Outdoors

A few weeks ago, regular readers may remember, this column had some fun with numbers – well, one number in particular: the “skier days” total recorded this year by Scotland’s five main ski centres, CairnGorm, Glencoe, Glenshee, The Lecht and Nevis Range. (One skier day is equivalent to one person buying a day pass or two people each buying a half-day pass.) As expected, the 2017/18 season turned out to be a much-needed good news story, the total of 247,139 skier days being the highest in five years and well above the ten year average, even if you discount the abysmal 2016/17 season as too pitiful to bother with.

The summer season is a great time to make the most of the great outdoors, with hiking, camping and gardening all much easier and more enjoyable in warmer weather.

Television presenter Alan Titchmarsh has attacked water firms for blaming shortages on British gardeners.

It is a testament to our continuing fascination with the polar explorers of the early 20th century that so much of the literature they produced is still in print. Walk into your local bookshop – if you’re lucky enough to still have such a thing – and if you can’t actually find a copy of Scott’s journals or Shackleton’s South or Cherry-Garrard’s The Worst Journey in the World displayed on the shelves, you should have little difficulty ordering one. Chances are your only real problem will be deciding which of the various different editions to buy.

It’s nearly five years now since I first interviewed Royal Marine-turned-businessman Tommy Kelly for The Scotsman. The former Stewart’s Melville and Napier University student had just started a company called Jöttnar, working in partnership with his friend and fellow Marine Steve Howarth – an experience he described as “building the plane while you’re flying it.” Their plan, cooked up while out on manoeuvres together in Arctic Norway in 2005, was to launch a range of high-end outdoors gear that would function more effectively than the MOD-issued kit they were wearing at the time, and which would appeal to people who – like them – took their climbing and ski mountaineering seriously.

There's still time to get your vegetable seeds off to a flying start so that you can harvest your own crop in the autumn

Once a delight for ultra runners at home and abroad, the two famous mountain marathons in Scotland have recently died a quiet death

With massive crowds expected at the biggest country event of the year, Ilona Amos has the low-down on the Royal Highland Show, which opens this week

Perched atop a 300 foot cliff and a bombing range, the remotest hostel on mainland UK has opened its doors.

At about this time last year, James McIntosh, manager of the Lecht ski centre, gave me his views on the future of the Scottish ski industry.

Enjoy an offshore adventure with one of these island expeditions.

“St Kilda – you don’t exist. Your name is just a faint cry made by the birds that make their home on the high cliffs at the furthest edge of the United Kingdom, beyond the outermost of the Outer Hebrides.” So begins the memorable entry on St Kilda in Judith Schalansky’s Atlas of Remote Islands, subtitled “Fifty islands I have not visited and never will”. First published in German in 2009, replete with beautiful, retro-styled maps, the atlas was translated into English the following year and has been described as “gorgeous, lyrical and whimsical” by Time, and “utterly exquisite” by Robert MacFarlane. It even won Germany’s award for the Most Beautiful Book of the Year.

FOUR Scottish beaches have been named on a list of best seaside destinations in the UK.

Take your cycling to the next level with one of these hill climbs.

The Glasgow Garden Festival might have ended 30 years ago, but it lives on in a Scots garden centre.

Forget Chelsea Flower Show’s cowpats and Monty Don’s perfect soil, The Beechgrove Garden is for real Scottish gardeners, says Bill Jamieson.