primarily household pets. The bond with the handler is crucial to the success of the team, plus they must be sociable and comfortable working alongside the many other people involved in a big search. They also have to get on with other dogs: the interior of an airborne helicopter is not the place for a dog fight, although it has happened ...

When asked how to become a dog handler I often cop out and reply with a question of my own: why would you want to become a dog handler? I am reminded of Shackleton’s original Times advertisement looking for crew for his 1912 expedition: ‘Men wanted for hazardous journey.

Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.’

With no disrespect to the great man, if SARDA had to advertise it would read something like: ‘Fools wanted for hazardous searches. No wages. Long nights of complete darkness, cold and wet. Two years of monthly training, danger of failing, dog hair all over your fleece, car and home. Pay out of your own pocket until dog on call-out list. Honour and recognition in case of success doubtful.’

If that hasn’t put you off and you are still keen to become a dog handler, then the best way forward is to contact SARDA and volunteer to become a ‘body’. All search dogs are trained to find live persons and the only way to teach them is for volunteers to hide in the hills and have the dogs look for them. SARDA is lucky to have regular volunteers whose input is invaluable. But we always have room for more and if you want to find out about training a dog then this is a fantastic way to learn before you buy one. You get a badge if you pass, while your canine friend will receive free dog food courtesy of Burns Pet Nutrition – a loyal and undemanding supporter of SARDA Scotland. g

Based in Fort William, Tom Gilchrist is a member of the Lochaber Rescue Team. Together with his current dog, Tara, Tom covers Glencoe, the Mamores, Ben Nevis, Creag Meagaidh, Knoydart, Rum, Eigg and all points in between.

56 Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010

FURTHER INFO Due to the demand for dogs, there are two SARDA associations in Scotland. SARDA in this article refers to SARDA Scotland (www.sarda-scotland.org) but there is also a SARDA Southern Scotland (www.sarda.org.uk).

After dark: a night-time winter rescue (above); avalanche training (below)

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WILDLIFE & ECOLOGY • WHOOPER SWANS

58 Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010

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SWAN SONG

CAERLAVEROCK ON THE SOLWAY FIRTH IS FAMOUS FOR ITS WINTERING BARNACLE GEESE, BUT IT IS THE BEAUTIFUL AND ENCHANTING WHOOPER SWANS THAT DRAW TOM LANGLANDS BACK YEAR AFTER YEAR.

HE DAYS grow shorter and the temperature is dropping. The ospreys are headed south, following the swallows and swifts to warmer climes.

The never-ending cycle of winged migration continues and I feel slightly sad as the summer visitors depart. However, the same invisible power that pulls our feathered friends away also draws new ones to us – quite literally in their thousands. There are many locations in Scotland where migratory birds overwinter, but few places where they can be observed with such ease or in such numbers as Caerlaverock in Dumfries and Galloway.

Here, the most famous winter visitors are undoubtedly the huge numbers of barnacle geese that arrive from Svalbard in the Arctic Circle, yet the picture hasn’t always been so rosy. Although the area offers an ideal estuarine habitat of mudflats and merse (saltmarsh), by the end of World War II there were only some 300 visiting geese.

Thanks to the influential conservationist Peter Scott and the Duke of Norfolk, who owned the land, Caerlaverock National Nature Reserve was established in 1957. For the first time, a policy of managing disparate land interests – agriculture, wildfowling, fishing and conservation – was agreed. Further assistance came when the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust (WWT) took over Eastpark Farm on the edge of the Reserve in 1970, and began consolidating and expanding the area’s natural habitats.

Today we reap the benefit of such vision with 30,000 barnacle geese now wintering in the area alongside pinkfooted and greylag geese. To see formations of geese streaking through the skies, whilst thousands march across fields below, is a spectacular sight. Yet it is another of Caerlaverock’s visitors that draws me back again and again.

Walking along an avenue of leafless winter branches, I leave footprints on the frosted ground. Icicles melt on hedgerows as the morning sunshine dissolves the mist.

Then I hear them ... ‘whoop, whoop-whoop’. The sound gets closer, louder … and then they appear over the tree tops. Sometimes it is just two or three, other times

PHOTOGRAPHY: TOM LANGLANDS

T

Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010 59

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WILDLIFE & ECOLOGY • WHOOPER SWANS

many more. They glide on big, snow-white wings with elongated necks piercing the way ahead. One sees me and cocks its head to assess the danger. That unmistakable yellow and black bill gives another resounding ‘whoop’.

Then they drop behind the trees and I hear the sound of webbed feet hitting water. The whooper swans are back.

DANGEROUS JOURNEY The 25,000 whooper swans that travel annually to the UK and Ireland are residents of Iceland. As we were reminded earlier this year, it is one of the most actively volcanic places on Earth. In certain areas, the hot bubbling springs mean that not all Iceland’s whoopers need to escape the cold of winter and around 2,000 remain year round.

Other than around Reykjavik, Iceland is sparsely populated. This is good news for the swans that are spread across the island. Wetland birds, whoopers build their nests near areas of water that have good supplies of aquatic vegetation for food. Being social animals they live within family groups and larger colonies, becoming more territorial during the mating season. They pair for life, although ‘divorce’ occurs occasionally, and breeding birds are usually four or five years old. However, only a small percentage of whoopers actually breed, with three or four cygnets being the norm and occasional broods of five or six.

As the Arctic chill moves south from around midOctober, the whoopers – some with juveniles only a couple of months old – prepare to leave Iceland. Gathering in small groups, characteristic head bobbing and loud whooping gives notice of their intention to fly. Running on land or water to gain speed they spread those huge wings and take off, often into a cloudless starry night. Staying close to the surface of the sea they head for the coast of Scotland; white shapes lit by moonlight casting dark moving shadows on the waves below. Wing beats are almost inaudible and only the ‘whoops’ cut through the

60 Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010

night. At an average speed of 70km per hour the northern lights soon fade and the perilous journey begins in earnest.

If all goes well, many birds will rest on the Isle of Lewis before moving further south. The journey may be made in a single flight or spread over several days. Sometimes bad weather hits them hard. Exhausted birds perish at sea or get blown miles off course. Youngsters rely on the experience of parents but the survival of the group cannot be jeopardised if one bird falls by the wayside. This is not a journey of choice, but of necessity and survival.

HOMECOMING When the birds finally arrive at Caerlaverock it is time for WWT rangers to take stock – a task they have undertaken for more than 30 years. Some 500 whoopers come to the area with around 300 staying on the reserve itself. Rangers count them in, carefully checking numbers on ringed birds. It is always exciting to see parents arriving with new offspring, for the same birds tend to return each year.

Equally, however, it is a sad occasion when a bird known to have left Iceland remains unaccounted for.

Once here, the whoopers are sometimes seen alongside resident mute swans but, with recognisable yellow and black bills emitting their frequent and distinctive call, the new arrivals are easily distinguished. Whoopers are also similar in appearance to the migratory Bewick’s swan, but with a weight of around 10kg are bigger and have less black in their bill pattern.

Each winter, WWT catches large numbers of whoopers to collect essential data. Birds are weighed, measured, have blood samples taken to check for viruses and toxins, and ringed. Additionally, a handful of birds will have lightweight transmitters fitted. Funded by Collaborative Offshore Wind Research Into the Environment (COWRIE), the transmitters are part of a satellite-tracking project to improve understanding of the impact of offshore

Remote control: satellite trackers are used to research the impact of offshore wind farms on migratory birds

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WILDLIFE & ECOLOGY • WHOOPER SWANS

wind farms on migratory birds. Using the ‘Super Whooper’ website it is possible to follow the migration of individual birds as they are tracked in real-time.

Research is key, but raising awareness through education is also vital.

Brian Morrell, Learning Manager at WWT Caerlaverock, promotes education programmes aimed at all levels of interest. Brian explained that getting youngsters involved at an early age is important. Hence local primary schools have named and adopted birds. Visitors to the Super Whooper website may well have witnessed the aptly named Supersonic Bill complete last year’s 800-kilometre journey in an incredible 14 hours.

CAUSE FOR OPTIMISM With international law now protecting whooper swans it would be reasonable to assume that the birds should reach their normal lifespan of 10–12 years without facing significant danger. Sadly, this is not the case, with lead shot still a particular problem. Although banned on wetlands in Scotland, it is permitted in Iceland. Shot from spent gun cartridges or fishing is swallowed by the birds and just three pellets will cause a prolonged and painful death. According to Richard Hesketh, Manager of WWT Caerlaverock, ingestion is only part of the problem.

He has taken X-rays of many birds and, staggeringly, around 14% of whoopers have lead On thin ice: wigeon also overwinter at Caerlaverock pellets embedded in their bodies as a conse- (above); the nearby Caerlaverock Castle (below) quence of being shot.

Overhead power lines are another hazard, but following pressure from the local community and WWT, Scottish Power responded admirably by changing problem lines around Caerlaverock to underground supplies. Despite the hazards, the swan population is healthy and growing steadily, to the extent that WWT no longer regard whoopers to be a conservation concern.

But why do the birds come specifically to this area? It is thanks largely to the presence of the Gulf Stream which helps keep the climate mild while, until recently, the area was predominantly wetland, providing a plentiful diet of aquatic plants and grasses. Today much of it has been claimed for farming but it hasn’t affected the swans adversely. They have adapted well, feeding on stubble, waste crops – potatoes are a favourite – and spilt grain. Favouring decaying vegetation also means that there is little conflict with local farmers.

“DESPITE THE HAZARDS, THE SWAN POPULATION IS HEALTHY AND GROWING STEADILY” At Caerlaverock, birds can also take advantage of twice-daily swan feeds and in the Peter Scott Observatory visitors can get closer to whoopers than probably anywhere else. You can also see wigeon from Russia, teal, mallard, the occasional pochard and thousands upon thousands of geese.

Take a stroll down the romantically named Robin Trail to see robins, treecreepers, and dozens of smaller birds, then down to the shoreline to see waders on the merse including knot and dunlin as well as hunting peregrine falcons, hen harriers and merlin. Elsewhere, it is possible to watch badgers feeding, see tadpole shrimps that date back to pre-dinosaur times and maybe encounter a rare natterjack toad from the UK’s most northerly colony before it hibernates for winter.

Apart from its role in wetland conservation, this area of Scotland has also played its part in the nation’s evolution. From the stunning medieval ruins of Caerlaverock Castle – also on the edge of the National Nature Reserve – to the Robert Burns Trail, there is much to see and do for all ages. However, do remember to say hello to the whooper swans – they have travelled a long way to be with us. g

FURTHER INFO WWT CAERLAVEROCK For more on Scotland's only Wildfowl and Wetland Trust site. www.wwt.org.uk/caerlaverock SUPER WHOOPER Follow the journeys of real swans on migration. www.wwt.org.uk/whooper COWRIE Find out more about the wind energy industry in the UK. www.offshorewindfarms.co.uk SCOTLAND’S NATIONAL NATURE RESERVES Full listing of Scotland's National Nature Reserves. www.nnr-scotland.org.uk TOM LANGLANDS PHOTOGRAPHY For more images of whooper swans and other charismatic wildlife. www.tomlanglandsphotography.com WWT Caerlaverock is hosting an exhibition of whooper swan photographs by Tom Langlands, 30 October to 11 December.

62 Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010

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PHOTOGRAPHY: SCOTTISH ORIENTEERING ASSOCIATION; GLENMORE LODGE

OUTDOOR SKILLS • ORIENTEERING

Lost and found Nigel Williams Head of Training, Glenmore Lodge I recommend that hill walkers get lost – so long as they have developed the skills to resolve a cartographical challenge that we all face from time to time. We know from mountain rescue statistics that around 30% of all call-outs are due to poor navigation and planning. The consequences of being lost in the hills can be significant, yet hill walkers rarely practice the skills of being temporarily geographically embarrassed.

Map setting, taking bearings along line features and using the slope aspect (the direction a slope is facing) are just some of the basic skills required to eliminate possibilities of where you might be. For example, if you are on a slope facing north, then you can eliminate south, east and west facing slopes. Or, if a stream is running east–west, then you look on your map for streams that do just that. Usually this narrows your likely position to a couple of options and you must then use a little detective work to verify which one it is. Unfortunately, taking back bearings on church spires, as taught at school, rarely works.

64 Scotland Outdoors Autumn 2010

You can practice these relocation skills with a GPS or a mate who can navigate. Walk for a while without a map and after 30 minutes or so try and identify where you are. If your mate has been paying attention, he or she should be able to verify your accuracy (a GPS will do the same). Actually, this is what most hill walkers do: they only get the map out when they are uncertain of their position, so relying on the ability to use relocation skills effectively.

The thing is, getting lost in the hills is not something that is easy to make yourself do.

Also practicing what to do when lost is quite a negative way of going about things. Might it not be better to practice all elements of navigation and not get lost in the first place?

I would suggest trying orienteering – an excellent way of practicing navigation in an environment that is safe and contained. Map scale or type of terrain is irrelevant: navigation skills remain the same regardless of environment. In fact, orienteering in terrain such as dense forest is much like operating in mist in that you cannot really see where you are going.

Walkers tend to view orienteerers with suspicion. For a start, they run, wear lycra and have to be members of a club. Well, actually, you don’t have to comply with any of those habits – so long as you pay for your map at the start no one minds about anything else.

Most events take place on a Sunday and are family friendly. There are clubs all over Scotland and many even run practice sessions on a mid-week evening during the summer.

There are also a dozen permanent courses around Scotland with maps available from local tourist offices. Courses are colour-coded

Practise makes perfect: orienteering will help many hill walkers – although you don’t have to run quite so fast

for distance and difficulty so you can keep a record of how your skills are progressing and find a suitable level of challenge.

It is possible to work on everything from planning the best way from one point to the next to using skills such as identifying attack points, aiming off, catching features and – if lucky – you will get lost and have to practice relocation skills.

By chatting with people at the end, you will often pick up top navigation tips as well – something that never happens after a hill walk. Most importantly, it will build your ability and confidence as a navigator. Just don’t expect to be perfect first time out. As with most new skills, there is a learning curve.

Someone once said that navigation is 25% map work, 25% compass work and 50% confidence in the other two. But how can you be confident in anything you don’t practice? Go on, give orienteering a try. g

Further details Nigel Williams is Head of Training at Glenmore Lodge, Scotland’s National Outdoor Training Centre. www.glenmorelodge.org.uk Scotland has an extremely active orienteering scene, not to mention many world-class athletes.

The National Orienteering Centre is based at Glenmore Lodge. www.scottish-orienteering.org

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