Hiking and Hillwalking
Back in November, Iain, Penny, and I got chatting about the Isle of Jura, in the Southern Hebrides. We quickly...
Hiking and Hillwalking
Winter is often a time for reflection, and as the days close in and activities wind down after a busy...
Hiking and Hillwalking
Gosh, it is hard not to have all ten photographs from the Outer Hebrides. I do believe that North Uist...
Hiking and Hillwalking
At this time of year, I’ve a bit more time on my hands to do some hillwalking, so on Friday,...
History
This blog provides a quick summary of the history of Northern Scotland, from the Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) through to...
Canoeing
At the end of a very busy season, in late October, Penny and I headed north to Newtonmore, on a...
Duke of Edinburgh's Award
I’m not long back from a wonderful trip to the French Pyrenees, with a group of 12 Gold Duke of...
Duke of Edinburgh's Award
Between 15 – 19 February 2025, we ran our second Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Winter Skills Residential in Cairngorm...
Navigation
This blog lists and describes navigation games and resources that are useful for teaching navigation. All of what is contained...
Hiking and Hillwalking
Art inspired by nature
This blog and video have been written by George Ewen (a Shetlander, from Unst, and my father). In the video,...
Flora and Fauna
I’ve just returned from guiding a walking tour in Shetland (August 2024). Every year we run several, open, week-long holidays...
History
That night was the most dark and desperate as I’d lived. For three days and nights, my five crewmates and...
Hiking and Hillwalking
Alan Dorward is a Senior instructor with Aspen Outdoors Ltd. I met up with him mid February 2024 to talk...
Hiking and Hillwalking
Earlier this year Aspen became a provider of something called the Mountain Training Hill and Mountain Skills Courses. Mountain Training...
Duke of Edinburgh's Award
Edofe mapping is an excellent tool for Duke of Edinburgh’s Award participants for planning their expedition routes. This blog...
Duke of Edinburgh's Award
For the team at Aspen, winter is a time for planning and doing reccies. A reccy (reconnoitre) is my favoured...
Hiking and Hillwalking
The Meall nan Tarmachan ridge is a fine venue for a winter’s day hill walk. Twice now this season, I’ve...
Hiking and Hillwalking
I’m not long back from a tour to the Western Isles and I’ve been reminded just how stunningly beautiful the...
Bushcraft
Using a knife, axe and saw to shape and cut wood, to make tools like a tent peg, spoon, mallet,...
Bushcraft
Widfires are normally associated with hot, dry climates – places such as Australia, Greece, and California come to mind –...
Art inspired by nature
Last week, on a bright November day, I headed off to Mugdock Country Park, north of Glasgow, to practice making...
Bushcraft
Punk wood can also be used uncharred. I use it a lot to sustain an ember created through friction fire....
Art inspired by nature
Friday was ‘Bushcraft Day’ at St Lucy’s Primary School in Abronhill in Cumbernauld. We spent the day with around 45...
Duke of Edinburgh's Award
It’s been a tough time running an outdoor business. It’s been very hard on freelance instructors; there is a very...
Navigation
There are lots of navigation techniques that help you either navigate to a target or destination, or to relocate (work...
Bushcraft
How and when was fire made for the first time? As to how fire was made, there are two likely...
Navigation
When teaching navigation, some of the biggest errors I see arise from people either walking too far or not far...
Navigation
Navigation strategy is about devising an effective plan to find a target. Walking in a straight line to your target...
Bushcraft
August is the season for collecting thistle seed heads to use as an excellent tinder for firemaking. The flowers die...
Flora and Fauna
It was time for a holiday. I’d worked pretty much every day in May and June and was looking forward...
Flora and Fauna
This blog is about animal tracks and signs in the snow. I have been building up my photographs over time...
Duke of Edinburgh's Award
Right now I’m in Barcelona, resting up and taking time to write a blog about a fantastic week snowshoeing in...
Hiking and Hillwalking
Saturday was looking to be a pretty special day weather-wise with sunshine, cold temperatures, little wind, and complete snow cover....
Winter
So I got a van. I wasn’t gonna. It wasn’t for me. Who’d want to stay in a van when...
Duke of Edinburgh's Award
Looking for inspiration for your expedition grub, bored of dehydrated meals, unsatisfied with pot noodles? This blog presents three simple...
Duke of Edinburgh's Award
This video explains how to pack a Duke of Edinburgh’s Award expedition rucksack. There are items of kit that you’ll...
Hiking and Hillwalking
November and December are quieter times of year for me, time for catching up with friends and some personal hillwalking...
Bushcraft
Definitely one of the highlights of 2018 for me will be Thornlie Primary’s bushcraft week. Me, Kenny Noble and Jean...
Duke of Edinburgh's Award
Becoming a mountain leader has been one of the best and most rewarding learning experiences of my life. I passed...
Hiking and Hillwalking
What does a mountain leader do for a holiday….? Go for a swim trek. It’s the same principle as a...
Duke of Edinburgh's Award
Keeping dry on a Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Expedition is a skill learnt through good advice and experience. Once a...
Art inspired by nature
I was up in Shetland last week, guiding a walking tour and taking inspiration from all the beautiful shells, pebbles,...
Hiking and Hillwalking
This blog has been written by Al McGowan. Al works for Aspen Outdoors Ltd as an outdoor instructor. He’s a...
Hiking and Hillwalking
There are some really cool new headtorches on the market, chief among them are flashlights made by a company called...
Kit and equipment
Having a powerbank handy to charge up electronic stuff whilst in the outdoors has, for me, become an essential bit...
Flora and Fauna
Sgurr na Banachdaich is a 965m mountain on the Cuillin Ridge, the most dramatic, precipitous, technically difficult range of mountains...
Hiking and Hillwalking
The Mullardoch Round is one of the biggest Munro-bagging challenges in Scotland: 55km, just under 5000m ascent and 12 Munros...
Flora and Fauna
Over April and May, more and more plants, trees and shrubs come into flower. Up in the mountains, purple saxifrage...
Bushcraft
Last week I did a 4 day trek from Dunkeld to Blair Atholl, supervising a Duke of Edinburgh’s Award expedition...
Hiking and Hillwalking
Ben Macdui is Scotland’s second-highest mountain (1,309m) and is a big hill day at any time of year, but particularly...
Duke of Edinburgh's Award
With the onset of Spring and the start of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award expedition season, instructors at Aspen Outdoors...
Bushcraft
In March, trees in Scotland start to come back into leaf. Now’s a good time to study tree buds as...
Duke of Edinburgh's Award
After a quick ascent of Ben Macdui with a client, I got back to my car at 2 pm, with...
Duke of Edinburgh's Award
This February, six 17-year-olds from Shrewsbury School became Duke of Edinburgh’s Award pioneers, undertaking the first-ever snowshoe expedition. Normally, expeditions...
Navigation
Confused about navigation jargon? Here’s a glossary that explains terms like attack point, re-entrant, and catching feature. 4 Figure Grid...
Bushcraft
Arriving at Wiston Lodge on Saturday morning, there was a lot of snow, about 40cm of deep, powdery, fluffy snow....
Bushcraft
A fun bushcraft project to try in the winter is to make a grass mat using a weaving loom made...
Kit and equipment
Here’s an overview of my winter kit for hillwalking in Scotland. In working out what works for me, I learnt...
Hiking and Hillwalking
Bothies vary a great deal in terms of coziness. I like to apply the following criteria in determining whether a...
Hiking and Hillwalking
The forecast for Sunday was to be still, cold, and sunny. With snow covering the mountains, there was a prospect...
Bushcraft
A kishie is a traditional Shetland basket made from plant materials. Up in Shetland, there aren’t many willow trees that...
Navigation
Six of us gathered by Glengoyne Distillery on Thursday, 23rd of November, for a Night Nav session run by Alastair...
Hiking and Hillwalking
It’s been another great weekend of winter hillwalking, this time in the Loch Muick, Lochnagar area. Our base was Glas...
Hiking and Hillwalking
This time last week, I was checking the forecast, and to my delight, a cold spell was in prospect. The...
Hiking and Hillwalking
Earlier this summer, my friend Jim – Milanese munro-bagger – messaged me about another Munro-bagging trip. With only 37 munros...
Hiking and Hillwalking
The Isle of Lismore is a 15km long island in the Firth of Lorn. It’s low-lying and fertile with lots...
Bushcraft
Just back from a walk on Kerrera, and whilst exploring the island, I gathered the materials for and made a...
Hiking and Hillwalking
Whilst most were on their way to work last Monday morning, I headed north, with Paul and Isaac, to Blair...
Hiking and Hillwalking
Over the last two weekends, over five days, I have been out with a family to help them prepare for...
Kit and equipment
Here’s a review of my lightweight cookit. It weighs 460 grams and includes: Two pots (Alpkit Mytipot 900 and Alpkit...
Kit and equipment
So here’s what I’d take for a day hill walk in Scotland. In Autumn you can expect wetter weather, stronger...
Hiking and Hillwalking
With summer nearly over, here’s my top ten views from hiking in Scotland, England and France. 1. Ben More from...
Hiking and Hillwalking
This weekend I was in the Lake District, exploring Skiddaw and Blencathra, a fantastic area of mountains to the north...
Bushcraft
Flax Phormium tenax is a plant from New Zealand that is pretty common in gardens and public spaces in Scotland....
Bushcraft
I visited the Shetland museum last week and was keen to find out how local plants have been used to...
Bushcraft
Here are some edible plants I have been munching on up in Orkney and Shetland these past two weeks whilst...
Bushcraft
Thankfully, I had put some charred horse shoe fungus in the tinder nest, which, although the fire had died, was...
Flora and Fauna
It’s been a very busy couple of months. We’ve run lots of Duke of Edinburgh’s Award expeditions, and in Scotland...
Bushcraft
On Friday, I took a wee holiday, 24 hours camping on the Cowal coast – a place called Asgog Bay....
Hiking and Hillwalking
We had some fine April weather on Saturday – sunny, light winds and -1C on the summits – as we...
Bushcraft
So my plan was to do a big 60km hammock camping, campfire cooking, trail running reccy of a gold Duke...
Duke of Edinburgh's Award
On Friday afternoon, after our first Duke of Edinburgh’s Award expedition of this season finished up, I did some furious...
Hiking and Hillwalking
I was reading an article recently about the search for a suitable site for an unmanned mission to Mars in...
Hiking and Hillwalking
Saturday was a busy day on Beinn Dorain. The sun was shining, it was warm and still, and there was...
Duke of Edinburgh's Award
Keeping track of your daily steps and competing with family, friends, and colleagues to reach the highest total is...
Hiking and Hillwalking
For many years now, I have had the idea of walking from Largs to Lochwinnoch over the Clyde Muirshiel hills,...
Hiking and Hillwalking
After two days on the hill with the Tweed Valley Mountain Rescue team, one of the main impressions I’m left...
Hiking and Hillwalking
Our wonderful Scottish 3000ft mountains – our 282 ‘munros’ – are climbed in all sorts of ways: in one continuous...
Hiking and Hillwalking
There’s been very little snow this winter, so this week’s cold temperatures and snowfall have been very welcome. And today,...
Hiking and Hillwalking
Me, my son Magnus, and my friend Jim – the ‘Milanese Munro-bagger’ (more on that in a future blog) –...
Hiking and Hillwalking
At the end of Glen Lyon there’s a mountain called Meall Buidhe (phonetically pronounced ‘Myeal Booya’), which in Gaelic means...
Art inspired by nature
My brother JR Ewen’s paintings are inspired by his travels and affinity to some special places: Zillertal in Austria, where...
Hiking and Hillwalking
Seana Bhraigh is one of the most remote mountains in Scotland, about 20km in every direction to the nearest road....
Hiking and Hillwalking
Just back from a fantastic 4 day trip to the Beinn Dearg hills and Seana Bhraigh, north of Loch Glascarnoch...
Bushcraft
Spent the day exploring Whinny Wood near Balloch. This mixed woodland is on two small hills on the southern shore...
Bushcraft
Youth Vision is a charity based in the Pentlands, at a cottage near Harlaw reservoir. Its committed staff and volunteers...
Bushcraft
There are a lot of considerations in finding a suitable site for teaching bushcraft. You need the permission of the...
Bushcraft
This is a review of the 180 Tack Stove, a natural fuel stove made in Colorado in the US www.180tack.com....
Art inspired by nature
It took me three trips to separate woodlands to find a suitable site for a natural shelter. I needed a...