JOHN MUIR TRUST 16 How the Wild Land Areas can map out a brighter future for Scotland 22 The appeal of wild places to JOURNAL inner-city communities 28 Fun and hard labour with the 62 SPRING 2017 Trust’s conservation volunteers
Lakeland ambition Trust ready to rise to the challenge of Helvellyn
CONTENTS 03
REGULARS
05 Chief executive’s welcome 06 News round-up 30 Wild moments Jamie Grant recalls his encounter with a king penguin colony on the edge of Antarctica
22 32 Books Walking the Song, Hamish Brown; Castles in the Mist, Robin Noble 34 Interview 24 Kevin Lelland catches up with the remarkable Nicky Spinks who battled back from cancer to become a champion fell runner FEATURES
10 Common ground As the Trust moves closer to managing its first property outside Scotland, Rich Rowe turns the spotlight on Glenridding Common 15 Born to be wild Roo Campbell reports on the battle to save our last native cat species 16 Northern vision Mel Nicoll looks at the threats and the opportunities that face Wild Land Areas in Scotland’s far north 18 Remembering two outdoor giants Toby Clark explains how the Trust is helping keep alive the memory of two inspirational men 20 Moving on Outgoing chief executive Stuart Brooks reflects on his time in charge of the Trust 22 The mountains are calling 15 Lucy Sparks and Coralie Hopwood find welcome signs of growing diversity within the 32 outdoors community PHOTOGRAPHY: PETER CAIRNS, SCOTTISH WILDCAT ACTION 24 Invisible barriers COVER: MORNING SUN OVER STRIDING EDGE, CLEARVIEW/ALAMY Alec Finlay confronts the difficulties faced by people with physical disabilities who want to JOURNAL 62, SPRING 2017 get close to wild mountain landscapes 26 On the right lines Editor: Recent decisions on transmission offer some Alan McCombes [email protected] cause for optimism says Helen McDade
Design and production: 28 Earth, frost and fire Neil Braidwood On the road with Trust volunteers from Nevis Connect Communications connectcommunications.co.uk to Knoydart, from the Lakes to the Cairngorms
HEAD OFFICE
John Muir Trust t. 01796 470 080 This journal is printed on Cocoon 100 If you would rather receive uncoated stock, a recycled grade publications from the John Muir Tower House w. johnmuirtrust.org paper containing 100% post-consumer Trust electronically, please email Station Road waste and manufactured at a mill [email protected] accredited with ISO 14001 Pitlochry Follow us on: environmental management standard. The John Muir Trust is a The pulp used in this product is Scottish charitable company limited Perthshire PH16 5AN @JohnMuirTrust bleached using an Elemental Chlorine by guarantee. Registered office: Free (ECF) process. We use a Scottish Tower House, Station Road, Pitlochry printer, J Thomson Colour, which has PH16 5AN excellent environmental credentials, achieving environmental standard Charity No. SC002061 ISO4001 plus FSC and PEFC standards Company No. SCO81620 Sign up for our monthly enewsletter at all in 2006. johnmuirtrust.org/newsletter
Keep up-to-date with events and local activities at johnmuirtrust.org SCOTWAYS Asserting and defending public access since 1845
AGM & Members’ Gathering Fort William 26 & 27 May 2017
AGM & Members’ Gathering
FORT WILLIAM ScotWays signs are a familiar and welcome 26 & 27 May 2017 sight in Scotland’s countryside. But they’re just one part of our work for public access –
• Providing authoritative advice on rights and legislation • Managing the National Catalogue of Rights of Way Hear from staff and trustees in a celebration • Promoting Heritage Paths of Ben Nevis and the surrounding landscape • Publishing maps and guides, like Scottish Hill Tracks at this year's AGM & Members' Gathering. • Resisting developments that impact on public access Book today. and amenity Join us today in our work to safeguard and promote access – your support strengthens our hand. Find out more www.scotways.com • www.heritagepaths.co.uk johnmuirtrust.org/AGM2017 24 Annandale Street, Edinburgh, EH7 4AN [email protected] • 0131 558 1222 WELCOME 05
‘A pleasure and a privilege’
WELCOME to the spring edition of the John Muir The principles of good land management are Trust Journal, both to our regular readers and also to universal – and of fundamental importance is the anyone who may be picking up this magazine for the need to have an effective planning process which first time. involves everyone with an interest in the property. Our regular readers are mostly members – and By the time you read this, the formal consultation that’s certainly the best way to receive this process will have been concluded. I’m pleased to publication. If you’re not a member, then please report that all the signs so far point to a willingness on consider joining; this is a great time to the part of all interested parties to work with the Trust support the Trust’s work to protect and to secure effective stewardship of the land for the next enhance wild places. three years – and hopefully beyond. Many of you may already be aware that In this issue of the Journal we also share some I’m about to take a new post with the exciting news about a new woodland expansion National Trust for Scotland, so this will be project centred on Schiehallion due to launch in the my final foreword. Inside this issue, I share summer, report on ground-breaking work to get more some of my personal reflections on the last people from our mainly urban-based ethnic eight years as the Trust’s chief executive. communities out into wild places, consider the future Farewells are always tinged with a little bit prospects for Scotland’s Wild Land Areas and check-in of sadness, but at the same time, I’m with some of you who have been volunteering on our gratified to know that I leave the Trust in conservation work parties. good heart, and with a clear sense of purpose and We all have a vital role to play in speaking up for direction. Leading this organisation has been a great nature and for our beautiful landscapes. If you’d like pleasure and a privilege. to support any of the projects or initiatives we cover in Early in the New Year we announced our plans to this issue, then please check out our website or get in take on the lease of Glenridding Common in the Lake touch via the Trust office in Pitlochry. District. As the main feature by Richard Rowe Finally, I’d like to wish my successor, Andrew eloquently reminds us, this is a spectacular wild place, Bachell (see page 7) all the very best for the future, which includes the summit of Helvellyn and the and to thank staff, trustees and Trust members for all famous Striding Edge ridge. the support you’ve given me over these past eight The Trust has had a long history of involvement in years. I leave with many happy memories! this National Park through our John Muir Award partnerships, so it feels like a natural step for us to Stuart Brooks become involved in land management there. Outgoing Trust chief executive
Thirlmere from the west side of Helvellyn PHOTOGRAPH: STUART BROOKS BROOKS STUART PHOTOGRAPH: 06 NEWS JOHN MUIR TRUST JOURNAL SPRING 2017
Campaign news Knoydart stalwart moves Scottish Wild Land Areas Along with detailed descriptions of on to pastures new Scotland’s 42 Wild Land Areas (see ALONG with departing chief executive Stuart p16-17, Scottish Natural Heritage has Brooks, Lester Standen, our Li and Coire Dhorrcail also published a draft document land manager was given a warm send-off by staff ‘Assessing impacts on Wild Land and trustees at a special ceremony in the Wild Areas – technical guidance’ to Space at the end of February. provide greater clarity for planners His involvement with the Trust, as volunteer and and prospective developers. a member of staff, stretches back 25 years, to the The Trust has contributed to a day he read a magazine about the work we were public consultation on the draft doing on Knoydart. For the next six years, he took guidance document. part in numerous work parties on Knoydart and Skye, then worked as contractor for the Trust Stronelairg before becoming a staff member in 2007. As we go to press, we are awaiting the Lester’s tireless woodland regeneration work on outcome of discussions relating to the wild and remote north coast of Knoydart was the costs associated with our formally recognised in 2015 when Li and Coire Stronelairg judicial review. We would Dhorrcail won the New Native Woods category at like once again to thank all those who the Scotland Finest Woods Awards. supported us with this action. Having responsibility for the Trust’s Knoydart estate has given Lester the most satisfaction over Hill tracks the years – but as he says, there’s still LOTS of work Poorly constructed to be done there. hill tracks can cause Ally MacAskill, our Skye land manager, will now landscape and take over responsibility for the Knoydart property. ecological damage. We have seen some PHOTOGRAPH: NICKY MCCLURE NICKY PHOTOGRAPH: progress through the introduction of a system of prior notification, Sligachan but it’s important to keep an eye out pathwork for new proposals, and to look out for new tracks which have not gone complete through any planning process. More THE Trust has just completed information can be found on the the second phase of the Skye campaigns page of our website. footpath repair project on the Sligachan to Loch Coruisk Public Local Inquiries path at Druim Hain. The Trust is preparing to participate In contrast to the fierce in two key Public Local Inquiries weather during phase one, in (PLIs) – over the Culachy wind farm the winter of 2015-16, near Wild Land Area 19 close to Loch specialist contractors Arran Ness (25-28 April), and the Caplich Footpath Partnership have wind farm in Wild Land Area 34 in benefited from unusually mild north-west Sutherland (19-30 June). and dry conditions this winter A further PLI has been triggered to construct 415m of footpaths. after Highland Council objected to a The work included involved repeat application from Infinergy for 970m2 of landscaping, which a 24-turbine wind farm on the edge involved transplanting turf to of the world-renowned Flow Country block braids and help in Caithness. encourage revegetation of a highly visible erosion scar 6m wide in places. Contractor Donald Richard Fraser-Darling MacKenzie said: “The path line is now less intrusive, and It is with great sadness that we report the new footpath will help the death of Richard Fraser-Darling, keep walkers on the same line, a John Muir Trust trustee from 2009 allowing the vegetation to until 2015, and our neighbour at recover.” Strathaird on Skye. His funeral in Since 2014, the Trust has Inverness was attended by the chief spent £210,000 on path repair executive and the chair, and by work on Skye, including at Bla current and former trustees. Our Bheinn, Beinn Dearg and two thoughts are with his wife Nina. phases of work at Druim Hain.
johnmuirtrust.org/wildways GOODMAN CHRIS PHOTOGRAPH: 07 PHOTOGRAPH: COURTESY OF ANDREW BACHELL ANDREW OF COURTESY PHOTOGRAPH: Trust welcomes new chief executive THE Trust is delighted to announce the appointment of one of Scotland’s most senior and respected nature conservationists as its new Chief Executive. Andrew Bachell, who for 15 Breathtakingly wild images… years has been part of the ONCE again, staff and trustees have selected captured in the perfectly still loch.” senior management team at their 10 favourites for the John Muir Trust Wild The competition, now in its third year, was Scottish Natural Heritage, will Places Prize 2017 – in the Scottish Landscape created by Fife-based landscape photographer take over the post from Stuart Photographer of the Year competition. Stuart Low, who said: “Once again, Brooks (see page 20-21). Our congratulations to all 10 winners – photographers from all over the world have While at SNH, Andrew was including Skye-based Nick Hanson, who also taken to the mountains, the islands, the coasts responsible for landscape and won the overall accolade of Scottish Landscape and the streets to capture stunning and diverse wild land, and advised the Photographer of the Year for his portfolio, which views of our spectacular country. Scottish Government on included Glamaig Reflection, taken on Trust Congratulations to them all!” access, ecosystems and property on the Isle of Skye (above). The 10 Wild Places prize winning images will biodiversity, rural resources, Nick described how he captured his winning be displayed later this year in the Alan Reece planning and renewables. image: “As the sun started to rise behind Gallery in the Wild Space visitor centre. He has 35 years of Glamaig and the red Cuillin, it created lovely Meanwhile, you can see our top 10 shots experience working on soft colours in the sky above, which were also online in the ‘Latest’ section of our website. environmental and conservation issues having previously worked for the National Trust for Scotland as 550 entries to Lochaber schools Wild Poetry competition its Director of Countryside and at the Woodland Trust as WITH a record number of 550 its Director in Scotland. entries submitted from Lochaber He said: “Across the years primary schools, the John Muir I’ve witnessed an organisation Trust Wild Poetry Competition that is bold and relevant. It’s continues to go from strength to exciting to now join and lead strength. its work to advance the case Due to the high calibre of the for why wild places matter for poems, the judges from the John people and nature. The link Muir Trust, the Highland Council between nature and our own Ranger Service and the Highlife well-being has never been Highland Glen Nevis Visitor more important or more Centre had a mountain to climb under pressure.” when selecting the winner. Around Trust chair Peter Pearson 20 per cent of all entries received said: “Andrew’s wealth of either a Highly Commended or experience coupled with his Commended certificate. in-depth expertise in nature The category winners were: and landscape conservation • Calum McIntyre, Strontian (English, P4-7) The competition is part of the annual Fort makes him the ideal person to • Alexander McDonell, Mallaig (Gaelic, P5-7) William Mountain Festival, and the prizes lead the Trust into a new • Fiona Austin, Spean Bridge (English, P1-3) were sponsored jointly by the John Muir Trust phase of its history.” • Maggie Griffin, Mallaig (Gaelic, P2-4) and Iomairt Lochabair. Andrew will attend the AGM in May before taking up his new role on 15 June 2017. 08 NEWS FEATURE JOHN MUIR TRUST JOURNAL SPRING 2017 A job doesn’t have to
Breathing TAY FOREST be based in an office! PARK new life Loch Tummel
Kynachan Campuses in locations across Scotland: into the Estate Aberdeen, Ayr, Barony, Edinburgh, Elmwood and Oatridge Foss and Kynachan (Forest Enterprise) Heart of Study at SRUC: East Schiehallion (John Muir Trust) Postgraduate Distance Learning Scotland Dun Coillich • (HPCLT) Undergraduate Degree The Trust has linked up with • five partners to transform 50km • HND/HNC between Loch Rannoch, National Certificate (NC) Loch Tummel and Loch Tay • Work-Based Learning (SVQ/MA) THE HEART of Scotland Forest Keltneyburn • Partnership is a collaboration between Reserve Access Courses the Trust and five other organisations. The (SWT) • partnership will involve five neighbouring Aberfeldy Vocational Study and Training Courses landowners – the John Muir Trust, Forest • Enterprise Scotland, Highland Perthshire Full-time, Part-time and Distance Learning Communities Land Trust, Kynachan asset for the local community and a bring locals and visitors closer to the land. • Estate and the Scottish Wildlife Trust – precious legacy for our children and Willie McGhee, Forest Manager of plus Woodland Trust Scotland. It will grandchildren.” Highland Perthshire Communities Land begin working this summer on an Each partner will take forward different Trust, said: “From the start we believe this A job doesn’t have to be based in an office! ambitious new plan to connect elements of the initiative. The Trust will project will benefit the local community woodlands across Highland Perthshire. replace non-native conifers with Scots by bringing new funding into the area and Study at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) and become an expert in your field! Dr Liz Auty, the Trust’s property pine and broadleaved woodland. creating training and employment. manager at East Schiehallion, and a key Seedling regeneration will be supported “We want to encourage people to get player in the formation of the partnership, by sensitively sited fencing, allowing involved, deepen their understanding of commented: “We have a long term vision aspen, birch and rowan – currently held in nature and learn new skills.” Contact us: www.sruc.ac.uk/ask of this vast upland area as a living check by browsing – to reach their The partnership is set to be launched www.facebook.com/sruc.ac.uk SRUCStudents breathing landscape with native trees, potential. Regenerating willow scrub will this summer, when we are likely to be w Find on woodland corridors, flourishing wildlife provide additional habitat for black launching a fund-raising appeal. and picturesque footpaths. grouse, willow warblers, whinchats and “This project, we believe, can start to other associated species. Contact turn this landscape into a marvellous A further aim of the partnership is to [email protected]
Working together to create a vibrant landscape in the shadow of Schiehallion
The Heart of Scotland Forest project allows us to work with our The Scottish Wildlife Trust is pleased to be part of this neighbours to produce an integrated forest landscape across landscape-scale regeneration initiative, working with multiple ownership boundaries. This will bring benefits by increasing partners. Such large projects, which bring about much needed native tree species, environmental diversity and an interesting woodland expansion and help connect existing habitats, is collaboration between a range of partners. vital for Scotland’s wildlife. Peter Fullarton, Tayside Forest Enterprise Scotland Robert Potter, Scottish Wildlife Trust For more information visit: www.sruc.ac.uk/study We’re proud to be part of this exciting partnership to extend Kynachan Estate has worked closely with the John Muir Trust native woodland cover in a much-loved scenic landscape. Our since 2011 to deliver effective deer management. Mutual or call us on 0800 269 453. SRUC runs Open Days aim is to benefit the public, wildlife and the economy. respect and cooperation have been at the heart of this Hopefully this work can inspire and encourage similar partnership, which will continue to deliver great benefits in at each of its campuses regularly – find out large-scale partnerships elsewhere. We can achieve more this important and sensitive part of the Scottish Highlands for working together than we can separately. many years to come. Carole Evans, Woodland Trust Scotland Jez Robinson, Kynachan Estate more at www.sruc.ac.uk/opendays
SRUC is a charity registered in Scotland: SC003712 A job doesn’t have to be based in an office! Campuses in locations across Scotland: Aberdeen, Ayr, Barony, Edinburgh, Elmwood and Oatridge
Study at SRUC: • Postgraduate Distance Learning • Undergraduate Degree • HND/HNC • National Certificate (NC) • Work-Based Learning (SVQ/MA) • Access Courses • Vocational Study and Training Courses • Full-time, Part-time and Distance Learning A job doesn’t have to be based in an office! Study at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) and become an expert in your field!
Contact us: www.sruc.ac.uk/ask w www.facebook.com/sruc.ac.uk Find SRUCStudents on
For more information visit: www.sruc.ac.uk/study or call us on 0800 269 453. SRUC runs Open Days at each of its campuses regularly – find out more at www.sruc.ac.uk/opendays
SRUC is a charity registered in Scotland: SC003712 10 LAND JOHN MUIR TRUST JOURNAL SPRING 2017
Common ground The Lake District National Park Authority is consulting on a proposal for the Trust to take over the management of Glenridding Common – a very special area of land that includes one of the best-loved mountains in England, writes Rich Rowe
IN MOST mountain areas, the main attraction is the highest nestled beneath imposing crags. This rugged sweep of land is peak, but not so in the Lake District National Park. While Scafell Glenridding Common, a 1,000ha area that stretches all the way Pike is higher, it is Helvellyn – at 950m, the third highest peak in from the village of Glenridding on the shores of Ullswater, up and England – that is perhaps the most celebrated of all Lakeland fells. across the famed Striding and Swirral Edges, then onto Helvellyn’s As Alfred Wainwright, the great doyen of Lakeland fell walking, broad summit. wrote in 1955: “Legend and poetry, a lovely name, and a lofty Thousands of walkers and climbers test themselves on the altitude combine to encompass Helvellyn in an aura of romance”. mountain’s precipitous edges each year, but the common also has The high point on a lengthy ridge line, Helvellyn stands proud its quieter sides: the much less-visited Keppel and Brown Coves, between Thirlmere to the west and Ullswater to the east. There are plus an area on the flanks of Raise that is home to a ski-tow run by many ways to its summit; walkers who tackle the short, sharp the Lake District Ski Club. routes from Thirlspot or Wythburn on the west side are keenly This feature serves as a modern nod to a landscape that has aware of the relentlessly steep slopes – a gradient that contributed been shaped as much by humans as by the elements. One of to the terrible landslips that closed the main road between many areas of registered common land in Cumbria – a Grasmere and Keswick during the floods of December 2015. particularly English land use based on a system of collective But it is only once the summit plateau is reached that the management – Glenridding Common has served as an integral mountain reveals a very different character: a plunging cliff-line, resource for generations of hill farmers. Today, it is grazed by two steep arêtes that connect a chain of lesser peaks, and a glacial tarn local farmers with commons rights.
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The result is a rich physical and cultural Bird life is also rich, Once the consultation finishes on 17 April, landscape that the John Muir Trust hopes it the LDNPA will evaluate the results and take might soon have the privilege of being involved with snow bunting them to its 20 members, all appointed by in managing. found on the high tops various public bodies. With the next full The Lake District National Park Authority in winter, while upland Authority meeting scheduled for May, a final (LDNPA) currently owns around 9,000ha, or decision is expected in early summer. four per cent, of the land in the National Park, species such as raven, If the proposal is given the go-ahead, the the bulk of it comprising six areas of common wheatear and ring Trust will be directly involved in managing land, including Glenridding Common. ouzel all breed here in land outside Scotland for the first time. “We’ve In 2015, with funding squeezed, the LDNPA had a long-held ambition to be involved with a shared plans to review its property holdings the summer property south of the border,” says Peter with potentially interested parties as it looked to Pearson, Chair of the Trust. “Around 17 per explore other ways of enhancing the special cent of our members live in the north of qualities of the land. “As a public authority we have a duty to find England and we’re often asked when we will manage property the best way of doing things, so it was sensible to explore this kind outside Scotland.” of option,” explains Martin Curry, Property Services Manager at This is especially important at a time of political uncertainty, the National Park Authority. adds Peter. “The Trust is neutral on the debate over the future of the UK, but we want to ensure that whatever political changes EXPLORING OPTIONS might lie ahead, the Trust will continue to remain relevant to its The Trust made its interest known, with discussions eventually members across Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland.” focusing on Glenridding Common – one of the jewels in the It’s hard to overstate just what being involved with Glenridding National Park’s crown. Under a proposed three-year lease of the Common could do for the Trust’s profile, particularly in England. area, the National Park would remain as the main landowner As one of the most popular and well-known mountains in a (part of the site is jointly owned with the National Trust), and the national park that sees more than 17 million visitors a year, John Muir Trust would become a leaseholder. The existing rights managing the summit of Helvellyn and wider common would put of farmers to graze would continue unaffected, as would the Lake the Trust in the public eye like never before. District Ski Club’s license for its parcel of land. “Taking over the management of land which includes Helvellyn The Park Authority began a three-month consultation period would be an ideal way for us to broaden our land management on 17 January, during which the Trust has held numerous operations and increase our support base while remaining true to meetings with local stakeholders and shared its draft our historical focus on wild land,” says Peter. “Helvellyn has a
PHOTOGRAPHS: PETER CAIRNS; PETE BARRON; OUTWARD BOUND; MARK HAMBLIN MARK BOUND; OUTWARD BARRON; PETE CAIRNS; PETER PHOTOGRAPHS: management plan for the common with interested parties. special character and status – people feel close to it.” 13
Previous page: Striding Edge ridge and Red Tarn. Opposite page: Helvellyn wildlife, including aspen, purple saxifrage and ring ouzel. Clockwise from centre: Flora of the Fells conservation day; Helvellyn helilift; completed stone pitching; Outward Bound students
One man who knows Glenridding Common particularly well is And arctic-alpine rarities are not the only natural assets of a Pete Barron, the newest member of the Trust’s land team. Having common that sits within the Lake District High Fells Special Area worked for the National Park as a ranger for 23 years on everything of Conservation. The area also holds significant stands of juniper from upland management and path maintenance to raptor scrub woodland, plus a variety of montane and upland heath, protection, supervising volunteers and community engagement, grassland and flush communities. Some of that plant life now Pete’s local knowledge is a massive asset to the Trust. benefits from a Higher Level Stewardship Scheme, introduced by “It feels almost like I know every stone on the west side of Natural England in 2013 for a period of 10 years, which Helvellyn following years of footpath repair work there, but the determines grazing levels at specific times of the year. east side is also a special place for me,” explains Pete. “In my early Elsewhere, the frigid waters of Red Tarn hold a population of days as a ranger, we helped cover the work of Fell Top Assessors schelly, one of England’s rarest species of fish, plus England’s highest during their days off, so I got to know the mountain exceptionally population of stickleback. Bird life is also rich, with snow bunting well in all conditions.” found on the high tops in winter, while upland species such as raven, Interestingly, Helvellyn is a mountain that attracts more winter wheatear and ring ouzel all breed here in the summer. weather than any other part of the Lake District. “Helvellyn has more of an easterly influence, so the eastern fells see a lot of SEEKING ASSURANCES winter climbers,” explains Pete. The Trust has a significant presence in Cumbria through the John Muir Award, which the National Park Authority itself has CHALLENGES embraced as a core part of its educational remit (see sidebar, At But an influx of winter climbers can bring its own challenges, home in the Lakes). “We already have a strong working particularly when the crags are not ‘in condition’ – i.e. not fully relationship and see the Trust as a responsible partner and a body frozen. In his previous role at the National Park, Pete worked that could really help re-energise our work at Glenridding closely with the British Mountaineering Council and Natural Common,” comments the National Park’s Martin Curry. “Ideally, England on a project that encouraged climbing only in peak we envisage a long-term relationship with the Trust.” conditions – and for very good reason. Even so, the prospect of change and a different organisation “The exposed faces in these high-altitude corries serve as a taking over has met with hesitation in some quarters – much of refuge for a range of arctic-alpine plants, many of which are real which stems from the integral role that common land plays in the rarities in an English context,” explains Pete. “Unfortunately, these area. Cumbria has the largest concentration of common land in plants are all too easily damaged by winter climbing tools when Western Europe, with much of it situated in the National Park. The they’re used on unfrozen turf. If the Trust gets the go-ahead to resulting landscape of special cultural significance has been lease Glenridding Common, we’d look to progress this identified as one of the key qualities supporting the Lake District’s educational work.” current bid to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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“The local farming community has shaped the look of the Lake Winter climbers District through a land use that is epitomised by the area,” says tackle the Martin Curry. “As such, there is considerable support for the Helvellyn headwall common land system to be maintained.” Such concerns were raised at a public meeting in Glenridding in February 2017 when the Trust gave attendees assurances that its potential lease would not affect the rights of commoners to graze sheep at levels they have negotiated with Natural England, nor impact on the current trail hunting arrangements with the National Park and National Trust landowners. “We also asked whether the Trust would be keen to work with local groups in preserving the industrial heritage of the site and again were assured this would be the case,” explains Rob Shepherd, Chair of Glenridding Parish Council. “We have every confidence that the Trust will do an excellent job of managing the common in a way that preserves the unique nature of the environment and ensures its continued benefit for visitors and the local community.” While local stakeholders are keen to see plans fleshed out in more detail, the Trust’s draft management plan already makes a variety of firm commitments. These include working closely with
graziers, neighbours and the communities of Glenridding and BARRON PETE PHOTOGRAPH: Patterdale to develop future plans; addressing issues such as footpath erosion, sheep worrying, litter and illegal parking; using the property as a basis for At home in the Lakes “Helvellyn has more of volunteering activity and conservation work parties; and an easterly influence, Although it does not yet manage property south of the gradually working towards a border, the Trust already has a strong, long-term presence so the eastern fells see richer, more diverse landscape in England through the John Muir Award – and no more so a lot of winter where people and nature thrive than in the Lake District where the National Park Authority alongside each other. uses the Award as a core part of its educational remit. climbers” “It’s understandable that “The Award has operated in Cumbria since 2003, so Pete Barron there is concern locally and there’s a large section of people who have been introduced that’s why we welcome the to the Trust and what it stands for,” explains Graham consultation process as an Watson, John Muir Award Manager, Cumbria. opportunity to offer reassurances about our plans,” says the Trust’s As elsewhere in the country, the Award is well-used by a Peter Pearson. “Our land management elsewhere aims to protect whole host of schools, outdoor centres and outdoor and enhance the ecology, culture and landscape – and that will be learners, with upwards of 3,000 Awards a year through the same for Glenridding Common.” National Park partner participation – and more than 1,000 Another positive that the Trust brings to the table as a by the Outward Bound Trust. membership organisation with charitable status is a potential to “One of the farmers neighbouring Glenridding Common access new and additional funding streams to manage and staff has Award groups come to him through Outward Bound, so the property that are simply not available to the National Park. that’s a healthy connection,” adds Graham. “We have a strong track record of accessing funding from a For the last three years, Graham has worked out of the variety of sources for these purposes,” stresses Peter. National Park office at Keswick, which has helped create a Any future investment would certainly be of use when working close awareness of how the Trust operates. “I strongly with local communities on projects such as flood resilience – a key believe the Award is one of the reasons why we have got issue locally following the recent devastating floods in Glenridding. this far in the process,” says Trust Chair Peter Pearson. “The “We are confident that we will work effectively with the Trust on National Park recognises we have a track record of our Community Flood Resilience Project,” comments Rob managing other properties well, and with a real community Shepherd. “We are also sure that the Trust will be supportive of focus.” other community initiatives to help both preserve and enhance our wonderful landscape while ensuring it’s not just a ‘museum’, but a place where real people live and work. “We firmly believe that the values of the Trust match those of our community and that, as long as there is effective mutual consultation and cooperation, the management of Glenridding Common by the Trust can become a model of effective land stewardship in England.” Such positive words suggest that the Trust is on the right track as it contributes to a process that allows all interested parties to learn more about the future plans for one of Lakeland’s most celebrated areas. “Managing Glenridding is a great opportunity,” says Peter Pearson. “We’re not there yet, but hopefully we will be soon.”
About the author Rich Rowe is a freelance outdoors writer and a former editor of the Journal WILDLIFE 15
Born to be wild As Britain’s last native feline species stares extinction in the face, Dr Roo Campbell of Scottish Wildcat Action reports on the progess of a five-year project to save the ‘Highland Tiger’ PHOTOGRAPH: PETER CAIRNS, SCOTTISH WILDCAT ACTION WILDCAT SCOTTISH CAIRNS, PETER PHOTOGRAPH:
IN 2015, Scottish Wildcat Action, a and hybrids are living wild. Glens, Strathavon, Strathbogie, partnership project involving over 20 The Scottish wildcat is our only Strathpeffer and Morvern. organisations in the conservation, land remaining native cat and contributes to Now the focus is on taking action to save management and scientific communities the diversity and health of our ecosystem. what’s left in the wild, while building up a (including the John Muir Trust) gathered They have also played a role in Scotland’s robust population in captivity suitable for together with one purpose: to save the cultural heritage, with, for example, some later release through a conservation endangered Scottish wildcat from further clan crests featuring the species. A breeding programme led by the Royal decline. European Protected Species, they are now Zoological Society of Scotland. The project, which will carry on until near the brink of extinction, with an In wildcat priority areas, staff and 2020, has three key aims. First, to reduce estimated 100 to 300 left in the wild. volunteers are focusing on neutering and threats to the wildcat from hybridisation The presence of this elusive creature can vaccinating as many feral cats as possible, through neutering feral and hybrid cats, go unnoticed. Tracks, signs and dens are a while raising awareness of the plight of the and fostering a culture of responsible cat poor identification method. They are Scottish wildcat with local gamekeepers, ownership; second, to lessen the risk of primarily an ‘edge’ species – living on the cat owners and schools. To help protect persecution; and third, to margins of open ground wildcats near them, the project also asks gain a better but dependent on cover cat owners to neuter their pet cats from the understanding of wildcat “A European such as woodland, scrub age of four months, vaccinate them distribution, numbers and Protected Species, or even piles of boulders. annually and tag them with a microchip. genetic makeup. they are now near They often hunt in open After extensive survey habitats such as grassland, How you can help work using 347 trail the brink of but are also drawn to • Report sightings of any cats that are living wild (domestic, hybrid or cameras, Scottish Wildcat extinction, with an recent clear-fell, which wildcat) Action have found at least estimated 100 to 300 attracts grassland prey • Make sure your pet or farm cats 19 wildcats in the Scottish such as field voles. Where are micro-chipped, neutered and Highlands based on coat left in the wild” available they prefer vaccinated markings – also known as rabbits, which they • Adopt a wildcat or make a donation pelage scoring – which is generally turn inside out • Follow the project’s Facebook or used to identify specific wildcat type traits. – one of the few reliable signs of their Twitter account With the help of 150 fantastic volunteers, possible presence. They can also predate the huge task of sorting approximately on other small rodents and birds. Contact scottishwildcataction.org 200,000 images from the trail cameras used Scottish wildcats have hung on in Follow them on Facebook and last winter and spring is now complete. pockets across Scotland to the north of the Twitter @SaveOurWildcats Survey work will continue but this vast Highland Boundary Fault. Pre-project bank of data is helping staff on the ground surveys defined six wildcat priority areas About the author to target their conservation efforts. As well where there is the greatest probability of Dr Roo Campbell is the project manager for the priority as capturing wildcats, the trail cameras being able to save the wildcat population areas programme of Scottish also revealed locations where feral cats that remains – Strathspey, the Angus Wildcat Action 16 CAMPAIGNING JOHN MUIR TRUST JOURNAL SPRING 2017
Northern vision As Scottish Natural Heritage publishes vivid descriptions of Scotland’s 42 Wild Land Areas, Mel Nicoll warns that the battle to protect them from large scale development is not yet over PHOTOGRAPH: LORNE GILL 2020VISION GILL LORNE PHOTOGRAPH:
TRAVEL TO INVERNESS, go north, further – and keep Yet this area of picture-postcard beauty is also a magnet for going. When you reach Scotland’s far north coast at Thurso you energy companies seeking to develop large-scale wind farms. are 675 miles north of London, and on roughly the same latitude Recently, the Scottish Government gave the go-ahead for a major as Oslo, St Petersburg and Juneau in Alaska. To picture it better, development at Creag Riabhach, near Altnaharra, which will draw a line roughly from Loch Broom, near Ullapool, to the consist of 22-turbines up to 125m tall, including five within Wild Dornoch Firth on the eastern coast. Land Area 37. Other major wind farms at various stages in the This is a land of dazzling contrasts. Towering, distinctive planning system include Caplich, Strathy South and Limekiln. mountains gaze over rolling peatlands, picuresque glens and This June, the SNH Wild Land Areas map will be three years’ ragged coastlines. The roll-call of hills in this spectacular region old. It has played a vital role in raising awareness of wild land and includes Ben Klibreck, Ben More Assynt, Ben Hope, Ben Loyal, helping guide planning applications. In the first two years after its Ben Hee, Foinaven, Arkle, Morven and Scaraben, whose evocative publication, seven wind farms were refused consent for reasons and poetic names are familiar to hillwalkers and other lovers of which included adverse impacts on wild land. wild places. The Creag Riabhach wind farm decision however, was a Less obviously – but fulfilling a vital ecological function as setback, flatly contradicting the advice of SNH, whose analysis carbon stores and home for rare wildlife – are the vast peatlands had set out in no uncertain terms the significant impact this of the Flow Country, whose 200,000 hectares spread across the far would have on wild land. north east corner of the Scottish mainland have been nominated More positively, in January 2017 SNH published its for potential inclusion as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as the Descriptions of Wild Land Areas – a document that provides largest area of blanket bog in the world. detailed information about each of the 42 Wild Land Areas, Here, you are in wild land – officially. The northern counties of painting a picture of their distinctive landscapes, ecology, Caithness, Sutherland and Ross-shire include no fewer than 10 of geology, archaeology and current human activity. Scotland’s 42 Wild Land Areas, mapped in 2014 by the Scottish Crucially, the descriptions set out the extent to which these Government’s nature and landscape adviser, Scottish Natural landscapes are currently impacted by development. We believe Heritage (SNH). that this document should be integral to the assessments 17
The Flows National “Arresting, isolated mountains rise up in stark Nature Reserve contrast to surrounding peatland and glens, amplifying the awe-inspiring qualities of each” From SNH Description for Wild Land Area 35: Ben Klibreck-Armine Forest
landscapes that attract visitors from all over world there will be long term consequences. We would also encourage local communities, councils and the Scottish Government to explore the potential economic benefits of repairing and restoring damaged ecosystems in our uplands and peatlands. For example, an economic impact study carried out for the Peatlands Partnership ‘Flows to the Future’ project, which is working to restore areas of blanket bog damaged by commercial forestry planting, outlines the potential of this work for employment and tourism; this includes 26 full time equivalent (FTE) jobs until 2019, then 11 FTEs in future years. The phenomenal success of the North Coast 500 circular route – a project launched just two years ago in an effort to achieve sustainable economic growth in the north of Scotland – provides a further glimpse of the potential for a new future for the north. It has already achieved impressive results, with reports of increased visitor numbers driving the expansion of local businesses. Vital to its success is what VisitScotland has described as “the unspoilt, dramatic scenery in the far north of Scotland”. In consenting the Creag Riabhach wind farm, Ministers did recognise the impact the development would have on wild land. By their own admission, they wrestled with the challenge of balancing the benefits and impacts of the development as a whole, in the context of “different and competing policies”. These rightly include the transition to a low carbon economy by encouraging renewable energy, and realising socio-economic benefits for local communities. But while the extent to which visitors will be put off by wind farms remains a point of contention, there is a growing sense that any short-term financial benefits from industrialising wild landscapes will be come at a heavy cost to the ecology, landscape and local economies within these areas. “All the wild world is beautiful, and it matters Wildlife tourism, for example, is now making a significant and but little where we go, to highlands or lowlands, growing contribution to Scotland’s economy, especially in the Highlands and Islands. Its magnificent natural environment now woods or plains, on the sea or land or down features regularly on prime-time TV, from the Spring, Winter and among the crystals of waves or high in a balloon Autumnwatch programmes presented by Chris Packham and in the sky” Michaela Strachan to the recent BBC documentary series, Highlands: Scotland’s Wild Heart, narrated by Ewan MacGregor. John Muir A year ago, I wrote in this Journal of our hope that decisions would continue to be made in favour of wild land, so we can then turn our focus to the challenge of enhancing and regenerating developers have to make when they submit their applications, nature in these areas. But, as the Creag Riabhach decision and to the ultimate planning decisions of local authorities and the illustrates, the battle to protect Scotland’s Wild Land Areas is not Scottish Government. yet over – and with several other major applications still in the The descriptions, however, are also a powerful reminder of this pipeline, we need your continuing support. amazing asset, and hopefully will be used by VisitScotland and other agencies to encourage more people to explore these Find out more remarkable wild places, with knock-on economic benefits for Please sign up to our newsletter for news of our latest actions by going local communities in the Highlands. to johnmuirtrust.org/newsletter It’s understandable that in these beautiful but economically fragile areas, the community benefit funds offered by wind farm About the author developers can exert a strong pull, as can the prospect of a Mel Nicoll is the Trust’s campaign coordinator and a mountaineer with short-term boom for hoteliers, publicans and shopkeepers during extensive knowledge of Scotland’s the construction phase. uplands. She can be contacted at But if we allow the industrialisation of these dramatic, wild [email protected] 18 ADVENTURE GRANT JOHN MUIR TRUST JOURNAL SPRING 2017
Remembering two outdoors giants
The Des Rubens and Bill Wallace Grant is an adventure fund managed by the Trust for people seeking out life-changing experiences in wild places. Toby Clark reflects on where it has come from and where it is going
IT STARTED WITH a sad ending. In February 2006, Bill Mountaineering Trust, the John Muir Trust, the Tiso family and Wallace – 73 years of age and with two artificial hips – had just many of Bill’s climbing friends. completed one last sweeping, elegant turn on the snow after a The John Muir Trust manages the annual grant, which helps week’s ski-mountaineering in the Swiss Alps. He then died people from all walks of life take part in life-changing adventures instantly of heart failure, his companions by his side. Bill’s in wild places that are of educational or scientific value. The sums obituary in the Scotsman reflected that this “was a culmination he awarded – ranging from £200 to £2,000 – aim to encourage would have wished for himself” – yet for “his friends and family it practical action to conserve our natural environment. was a tragedy”. So far, 33 people have benefited. They’ve come from all walks of Bill was respected for his many exploits. Most notable was the life, from students to scientists, from grandmothers to gardeners. first British ascent of the second-highest mountain in the They’ve visited places all around the world, from Uganda to Uist, Americas, the 6,768m Huascaran, in Peru, and the man-hauling of from the Andes to the Arctic. They’ve dived beneath the sea, a sledge across the Greenland ice-cap. This was just the second biked, hiked, skied, climbed, ran, kayaked, surveyed and sailed – crossing following in the footsteps of Nansen. all to benefit people, nature and place. As past president, treasurer and secretary of the Scottish This year, the grant is embracing a new legacy – again sadly Mountaineering Club, and, at various stages, a trustee, secretary rooted in tragedy. Des Rubens, another distinguished and much and treasurer of the John Muir Trust, he was also an organiser and admired Scottish mountaineer, was killed aged 63 in an Alpine a leader. climbing accident in June 2016. The Bill Wallace Grant was launched in 2007, triggered by Last year, the families of both Bill and Des supported a proposal donations to the John Muir Trust made at his funeral. The Grant from the John Muir Trust to widen the grant into a joint memorial was quickly supported by additional funds from the Scottish to both men. The Scottish Mountaineering Trust immediately
The fund’s global reach Yosemite Steve Bate used his grant to help him become the first partially-sighted North America person to solo climb El Capitan, California, Canadian Yosemite. He wanted to inspire Rockies, Newfoundland everyone, but especially those perceived as less able, to seek and embrace adventure. Mountaineer, author, motivational speaker and comedian Andy Kirkpatrick, who helped mentor Steve, says of him: “He is a stubborn ginger- South America haired Kiwi with skills, character, drive Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, and vision. What he learnt, understood Trinidad, Venezuela and refined on El Capitan, he then applied to pro cycling. “I know from experience that grants can offer not only financial support but also confidence, belief and credibility – especially where there are already Antarctica additional challenges in the mix.” Heard Island PHOTOGRAPH: ANDY KIRKPATRICK ANDY PHOTOGRAPH: 19
Remembering two outdoors giants
Vancouver Island peregrine falcons in the heart of London – as a Young The Bill Wallace Grant helped Bertie Gregory camp for four Champion with 2020VISION, the multimedia initiative that months on a remote island off the west coast of Vancouver aims to communicate the link between human wellbeing Island, British Columbia, where he filmed and shared the and habitat restoration. incredible story of coastal wolves. Bertie, who is still in his early 20s, is now one of the Before his adventure on the Pacific coast, Bertie had country’s foremost young professional wildlife honed his talents photographing urban wildlife – including photographers, filmmakers and presenters. PHOTOGRAPH: BERTIE GREGORY BERTIE PHOTOGRAPH:
donated a further £12,000, and generous donations from Des’s some 20 expeditions beyond Europe, to India, Pakistan, Peru, friends and peers flooded in. China and other parts of the world. A popular teacher at Craigroyston High School in Edinburgh, The passion of both men for remote and inspiring Des was a passionate believer in making the great outdoors environments galvanised them into standing up for the protection accessible to all – and especially to young people. of wild places. His obituary in the Scotsman spoke warmly of how he It is fitting that the Des Rubens and Bill Wallace Grant now “enthused young people through his love of the outdoors and was offers others an opportunity to follow in their footsteps. a caring, patient and devoted teacher”. A former president of the Scottish Mountaineering Club, Des About the author Toby Clark, John Muir Award brought his passion and expert knowledge of the mountain Scotland Manager, helps run the Bill environment to his work in outdoor education. Wallace and Des Rubens Grant Although his first love was the Scottish hills in winter, he made [email protected]
Europe Bulgaria, Cairngorms, Central Scotland, Greenland, Norway, Sutherland, Svalbard, Western Isles Asia Borneo, Himalaya, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan
Africa Cameroon, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Kenya Tanzania, Uganda deter the animals. It helps conserve Grant aid helped Emma Vicary join the the threatened elephant population, Bee Elephant Enterprise Project, and provides income from honey which aims to reduce conflict between production to impoverished farmers. farmers and elephants over crop Emma Vicary said: “We’re really damage in the Tsavo National Park. proud that as well as protecting Taking advantage of elephants’ elephants we also helped one local girl innate fear of bees, the team build to attend school and improve her future beehive fences around small farms to prospects. 20 PEOPLE JOHN MUIR TRUST JOURNAL SPRING 2017
Moving on
As Stuart Brooks steps down as Chief Executive to take up a key post with the National Trust for Scotland, he talks to Alan McCombes about the highlights and challenges of the past eight years
STUART BROOKS’ first memory of He was more familiar with the National landscapes, especially in Scotland. Scotland was travelling up the A9 past Trust for Scotland, the RSPB, the Six years on, the position looks more Pitlochry bound for the far north west. Woodland Trust and other environmental optimistic: an area covering 20 per cent of Hailing from the flat marshlands of the NGOs, whereas the John Muir Trust “was Scotland’s landmass is now officially Cambridgeshire Fens, the rugged a bit more of an unknown quantity”. recognised by the Scottish Government as mountain landscape blew him away, and But he was attracted to the Trust’s wild land, and provided with some would draw him back to the Highlands honesty about the value of landscape. “As protection. time and time again. But it was that week a nature conservationist, you tend to “The publication of the Wild Land Areas spent on a peat bog in the shadow of focus on wildlife. But most people go into map was a major milestone. Just to have Foinaven that would shape the future the countryside not just to look at wildlife wild land acknowledged as a legitimate course of his life. – they like to be in that place because of concern in public policy was a crucial Stuart had come to Scotland on a field how it makes them feel.” He thinks that breakthrough. And the official definition trip as part of his geography degree at “the general public tends to place a higher of wild land, developed by SNH and Newcastle University. “We camped out by value on landscape than many nature accepted by the Scottish Government, is the river and sat out on a hill every day conservationists”. That emotional in tune with the John Muir Trust’s view.” surveying peatland. From there I taught connection cannot be measured Stuart believes that the long, hard myself the basics of peatland ecology. So I scientifically, but for Stuart, “the idea of a campaign to get where we are now has left university with a modicum of landscape aesthetic has added something been complicated by the fact that the knowledge about peatlands just at a time to my approach as a conservationist”. biggest impact on wild places in recent when the habitat was getting on the Stuart confesses that when he first years has come from the renewables nature conservation radar.” arrived at the Trust, he initially struggled sector in the form of large-scale wind Stuart acquired his love of nature as a to weld together different components of farm development. boy in the idyllic Georgian market town of “The Trust’s stance has brought us into Stamford. “Growing up on the edge of the conflict, but the debate is shifting and countryside gave me access to the kind of “Hopefully the conflict between there is acceptance that development wild places that some of us are lucky large scale industrial cannot come at the cost of destroying wild enough to discover at a young age. For me development and wild places land of national importance. Hopefully that was the River Welland, which winds the conflict between large-scale industrial its way through the water meadows of will now start to diminish, and development and wild places will now Stamford. I would walk along it, sit by it, the Wild Land Areas will be start to diminish, and the Wild Land Areas fish in it and swim in it. These experiences seen… as a valuable asset that will be seen, not just as a planning gave me a love not just of the outdoors, constraint, but as a valuable asset that can but of the value of solitude within nature.” can benefit people and benefit people and communities as well Before he joined the Trust, Stuart spent communities as well as nature” as nature.” 15 years working for the Scottish Wildlife Stuart emphasises that the Trust’s Trust (SWT), which he joined as a field conservation philosophy for its core wild officer on an EU-funded raised bog the organisation. “The Trust had this land areas is “to work with natural project. For two years, he researched tremendous engagement initiative, the processes and, where possible, allow peatland restoration across Europe. That John Muir Award. It owned and managed nature to determine its own outcome”. “modicum of knowledge” he had some of the finest areas of wild land in the Yet this also brings challenges, from a acquired as a student in Sutherland grew Highlands. It had teams of dedicated different direction. “We’ve taken a and grew; in 1997, he co-authored volunteers carrying out vital conservation progressive view on deer management to Conserving Bogs: The Management work. And it was beginning to have a voice support the wider public as well as private Handbook, which remains to this day the in the policy area. interests.” Always an optimist, Stuart definitive guide to managing and “I wanted to connect these things – find believes that change is happening for the restoring peatlands. the golden thread – so pretty early on I better. “There are numerous public and an He later moved on to become SWT’s went through a comprehensive exercise to increasing number of private landowners Director of Conservation, in charge of its develop a new vision, not just for the who share our vision for more sustainable nature reserves, policy and Trust but for wild places more generally.” deer management.” communications and helping develop a He involved staff, trustees and Less contentious has been the Trust’s pioneering new vision of conservation members in the shaping of a document, central role in helping bring people together “going beyond traditional nature Our Essential Wildness, published in 2010, with wild nature. The John Muir Award now conservation, which focuses on priority drawing together the different strands of engages with 1500 organisations and is “a habitats and species, to one which looked the Trust into a cohesive vision. fabulous ambassador for the Trust”. towards a landscape-scale approach”. It includes a map, produced by Dr Steve He is proud too of the Wild Space visitor When the opportunity came along, Stuart Carver at the University of Leeds Wildland centre, which he steered to completion in was keen to continue on that journey with Research Institute, delineating the top 10 2013. It has since welcomed well over the John Muir Trust. He was attracted by per cent of the UK’s wildest land, almost 100,000 people through its door and “the amazing portfolio of properties” all of it in the Scottish Highlands. This become a major cultural asset to the managed by the Trust. work showed a lack of protection for wild Highland Perthshire community. 21
After eight years, Stuart believes the time is now right to move on. “Personally I’ve invested a lot in the development of the John Muir Trust as a business as well as a conservation body. It’s been fun, tough going at times, but rewarding too. “That reward comes from knowing you’ve made a difference. I’m grateful to my staff colleagues and trustees for their dedication and support over the years. I’m looking forward to joining the NTS. I’ve lived in Scotland half my life and I want to stay here and work to conserve its natural and cultural heritage. It has amazing places, magnificent landscapes and people whose values I share.” Stuart also intends to continue with his role as Chair of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) UK National Committee. The final word though, comes from Trust Chair Peter Pearson. “Stuart has been a popular figurehead among both staff and trustees, not just because of his calm, measured demeanour but also Clockwise from top: because of his expertise, professionalism opening the Wild Space visitor centre; and strategic vision. We owe him a great with Chris Packham at debt of gratitude and wish him all the best the Spirit of John Muir for the future.” event 2015; on the boat with the late About the author Richard Fraser- Alan McCombes is communications Darling at Elgol; editor for the Trust
hands on at Glenlude TRUST MUIR JOHN AND LINTERN DAVID PHOTOGRAPHS: [email protected] 22 JOHN MUIR AWARD JOHN MUIR TRUST JOURNAL SPRING 2017
The mountains are calling…
Lucy Sparks and Coralie Hopwood – Scotland and England John Muir Award Inclusion Managers for the John Muir Trust – report on the work of a range of organisations to get people from black and minority ethnic communities involved with wild places
“THOUSANDS OF tired, nerve- shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, The Grange, Norfolk but as fountains of life.” John Muir’s words were written at the The Grange is a family-run smallholding and physically by getting them out into height of the industrial revolution, when in Norfolk that offers a place of sanctuary the countryside, and by giving them a record numbers of immigrants were being and learning for people who have been real purpose in life at a time of difficulty drawn to US cities by the promise of forced to flee from persecution. – a crucial part of recovery and life-changing high wages. They still ring true emotional wellbeing. in today’s multicultural urbanised society. Many have experienced trauma and are “People seeking asylum in the UK are In the 21st century, more than half the currently seeking asylum in the UK. It’s not allowed to work and find it very hard world’s population live in cities – over 80 a place for people to experiment with to access learning opportunities,” says per cent of people in the USA and over 70 living by permaculture ethics of people Ben. “Being able to gain a certificate for per cent in the UK. That – plus the care, earth care and fair shares. their efforts is a huge benefit for our demands of a 24-hour information-based The John Muir Award is offered to residents and visitors, and something society – means that the need for wild residential groups and to those taking they are able to put on their CV if they places to provide a welcome sanctuary part in “Workday Wednesdays.” Local do get leave to remain. and help us lead a healthier and more volunteers support participants as they “Achieving their own John Muir sustainable life is stronger than ever. engage in practical tasks, explore the 10 Award is also a huge boost to their Not everyone, however, has the skills, acres of meadows and gardens and get confidence. I’m delighted that some of confidence or motivation to head outside to know the local countryside. The our Workday Wednesday regulars, group then reflect together on their having achieved their Discovery Award, achievements at the end of each day. are now getting stuck in to working “Mountain parks and According to Ben Margolis, the towards their Explorer Award.” reservations are useful not Director of The Grange, the John Muir only as fountains of timber Award benefits participants mentally Find out more at thegrangenorfolk.org.uk and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life” for pleasure, learning or sustenance. A key aim of our engagement initiative – the John Muir Award – is to make sure that circumstances are not a barrier to experiencing wild places. During 2016, over 10,000 John Muir Awards were achieved across the UK by people experiencing some form of disadvantage. We’re proud that every year since 2000 at least 25 per cent of John Muir Awards are achieved by people who are experiencing some form of disadvantage – what we refer to as “inclusion” activity. This may be a result of age, health, unemployment, literacy, economic poverty, disability – or, as the following case studies demonstrate, ethnicity. 23
Boots and Beards, Glasgow
This Glasgow-based organisation aims dealing with people can be stressful. to come out unless it’s a family event. to unite and motivate like-minded BME Trying to find a release can be difficult. We’ve held about six of these where they adventurers into exploring and Hillwalking provided a chance to get a come with their husbands and kids. And promoting Scotland’s natural landscape bunch of guys together, talk to each other there are plans to establish a women’s with “no talent other than decent about any problems, exchange advice group. banter required”. We spoke to two and get away from the city. It’s brought wider families closer organisers of the group – Kashif Butt Our routine is to set off on a Sunday together. In the past we would only meet and Zain Sehgal. morning around 7am, drive to our maybe a couple of times a year on big destination, have a hill walk and then occasions like Eid, but now get together When our grandparents came to come back to Glasgow for around 1pm, regularly in the fresh air – and have a Scotland, they worked hard to establish so we can spend the rest of the day with good laugh too. businesses because they wanted to pass our families. Because the time is tight, we The John Muir Award is very much in something on to their kids. mainly go to places within striking tune with what we do. So far, our Our parents’ generation weren’t very distance of the city – for example around members have gained eight Discovery active – it was all work, work, work. For Loch Lomond or the Trossachs. and four Explorer Award certificates. our generation it’s more about mental Women are welcome – we won’t turn work. The pressures of deadlines and anyone away, but they tend not to want Find out more at bootsandbeards.co.uk
Backbone, Ross-shire
Since 1995, Backbone has provided psychological barriers. projects when they go back. We support environmental training to marginalised The people we work with don’t always them by giving them qualifications, skills, groups, particularly black and minority have the confidence or the know-how to confidence and resources. ethnic (BME) women. Founder Pammy access the wonderful nature that Scotland We address issues such as health and Johal tells us more. has to offer. They may also struggle with isolation, and we also try to inspire language and literacy skills. women to have a degree of ownership of We work closely with Scottish Natural The John Muir Award is completely the places we experience. Heritage, Forestry Commission Scotland, integrated into our learning model – it’s Early on, some thought they didn’t our two national parks, the National Trust the most accessible award that we know really belong here, and felt as though they for Scotland, Historic Scotland, helping of. People can express what they want, were being stared at. them design projects for communities how they want. Now we’re celebrating Scotland’s that wouldn’t normally know how to We use it to train leaders to be nature as part of our life and our access the great outdoors. environmental champions back in their landscape. There’s a real togetherness. As well as physical barriers to access, communities, and we expect them to start such as lack of transport, there are also delivering their own environmental Find out more at backbone.uk.net 24 ACCESS JOHN MUIR TRUST JOURNAL SPRING 2017
Invisible barriers Artist and poet Alec Finlay reflects on the limits of the right to roam – and seeks imaginative ways of discovering places that are physically inacccessible
LAST SUMMER, I met Liz Auty who manages Schiehallion for Instead of every trip being a walk too far, with the ache that the John Muir Trust. Embarrassing as I found it, I had to explain follows, I started to use maps as ways to extend my looking into that, due to an old muscular condition, I couldn’t climb the viewing. Simple enough to walk a wee way, sit down, and then try mountain – that I had never climbed one. and understand where you are – and perhaps compose a poem We opened the map and settled on an old sheep fank as our X. there and then, and photograph it. My familiar summit is the lower slopes, like the fond walkers in Gradually I understood that place-names – especially Gaelic John Anderson, My Jo whose hiking days are done. When the path names – and their meanings were another way to access the widened enough to walk side-by-side, she told me about the landscape, closing distances imaginatively, moving the eye and months after she gave birth, when she found herself in a thought rather than feet. I had the help of friends who spoke Gaelic, wheelchair. For the first time in her life she couldn’t access the and then I began to read the likes of William J Watson, author of The hills. Those months were still vivid for the frustration of feeling the Celtic Place-names of Scotland, ecologist and Cairngorms expert hills becoming strangers. Adam Watson, place-name scholar WFH Nicolaisen, and John Being confined to one square of the map I know the feeling well Murray who wrote Reading the Gaelic Landscape. – worried by distance, factoring in the closeness of contours, and rehearsing what I’m due to be doing in the next few days. that must be such-and- Whenever I go for a walk I calculate the likely effect, based on such a burn… incline and terrain. If I go to that copse, or as far as that burn… or and there’s the ruins even, could I make the waterfall? Enthusiasm often gets the better of the farm called… of me, but if I am being sensible then the last day of a trip is the and those hills are…. one to walk furthest. I can rest in pain at home. It’s not that I can’t go further – the temptation is always there – Rather than walking a line, reeling in distant points of interest but what I call the lag in my legs would be disastrous. Aches pass; until they grow into the detail of up-close scale, I accepted what what causes lasting hurt is when beautiful places become tangled seeing, naming, and joining places together could offer. Meaning up with the wrong kind of suffering. Knowes, cnocs, and toms are settled into colours, textures, and stories in the faraway. It was my thing. Sometimes I refer to my anti- touching to look for a name – to find the pale summitism – mountains are there to walk in and patch of grass, stony field, crook in the river or around, as Nan Shepherd said, as well as up. stand of juniper that a name had predicted would be there, like sewing a button on a shirt ACCESS CONUNDRUM and making it whole again. This enforced love of knowes held true until the In the past couple of years I have devised last two years when I had three runs up on the walks, composing by way of paired names hill in a landrover – once with a local guide, rather than real terrain – these remain once with a gamekeeper and once with an imaginative routes, or, at least, eccentric ones. estate factor. It’s hard to explain to a non-hiker And I’ve composed poems drawing on what this access feels like – being on Cùlardoch eye-witness reports, from books, maps, flickr looking across to Ben A’an, picking out the photos, walking and climbing websites. Leabaidh an Daimh Bhuidhe; taking in the relic For some years, my condition worsened into pines of Glen Derry; or pootling around the what I called LWI, my Long Winter Illness. ruins of the old lodge at Loch Builg. Months were spent mostly in bed. The loss of But here’s the conundrum: my access depended on roads built lung capacity and stamina meant that May and June were a time by lairds. That brings another question trailing behind it: how rare of beginning over, when every path leading off from a car-park is it for people with limited walking, or with a disability, to gain was an invitation that seemed blocked with gates. Physical illness access to the mountains? I know of no scheme that allows it. takes our habitual measure of pace – which, being so familiar, is Why? Is this a failure of land access campaigns, driven as they also invisible – and dissects it, irradiating the surrounding are by boots on the ground? landscape with a kind of vertigo-for-legs. There is that fear: will I There’s a disconnect between the new tracks pushed into the get home from here? hills by estates and the Forestry Commission, and any sense of the Standard measures of distance fall down. A walk of a few access they could provide. The roads are for shooting, timber, or hundred yards might be possible, but each hundred yards less wind-farm access. Whether publicly or privately owned, most reduces the view exponentially. In the Cairngorms my beginner have a locked gate blocking the way. This limits boy-racers and walks were along the gravel track by Felagie, among the pines keeps the top for ‘hill pursuits’; nevertheless, I’m struck that there beneath Craig Leek and, a little further along the line of the burn, are very few access schemes. by Creag na Spaine, the Spoonlike Crag, walking back down the There are always logistical issues. Access would need to be glen towards Aberarder. planned. Well-made tracks allow wheelchair use, and there could This is the heart of access: to feel a sense of belonging, to settle be arrangements for electric-powered buggies, or the odd into a landscape, despite the strangeness that illness or limit horse-drawn carriage. Best of all would be a Landrover trip with a brings. There can never be too much access, too much closing of local guide. Why not? distance, as long as it furthers care for the earth. The funicular railway up Cairn Gorm to the Ptarmigan Restaurant is an exception – it is fully accessible for wheelchair About the author Alec Finlay’s artistic work reflects on users – but I’ve never felt like going as it seems such an imposition the interaction between culture, on the mountain. Maybe someday. nature and landscape. 25
“Gradually I understood that place-names – especially Gaelic names – and their meanings were another way to access the landscape, closing distances imaginatively, moving the eye and thought rather than feet”
Cairngorms: Art installation at Craig Leek (left) and chilling out in Glen Ey PHOTOGRAPH: HANNAH DEVEREUX DEVEREUX HANNAH PHOTOGRAPH: 26 CAMPAIGNS JOHN MUIR TRUST JOURNAL SPRING 2017
On the right lines
Trust Head of Policy Helen McDade reports on some encouraging decisions safeguarding sensitive landscapes in north west England and south west Scotland from intrusive electricity transmission lines
FOR SOME TIME, the Trust has environment in and around the National supported local groups in the Lake District Park and other designated landscapes. and Dumfries and Galloway campaigning The new process has allowed us to to reduce the environmental impact of consider several options, including subsea proposed transmission infrastructure on cables; overhead cables with a Morecambe wild areas and much-loved landscapes. Bay tunnel; and partial undergrounding. We are pleased to report that, following National Grid’s preferred route, after public consultation, both projects have consultation, includes 23km of the been significantly altered. This, we hope, line undergrounded through the signals a promising start for a new UK National Park with a tunnel under regulatory and decision-making procedure Morecambe Bay. that could bring increased protection for Acceptance of undergrounding is wild land. a great result for both the The regulatory framework for campaigners and the regulators. We transmission lines throughout Great hope the same spirit of openness Britain is overseen by the UK Government will lead to a re-examination of a and Ofgem (the UK electricity regulatory short subsea route (called HVAC body). Their approach has changed cables), avoiding overhead lines considerably since the decision was taken around the Duddon estuary as by the Scottish Government, with Ofgem currently proposed. support, to consent to the 220km Beauly- In its new role as Systems Operator, Denny line, which cuts through the National Grid could also provide a Cairngorms National Park. robust, independent overview of During the 11-month Public Local applications from Scottish Power and Inquiry over that scheme, there was 72 Scottish and Southern Energy. lines virtually no public consultation over Indeed, the spirit of this new, more the proposed route of the line, nor was cautious approach, to ensure that the there any serious attempt to explore grid is not “over-engineered”, may have alternatives such as subsea cables or contributed to the recent decision by undergrounding. Scottish Power to reduce its proposed There have been recent changes in Dumfries and Galloway Strategic National Grid’s remit, which includes a Reinforcement transmission scheme from wider role as the Systems Operator for the 400kV to 132kV, which will substantially whole of the UK, in addition to its existing lessen the environmental impact. role as Transmission Operator in England The Trust has worked alongside Dumgal and Wales. Against Pylons who have campaigned The new regulatory process looks much tirelessly for this result. more promising, with early public A further encouraging sign was the engagement so far delivering better, less decision by SSE to put on hold, at the damaging schemes. National Grid’s request, its proposed In the Lake District, National Grid has reinforcement of the Beauly to Kintore over several years consulted extensively transmission line in North East around its proposal for two double 400kV Scotland. This more rational transmission lines running north and approach can only benefit the south from Moorside, near Sellafield, environment. Make no mistake, around the Cumbrian coastline. In our though – it is unlikely that these response, the Trust argued that this national policy changes would have development should not go ahead before taken place without strong lobbying from any decision is taken to proceed with the the Trust and other campaigners over Moorside nuclear plant. many years. So, thanks for everyone’s In the meantime, based on an assumption support – and let’s toast those successes! that the transmission will go ahead, the Trust along with the Friends of the Lake District and the Lake District National Park About the author Helen McDade is the Trust’s head of Authority, has focused on seeking to policy and can be contacted at minimise impact on the landscape and [email protected] ‘As long as I live, I’ll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing… I’ll acquaint myself with the glaciers and wild gardens, and get as near the heart of the world as I can.’ John Muir
Show your lifelong connection to wild places... Becoming a Life Member of the John Muir Trust helps strengthen our ability to care for the places we all love. Together we can give wild places a voice for ever. Find out more johnmuirtrust.org/lifelongconnection 28 CONSERVATION JOHN MUIR TRUST JOURNAL SPRING 2017
Earth, frost and fire
Planting trees, digging ditches, clearing invasive species – and just relaxing under the stars by PHOTOGRAPH: JAMES BROWNHILL JAMES PHOTOGRAPH: an open fire. Here we get a BROWNHILL JAMES PHOTOGRAPH: flavour of what it’s like to be a John Muir Trust volunteer
GLEN TANAR, CAIRNGORMS At 10am on a blue-sky, frosty January day, 16 volunteers from the Trust’s North East Group assemble at the Braeloine Visitor Centre in the Cairngorms National Park. There we get a work and safety briefing from the local rangers before heading down the Riverside Walk alongside the Water of Tanar. Our project of the day is to cut back any vegetation that might be encroaching on this walk, and we’re well equipped with a variety of saws, and a mattock – a tool that’s deemed essential by our John Muir Trust leader. The path takes us through pinewoods, over minor burns, past sheep pastures and into wonderfully natural riparian woodland through which the sun is
unable to penetrate, leaving us working at SPRACKLEN DOMINIC PHOTOGRAPH: times in a frosty crystal palace. A steady work-rate is needed to keep BEN NEVIS warm, but there’s plenty to do; trimming, It’s 5.30am on a mid-January morning, by centuries of burning, and grazing by cutting and even felling some small trees and as I drive through Glencoe, I know it’s sheep and deer. that have become a danger on the path. going to be a brilliant weekend. I really enjoy volunteering with the John One or two rhododendron bushes, noted Behind me, the sun is beginning to rise, Muir Trust because I learn a lot from on previous conservation days, are finally while a full moon is plainly visible ahead Sandy and other enthusiastic and cut fully back. With all the cuttings, we in the slowly brightening, deep-blue hard-working staff. make habitat piles set back from the path. morning sky. And then there are the volunteers who Away from the work site, the ranger A blanket of snow covers the glen, are brought together through their spots some animal dropping, which we making for a spectacular vista. Car loads tangible love and respect for Scotland’s identify as otter “scat”, probably less than of people stop to take photos, while others wild natural heritage. Everyone works two hours old. We take a mid-morning have already begun their treks, head- hard as a team to deliver as much as they break at the work location, then at torches bobbing on the distant slopes. can. These are the things that make lunchtime head back to the Visitor Centre I’ve volunteered for a weekend work volunteering special. where, in the centre of the outdoor party, planting trees on the mountain trail And we always get a laugh! At one point meeting circle, a small fire gives out an to the top of Ben Nevis, and building wire we’re startled by an agonised cry of encouraging glow as the smoke drifts fence enclosures in the glen to help “Stop!!!” as Sandy watches his roll of wire lazily through the trees. establish the native Scots pine. spin down the slope, as if in slow motion By 4.00pm, with the sun setting behind The work will help to prevent erosion on at first, then gathering momentum as it Mount Keen, the most easterly Munro, the mountain path, provide habitat for bounces all the way down to the bottom of we’re heading home… until next month. wildlife, and start to reintroduce native the hill. James Brownhil trees in areas that have been grazed bare Darren Kelly
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Clockwise from far left: clearing ground at Li and Coire Dhorrcail on Knoydart; communal campfire at Glen Tanar; Sandy (left) and Darren fencing at Ben Nevis; the team at Duddon Valley, in the Lakes (with Jude Spracklen second from right)
DUDDON VALLEY, THE LAKE DISTRICT Driving up the Duddon Valley from Duddon Sands on the Cumbrian coast, we are quickly immersed in a landscape of farmland, oak and birch woodlands and fell. Soon views of Dow Crag, Harter Fell and the Old Man of Coniston appear. Rounding a bend in the road, a harsh block of conifer woodland appears. This is Hardknott Forest, a 600ha conifer plantation, planted in the 1930s after strong local opposition. This weekend, 80 years later, we are here to work alongside the Forestry Commission to help restore the plantation into native woodland, crags, bogs and open ground. We meet staff from the Forestry Commission at 9.30am on Saturday morning. Today’s task is to remove Sitka spruce regeneration that is threatening to overcome native trees. We work slowly across the hillside using bow saws and lopers to remove spruce saplings. Hands and arms quickly become
PHOTOGRAPH: COURTESY OF SANDY MAXWELL SANDY OF COURTESY PHOTOGRAPH: scratched on the spiky spruce branches. But it’s rewarding work, especially LI AND COIRE DHORRCAIL, KNOYDART when removing a spruce exposes an oak Knoydart is a long way from most places, Gloves and tools have all been or birch sapling that was being swamped and to get to the John Muir Trust’s land provided, and the seasoned volunteers are by a conifer. on the north side of the peninsula, we well prepared, with snacks of nuts and Saturday evening is spent in the have to be ferried across Loch Hourn. chocolate, and in some cases whole cakes. bunkhouse below Wallowbarrow Crag – I’ve cleverly hitched a lift with the This proves essential for keeping our just a five minute walk through oak Trust’s volunteer co-ordinator, Sandy strength up – this is basically hard labour woodlands to the Newfield Inn for a Maxwell – my logic being that the boat and the digging is almost continuous. well-deserved dinner. On Sunday we’re won’t leave without him! I manage to keep pace with everyone planting trees, and at the end of the day It’s my first time volunteering with the else in the group – but then many of the more than 100 oak saplings are scattered Trust, and the remoteness of this location volunteers are older than me and I’m across the hillside. requires us all to wild camp on site and impressed by their stamina. It was great to play a role in helping to bring our own provisions. After our various rehydrated dinners, restore what will eventually become one The dozen or so volunteers are a we all meet at the lochside to gather of the largest semi-natural upland friendly bunch and it’s amazingly sunny around the fire, drink and marvel at the woodlands in England. And we’ll be back weather for October. number of stars in the unbelievably clear in the spring and autumn of 2017. This weekend we’re clearing bracken, skies above us. Jude Spracklen turf and stones to create nursery beds for We know we’ve been preparing soil for pine seedlings. Once they’re strong trees that we’ll never live to see fully Find out more Interested in joining a Trust work enough, they will be planted out across grown – but it’s nice to know that we’re party? For the 2017 work party this landscape that was once completely helping them on their way. schedule, see johnmuirtrust.org/ covered with forest. Neil Braidwood workparties2017 30 WILD MOMENTS JOHN MUIR TRUST JOURNAL SPRING 2017
Kings of the south Highland Perthshire-based Trust member Jamie Grant recalls a magical experience on a subantarctic beach during his time as artist-in- residence on the remote island of South Georgia over the austral summer of 2015-2016
THE FIRST INDICATION THAT we were getting close to St Andrew’s Bay on the subantarctic island of South Georgia was the noise. I heard it as we traversed the last, high pass from the other side of the peninsula and finally looked down onto a three-kilometre sweep of sandy beach, bound by tumultuous ocean. A cacophony of high-pitched voices rose to meet us, reminding me of the excited chatter in a theatre before the curtain opens on a play. It took me a moment to register that this distant chatter was from some 200,000 king penguins in ceaseless commotion. Home to the largest colony of the species on South Georgia, St Andrew’s Bay must surely be one of the great natural wonders in the world. And it isn’t just the wildlife that makes this place so special. Over 1,000 nautical miles from the Falkland Islands, South Georgia is one of the most remote locations on the planet. An outlier of the Andes, it rises majestically out of the Southern were so full of squid and lantern fish that they lay like abandoned Ocean and consists largely of a 100-mile chain of mostly unscaled bowling balls on the beach, barely able to flipper themselves mountains. The only settlement is the British Antarctic Survey upright on the sand. base in Cumberland Bay where the population typically rises to Second in size only to emperors, king penguins stand almost 40 just 18 during the high season. inches tall. They are inquisitive creatures: as soon as I sat down, Before descending from our look-out across the bay, I paused to small groups surrounded me and fixed me with intense, take in the colony’s panoramic setting. The shattered peaks of the unblinking stares, before continuing their seemingly aimless 2,000-metre high Mount Roots and Mount Kling drifting in and out amble along the beach. By moving slowly and sticking to the of the cloud. The Buxton and Cook Glaciers running down the fringes of the colony, we were able to keep a low profile and valleys, like beaten metal in the silver light. The beach with a minimise any disturbance that might be caused by our presence. swathe of tussock grass behind it, almost black with penguins that We weren’t the only uninvited guests in St Andrew’s Bay. Leopard from our high perspective looked like a swarm of ants. seals hunt penguins along the edge of the kelp beds and giant The king penguin colony was first discovered and described in petrels patrol the beach for the weak and vulnerable. 1883 by the German International Polar Year Expedition. Since To protect their young from these predators, the kings keep a then, numbers have swelled and are now thought to be higher juvenile crèche at the heart of their colony, packed with awkward than ever previously recorded – the population estimates vary looking teenagers covered in fine brown feathers. When the wildly, although no-one has ever been foolhardy enough to try to parents head back from a fishing expedition to feed their young, count them. they find each other through their distinctive identifications calls By the time we made it down to the bay, it was snowing heavily – which explains the din of competing voices. Kings only bring up and so cold the batteries were dying in my camera. Walking to the two chicks every three years, and the young take a year to fledge. colony felt a bit like strolling through Hyde Park in London in the This unique breeding cycle means that the colony is often height of summer. There were preening penguins, courting courting, sitting on eggs and raising chicks at the same time. penguins, calling penguins, penguins feeding their young. Some I found the visual spectacle overwhelming, the noise deafening were moulting, others waddling out of the pounding surf. A few and the smell overpowering. I had come to take photographs, but Left to right: from the Allardyce Mountains to St Andrew’s Bay had no idea where to start because I couldn’t take in anything “I’ve never felt more present – as though my beyond the wall of sound and colour. Eventually I realised I had entire life had been leading up to that one, to step back from the clamour, stop seeing penguins and look instead at the entire colony and its surroundings as one tremulous moment” interdependent landscape. I walked to higher ground and framed the beach, the river, the mountain and the colony in a single image, aiming to pull this discordant world together and make it whole again. Taking a photograph like this is an act of faith. I’ve never felt more present – as though my entire life had been leading up to that one, tremulous moment. Now when I look at these photographs of St Andrew’s Bay, I have to pinch myself with wonder at the fact that I was actually there, and that true wildernesses like this still exist beyond even the bounds of our imagination. May we never tame them.
About the author Jamie Grant is a writer and photographer based in Highland Perthshire. His book Summer in South Georgia is available from jamiemurraygrant.co.uk and aberfeldywatermill.com Share you own wild moments at johnmuirtrust.org/wild-moments 32 BOOKS JOHN MUIR TRUST JOURNAL SPRING 2017
Walking the Song by It’s difficult to single out individual Hamish Brown chapters – they are all worth reading – but I particularly enjoyed the tales of a murder on Goatfell in 1889, a visit to Author and mountaineer Handa Island, and a piece on his favourite Chris Townsend was inspired books that included encounters with the writers. Many of the Scottish trips I found by Hamish Brown’s first book especially fascinating too – I had the maps published in 1974 – and is out to follow some of them. It’s not all serious stuff either. There are enthralled by his latest some wonderfully funny stories. An collection of essays accident with a cake stand, a dog, a cat and a hot water jug had me chuckling, as HAMISH BROWN has been writing did the story of the vanishing dog on the about wild places, nature and outdoor Inaccessible Pinnacle. activities for nigh on 50 years. The book is written in an engaging His book Hamish’s Mountain Walk easy-to-read style. At the same time, it about the first continuous round of the isn’t a book to rush – there is depth here, Munros inspired me and many others. It of thought and experience. This is a wise is, in my opinion, one of the finest books book and many of the author’s comments, ever written about the Scottish hills. which could seem just throwaway lines, Walking the Song, his latest book, is a are worth pondering. collection of essays, most of which first Walking the Song is a book you can appeared in various magazines and either read cover to cover or dip in and newspapers. out of, reading pieces as you fancy. The range of interests and places they I’ll certainly be reading favourite ones reveal is astonishing for one man, with again. It may be early in the year but I adventures throughout the world and a doubt there’ll be a better or more host of activities from climbing to enjoyable outdoors book in 2017. canoeing to camping. Throughout these pages, Hamish’s enthusiasm and Price £8.99 optimism shine out. This is a man who sandstonepress.com enjoys life. There is far more here than tales of Further info climbs and walks and canoe trips, Hamish Brown is the author of dozens of books charting his entertaining and exciting though these adventures in the mountains of are. Brown has a wide range of interests, Scotland and farther afield. so Walking the Song includes history stories, nature observations, favourite The reviewer books, people anecdotes, and city and Chris Townsend is a trustee of the John Muir Trust – and, like Hamish, country descriptions. a prolific author and explorer
for hillwalkers in some of our Images from a Warming Planet, Ashley Cooper Others we like most remote landscapes. A long-standing member of the Langdale and With beautiful images, Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team, the author Bothy Bible, Geoff Allan evocative tales and a mass of spent 13 years in 30 countries assembling a The Scottish Bothy Bible is the practical information, the powerful portfolio of images from across the first ever complete guide to Bothy Bible is a great world showing the impact of our changing Scotland’s hidden network of introduction to a unique part climate upon people, places and wildlife. bothies and mountain huts. of outdoor culture . From flooding in Yorkshire to burnt-out forests The author spent five years £16.99 in Australia and smog-laden cities in China, the researching the stories behind wildthingspublishing.com book tells a compelling story. these once derelict huts and £40.00 cottages that now offer a haven imagesfromawarmingplanet.net 33
Castles in the Mist over 100 a century later, when 3.6 million by Robin Noble acres was exclusively dedicated to deer. Owning a sporting estate became the essential accoutrement of the wealthy and At a time when the management had the added value of blurring the of Scotland’s uplands is under distinction between old and new money scrutiny, Mike Daniels discovers in the “aggressive snobbery” of the 1800s. With it came the lodges – vast edifices an important contribution to our designed, not to withstand the ravages of understanding of the shaping of the Highland climate, but to impress the visitors who would come for a few months the Highlands each year. In a series of easy-to-read chapters, IT’S A FAMILIAR NARRATIVE: the Castles in the Mist takes the reader on a Victorians shaped large tracts of the gentle stroll through the geography, Highlands, creating the land use – or, from culture, history and ecology of the a conservationist’s point of view, land Highlands from Skye to Strathspey, from abuse – we see today. Assynt to Strathardle. So successful was the cultural and There are some fascinating sidetracks ecological cleansing undertaken to create too – for example, into the Victorian the Highland estate, replete with stalkers, sporting background of the famous author tweeds and abundant deer and grouse, Gavin Maxwell. The conundrum of the that even today few of us can picture an richer environment that enabled the alternative. But what came before it? Victorian gamekeeper to slaughter such Robin Noble’s Castles in the Mist offers incredible bags of “vermin” is also a valuable insight into the historical explored in terms of acid rain, Icelandic context of the evolution of the current volcanic eruptions and climate change. Highland landscape. But the overall theme of the book Like James Hunter’s On the Other Side remains the pervasive impact of the of Sorrow, it makes a compelling case that Victorians on our landscape and the before Culloden, the Clearances and challenges this poses for conservation and Balmoralisation, the Highlands were community regeneration today, especially experiencing something of a golden age. with regards to the deer problem. Contrary to current received wisdom (in As Robin Noble writes: “We have to be part perpetuated by the Victorian prepared to think long and hard, and rewriting of history), rather than laterally, to solve the problem caused by wallowing in dark squalor, many glens this highly contentious part of the were brimming with people, economic Victorian legacy. The responsibilities of activity and ecological richness. those who hold shooting rights need to be Noble describes the process that began widened and strengthened… culling on in the aftermath of the 1745 Jacobite an increased scale will be needed into the Rebellion: agricultural improvement, the indefinite future, gamekeepers will be mass introduction of sheep, clearance of guaranteed jobs, and the predictable the glens, large-scale social upheaval and hysterical cries that it will all mean the movement of people away from the end of the sporting estate will be absolute Highlands. nonsense.” Around the same time, the first tourists began to arrive: artists, writers and £12.99 sportsmen lured by the romanticism of saraband.net the writings of Walter Scott and James MacPherson. This in turn led to the The reviewer dramatic rise of the hunting estate or deer Mike Daniels is the head of land management for the forest – from six deer forests in 1811 to John Muir Trust
Wild Guide to Scotland photographers, it features secret caves magical Kimberley Grant, David Cooper waterfalls, lost ruins, soaring cliffs, ancient and Richard Gaston forests and amazing wildlife. Another quality publication Well organised into regional sections and from the same publisher as the the colour-coded categories, it also contains lots of Bothy Bible, the Wild Guide to useful information about local food, traditional Scotland focuses on the Highlands inns, secluded cottages, remote campsites, and Islands, wandering off off the artisan whisky distilleries and wild swims. beaten path to explore some of the £16.99 lesser known parts of the region. wildthingspublishing.com Illustrated by great images from a talented trio of young Glaswegian 34 INTERVIEW JOHN MUIR TRUST JOURNAL SPRING 2017
Nicky Spinks -8 inov The record-breaking fell-runner and cancer survivor is an inspiration to those who hear her stories of hope and endurance. Kevin Lelland went for a run with her to find out more PHOTOGRAPH: LEE PROCTOR/ LEE PHOTOGRAPH:
How and when did you first get into fell days in the Lakes. approach from conservationists would be running and why? appreciated – plus a little recognition that In 2001 I started road running in Yorkshire Are there hills or places you go back to we don’t harm the environment because with a friend. By October 2002, I was because the location is special to you? we want to, but because we’re sometimes training for the Great North Run and came The day before my mastectomy in 2006 forced by political or financial pressures, across an advert in Runners World for the I ran to Rocking Stones in the Peak District or even by the weather, to do things we’d Trunce – a four mile, 500ft fell race near with my husband. We had a picnic and prefer not to do. And I always find that a Barnsley. I thought it sounded exciting, so I promised myself that I would return in bit of home-made cake is a great way of I went and reccied the route, then worked six months at Christmas – and we did. smoothing things over. out a similar route that I could practise on Since then, every milestone that comes from my farm. At my first fell race it was along is celebrated by a run or walk to What sorts of songs or thoughts get stuck hailing and windy. There were 34 runners Rocking Stones. in your head when you are spending and I was scared. But I loved it. long hours in the hills? How do you juggle managing a farm, I often like to clear my head by thinking You set the fastest time for a double Bob training and taking part in these things through while running, so I avoid Graham round last May completing the long-distance events? music. When I’m on a long challenge or route in the Lake District in 45 hours and In winter, I’m able to train consistently race the one thought that does often stick 30 minutes. What motivated you to take because the cows are fairly easy to look in my head is, “What am I going to eat on that challenge? after until they start calving in February. when I get home?” I wanted a challenge in 2016 that would I can always run from the farm, and the Watch Nicky’s film Run Forever: Nicky celebrate my surviving 10 years since my moors are only 20 minutes away. I also Spinks and The Double Bob Graham at breast cancer diagnosis, and test my have a good arrangement with my inov-8.com/blog/run-forvever-film- physical and mental strength. I also husband: he looks after the farm at nicky-spinks wanted to raise money for the Odyssey weekends, and in return chooses the charity (odyssey.org.uk) and give hope destination of our annual holiday – and Further info to other people diagnosed with cancer. gets a few weeks extra time while I look Nicky Spinks hosted a hill run and after the farm! was a keynote speaker at the Peebles Outdoor Film Festival Running and hiking for that length of sponsored by the Trust. She is an time is incomprehensible to most What steps do you think can be taken to ambassador for all-terrain running people. How did you prepare yourself strengthen the ties between company inov-8. mentally and physically? conservation organisations and the I prepared mentally by breaking down the farming community? About the author Kevin Lelland is the Trust’s head of round into two distinct sections, each of Farmers understand what environmental communications and membership. which seemed doable. Physically, I organisations want, but we are running He can be contacted at kevin. prepared by doing back-to-back training businesses. A softer, less finger-pointing [email protected]