Outdoors

Living by the sea on a tranquil beach is a dream for many - you can make it a reality by visiting one of these free to visit, seaside bothies.

It usually takes something a bit special to win the Coe Cup, the annual freeride ski contest that’s been held at Glencoe Mountain resort since 2012, and this year Conall Strickland certainly went the extra mile, landing an enormous backflip to claim first place in the men’s ski category. After making a smaller drop at the top of the competition face – Glencoe’s notoriously steep Flypaper – Strickland bled off some speed with a couple of quick turns, pointed his skis towards a ten-foot high rock outcrop and then, as the ground disappeared from underneath him, launched into what looked like (but almost certainly didn’t feel like) a slow, graceful arc, allowing his skis to rotate all the way over his head before thumping back down onto the snow.

Forget the Mediterranean or the Caribbean, Scotland has incredible white sand beaches scattered around its coastline, rivalling any found around the world.

Leave the pavement and cobbles of Edinburgh behind, and head off-road with one of these trail runs in and around the city.

A day out exploring the beautiful scenery of the Kingdom of Fife followed by a visit to one of its inviting inns is a day well spent. Try one of these Fife walks and earn your next pint.

Open-water swimming is a shock to the system at first, but once you acclimatise the accomplishment is euphoric.

Feel the need to stretch your legs?

With rugged mountains, peaceful lochs and unique cities, Scotland has an embarassment of riches when it comes to scenery. Here are 15 of the country’s finest views.

I’m not really that into competitions,” says Dunbar-based surfer and bodyboarder Josh Christopherson. There’s nothing particularly controversial about that view – lots of people are attracted to surfing precisely because you don’t need to do it competitively in order to enjoy it. It sounds odd coming from Christopherson, though, because he recently made history by becoming the first Scot ever to reach a final in the European Surfing Championships – an event first held in Jersey way back in 1969. These days the contest is better known as Eurosurf, and the 2017 edition took place last October in the beachbreaks around the village of Bore in southern Norway. Christopherson didn’t just make it to the final in the bodyboarding category, he also picked up one of the highest individual wave scores in any category along the way. You might reasonably expect somebody competing at such a high level to relish the adrenaline of fiercely-fought 20 minute heats, but contests just aren’t Christopherson’s thing.

Just in time for the Easter break a shopping centre in Glasgow will open the UK’s tallest indoor slide.

It may be the end of snowdrop season, but this means it is almost time for the Bluebell to reign supreme in Scottish woodlands