Reflections and visions from COP26

For two weeks, I was privileged to be part of the COP26 climate discussions in Glasgow. I did not set foot inside the official designated blue or green ‘zones’ where governments and suited officials haggled over carbon counts, numbers and emissions. If I had, I would have been party to the same old conversations, the …

Of Rocks and mountains // A Summer Release

Summer swung into play with the end of a big project. By late May I had completed the manuscript for Time on Rock, a nature writing book about rock climbing, and once the major edits were signed off, I was free. My release coincided with another great relaxation – the ending of COVID lockdown restrictions. …

An excursion into Moidart and Ardnamurchan

July rolls in and the Highlands are busy. Campervans and caravans and motorbikes and cars and cyclists and walkers and runners and holiday makers of all shapes and sizes are up, roaming through the glens, lochs, islands, towns and villages of the north, all chasing their own various summer pleasures and who after all can …

June flowers

June is the time of flowers. Red campion and fox gloves and lacy white cow parsley lean out from the crowded hedgerows where the nettles and brambles and honeysuckle are running riot, a mess of tendrils and thorns and colours, scents and pollen and the constant hum of insect wings. Kiss-me-quick Valerian clings to crumbling …

Ladies Day / Brothers Ridge

During the intra-lockdown period in the way-back-when of early January, I headed out for a mountain day with a difference. I often hit the hills alone. I like my own company on the mountain – I like the space to think, look, roam and wander/wonder. Often, especially when climbing, I head into the hills with …

Winter Cairngorms

 Beinn a Bhuird and Ben Avon The Table Mountain and the River Mountain A dark drive on frozen winding roads. Star light. Moon light. We cycle in up the glen, passing skeletal alder and birch, following the crystal clear chattering of the River Avon, as the sky starts to pale, yellowing with sunrise. A ruined …

Summer

Long days. Sunshine. Midges. Rain. Camping. Face masks. And plenty of time on rock. This year I have been hard at work, writing Time on Rock, a nature-writing book all about my route into rock climbing. Sitting at a desk, trying to remember the feel of the rock, the look of a landscape, the emotions …

Moving with granite

During the topsy-turvy time of global pandemic and international lockdown, when normal life is on hold and bad news proliferates, I had the wonderful and slightly surreal experience of winning two writing awards on the same day. First, the manager of Moniack Mhor called to tell me I had won their Travel Writing Award. Then, …

Time, travel and creativity (in lockdown)

Lockdown continues at its own strange pace. Sat at my parents’ home, passing the time, pacing out the days with tea, cake and meals, it all feels rather like that amorphous period between Christmas and New Year. Days drag but somehow the weeks race by and suddenly it is May: now mid-May and soon, my …

The Sterling Board Falls

My time in the gilded cage draws to a close. This afternoon my fourteen-day quarantine is up. The Plywood Board* will fall. (*I must correct an error that appeared in my previous post. It turns out that the aforementioned Plywood Board is in fact Sterling Board, also known as Oriented Strand Board (OSB). Thanks to …

The Gilded Cage

Spring advances and I find myself somewhere quite unexpected. After a winter sat indoors, cooped up writing a book about climbing, I was itching to get out on the rock. Now the days are longer, the weather has improved and the rock is drying out. This should have been the start of another glorious climbing …

Chasing rainbows on Schiehallion

A fierce wind blows down the ridge. Hail comes in and I burrow deeper into my hood. The frozen flecks sear the skin. My feet wade through snow and slide over frozen rocks. Each breath is snatched from the elements. The mountain forecast on Sunday promised ‘arduous’ walking conditions. Gale force winds, 40% chance of …

Elie Chain Walk

February is one of those months. A month where I long for spring and daylight. Snowdrops and crocuses appear – the sky lightens into the evening – hope stirs. Then wind, rain, sleet and snow return. I diligently layer up in thermals and waterproofs. As a climber, the winter months are hard. I long to …

Shadows and Reflections: 2019

When I was a child, minutes were long. The clock moved slowly. Summer holidays stretched into the far distance and a year was beyond reckoning. People say that as you get older, time compresses. Seconds vanish. Minutes disappear. Weeks race by – and suddenly it is Christmas again – and here’s a whole new year …

Mountain Leader Training

I shook the tent. White crystals flew from the green nylon, swirling like the world inside a child’s snowglobe. Emma’s morning brew took a while to reach the boil – the water had frozen solid overnight. I have just returned from an intensive week of Mountain Leader (ML) training in Fort William. After years of …

Snakes and Ladders (and tunnels)

“Are you sure this is the way?” We walk towards a sheer wall of slate. “Pretty sure.” At the bottom of the wall there are a few rocks. Between the rocks – a tiny black gap. “We’ve got to drop down there?” I ask dubiously. “Yep!” Peering into the darkness, I make out a few …

Braeriach

How does one know a mountain? Of all the mountains in the Cairngorms, there is something about Braeriach. It is not the tallest one here – across the Lairig Ghru, Ben Macdui stands a little higher. Bynack Mor and Ben Mheadhoin have more interesting summits, studded with weathered granite tors that delight hand and eye. …

Iceland II: ice, light and endless blue

One of the most striking experiences from my recent trip to Iceland was seeing the iceberg lagoons below the Vatnajökull ice cap. Vatnajökull is the largest ice cap in Iceland: 380 metres thick and covering 3,000 square miles or 8% of Iceland’s land mass. Like most glaciers around the world, it is in retreat. The …

Iceland I: into the Highlands

As I planned my trip to Iceland, my friends told me about a remarkable walk through the remote highlands: the Laugavegur Trail. A 55 kilometre route that passes by hot springs and ice caps, crossing deserts and glacial rivers. They showed me impossible photographs: rainbow hillsides that looked like they had been painted onto the …

Iceland impressions

Well. I’m just back from the trip of a lifetime. For ten days, I walked, camped and explored Iceland. We were there for the longest day: the sun dipped below the horizon for less than three hours per day. Snipe drummed and curlews called through the night. The sky was always light. We saw icebergs, …

Glen Tilt: flowers, fights and freedom

June. The days are long. I head up Glen Tilt to Carn a’Chlamain, the Rocky Hill of the Buzzard. Down in Blair Atholl, oak and chestnut and beech form thick green towers. Hawthorn lines the hedgerows with the sharp sweet scent of May. This is Perthshire: the land of big trees. The countryside is very …

Sounding the granite sea

Rural Aberdeenshire. An unfamiliar road twists and winds through rolling hills. My feet are busy juggling clutch, brake, and accelerator. The corners are sharp: I am tired but I must concentrate. Navigating yet another bend, I reach a sign: a black silhouette of an osprey, painted onto the face of a pale grey rock. I …

Let’s go bouldering

Sunshine blazes in through my bedroom window. A lazy Saturday morning suddenly transforms into a rush of action as we dress, dig out the bouldering mat, assemble a lunch and get on the road. I am stepping out of my comfort zone. I prefer traditional climbing: I like the security of a rope and the …

An Easter Eigg

Happy Easter readers! Earlier in April I travelled up to Eigg for a few days on the island. Eigg is a small island owned by the community. Eigg Heritage Trust successful bought the island in 1997, after a huge public campaign. The previous landlord was Keith Schellenberg, a businessman, who kept the island in terrible …

Forest dreams

This article was originally published on Caught by the River (24 February 2019) I turn my head-torch off and am blinded by darkness. There are no stars, no moon: it must be cloudy. The woods are impossibly dark. I suddenly feel vulnerable. I resist the urge to switch the light back on: nothing external has …

Sun calls out celendine

Following on from my last blog post, Spring Lost and Found, I have here a clutch of spring haiku for you. Haiku is a Japanese form of short, three-line poem. The first line has five syllables, the second seven, and the third line five syllables. This syllable pattern is more difficult in the English language …

Spring Lost and Found

From Mid-Wales with Love I think I know where I’m going. I’ve been there before, but not for a few years now. I can remember points on the way – the dappled ferny wood, the shaky barbed wire fence, the badger setts, following the brook down. But the thread that connects these spots has gone. …

Dances with hares

This essay was first published on Caught by the River (26 December 2018) Fresh snow lies thick on the ground. Heather, grass and rocks have disappeared under a smooth Christmas cake icing. A freeze-thaw cycle has yet to happen, condensing the crystals into a crusty snowpack, and so with each step, my foot plunges into …

West Lomond, a photo-essay

I collected the following images and words over a walk up West Lomond in Fife. It was a cold January day, the light was incredible, everything was softened by a haze of low cloud. This is a different style of blog post to my previous writings - please let me know your thoughts and responses …

Cairngorms clouded

New year in the Cairngorms: there is very little snow. Last winter was generally cold and white, snow often fell right down to valley level and the mountains became shining beacons. Walking could be hard work, wading through knee deep drifts, cornices formed over hedge banks. This winter is mild. The Cairngorms have not yet …

New routes into the mountain

This article originally appeared on Caught by the River (18 November 2018) I am becoming a boulder. This October morning in the Cairngorms, I have been set the task of letting go of the visual to see how my eyes move. I stand still on the mountain, consciously relaxing my eyes and the muscles all …

Into the Mountain: A Meet

Over 2018-9 an exciting project is taking place in the Cairngorms, inspired by Nan Shepherd, celebrating women’s experiences in the mountains. ‘Into the Mountain’ is a performative journey by Simone Kenyon, a mountaineer, artist and choreographer. The project includes public talks, education workshops for children, training for teachers, and live performances in the Cairngorms in …

Seeking Shelter: A Journey Into Loch A’an

This piece originally appeared on 'Caught by the River' (23 October 2018). Overhead, the granite boulder glittered in torch and candle light. Our breath made clouds as we clustered away from the drips that worked their way in somehow, running through gaps between rocks, dropping from surfaces. We slept under the shelter stone: an enormous …

Women in Wellies

“Don’t be constrained by what other people think you should be doing,” said Joyce Campbell, a farmer from Sutherland in northern Scotland. Joyce was speaking at Women in Wellies, an event I organised in my role as Education and Inclusion Officer for Cairngorms National Park Authority. The aim of this event was to promote rural …

A Scots Dictionary of Nature

I am reading a dictionary, written by a visual artist. This is one of the many incongruencies that shape a fascinating and distinctive book. A Scots Dictionary of Nature collects together the diverse vocabulary of place and environment in Scotland. Two weeks ago I attended the book launch in Grantown-on-Spey. Behind Thomson, a projector flashed …

Late September sun, Slovenia

The smell of alcohol is strong in the air. It is autumn and the village trees are laden with ripe and rotting fruit. Thud: a pear drops from the tree. Frost hits the damsons and overnight they age, firm plump fruit becomes a soft shrivelled lump in the hand. We stayed in an alpine village …

The Far North

On the first weekend of September, I ventured up to Sutherland in the far north of Scotland. The area was named by Vikings when northern Scotland was the southern point of their territories. Empires and boundaries changed, the name stuck, and today the most northerly part of the UK is still called southern. I love …

A moorland croft

Today I have another short story for you, delving a little deeper into the crofting way of life. There are abandoned crofts around the Cairngorms and across the Highlands. In some places you find the remains of a community that forty years ago had enough people to support a school - now there might be …

The Return

A couple of weeks ago I walked up Glen Banchor, near Newtonmore in the Monadh Liath (grey mountain range). The glen is beautiful: a wide u-shaped valley with river meadows filled with wild flowers and waving grasses. A rough track takes you past the remains of many houses. Some are now just lumps of stone, …

Why climb?

Last week, a colleague asked a rather odd question: “Is climbing all about the adrenaline?” For me, climbing has little to do with adrenaline. If I get an adrenaline rush on the rock, that probably means that something has gone wrong. Adrenaline makes you shaky and clumsy. Climbing is intense concentration and precise movement. When …

EUROPARC Youth Manifesto Finland week

In June I went to Finland with work as part of our Youth Manifesto project. We have gathered together fifty young people from across Europe to write a manifesto outlining the ways that protected areas and rural communities can become better places for young people to live, learn and work. We will present the manifesto …

A Lofoten snapshot

I was in Lofoten for the midnight sun. For ten days at the start of June, I travelled around the archipelago of Norwegian islands with three mountaineering friends. The islands are in the Arctic circle, and from the end of May to mid July, the sun never sets. I imagined this might be disorienting: how …

Spring rains

Spring has finally arrived in the Highlands. The subdued palette of winter – yellow grass, brown heather, grey bark – is disappearing under a flourish of green. Like wild fire, new shoots are appearing, leaping from grass to flower to tree to plant; creeping more slowly into the uplands. The beech hedge has rattled off …

Windblow in Abriachan

Tramping along the boardwalk through dense spruce and lodgepole pines, I emerge from the gloom into a clearing. The clearing is not a meadow, filled with grasses, heather and wild flowers. Nor does it have new trees growing. Here, full grown trees lie slumped, one atop another. Like great busy dominoes, they have been toppled …

Performing Mountains

In March I attended Performing Mountains, a symposium at the University of Leeds organised by Jonathon Pitches and David Shearing. The symposium explored the role of live arts in mountain culture, including dance, drama, art, poetry, and literature. I was not quite sure what to expect: the event took place in the unfamiliar world of …

In pursuit of spring

When will spring start? In the cold, grey months at the beginning of the year, I eagerly await the change in seasons. The two official dates for spring (meteorological spring and vernal equinox) often fall short of expectation. These dates come and go, and in the weeks that follow, lambs might need digging out of …

Mountain hare

Hares are beautiful, mystical, magical and strange. In the Cairngorms, I frequently encounter these beasts, loping or sprinting across fields and hillsides. There are two types in the UK. The brown or common hare (lepus Europaeus) is widespread, and lives on hills and farmland across the UK. The mountain hare (lepus timidus) is found almost …

Highland River

The Cairngorms are home to many great rivers whose distinctive ecologies have shaped life for millenia. The Dee and Spey are known as two of the ‘big four’ Scottish salmon rivers. Fishermen travel here to fish for salmon that have travelled thousands of miles across the Atlantic, returning from distant feeding grounds to spawn in …

Imagining mountains: how poetry does things differently

In my last blog post, I outlined the most prevalent approaches to writing about mountains. Such books can be enjoyable to read – in the same way that Gogglebox is good to watch – because they are easy to consume and affirm widely-held liberal worldviews. Yet this popularity means that the books can err upon …

Cairngorm Colours

Exploring the Cairngorms, I am often struck by the changing shades, tones, and hues of the area. Light on the plateau can change by the minute. In the fog, the brightness dramatically alters: as though someone switches on a light, all is suddenly illuminated and the mist gleams white. Then, just as quickly, the light …