Our Month: Mountaineering Scotland in April 2026

Our CEO Stuart Younie started April with the induction of two new Directors who have been co -opted onto the board following the recruitment process at the start of the year. Jo Dytch has been appointed Chair having previously held the role of Director for Clubs and Phil Reynolds will be taking up position as Treasurer and Director of Finance. Both appointments will be subject to the approval of members by formal election at the AGM later this year. 

Stuart also had a meeting with Gillian Keast the new Policy and Public Affairs Manager at sportscotland and as well as providing an organisational overview of Mountaineering Scotland they touched on the Outdoor Residential Bill, It's Up to Us and the development of a national strategy for mountain safety. 

Stuart and Catriona also met with FLS to get an update on the planning application to extend the North Face Car park which is currently sitting in the Highland Councils planning system. Following that meeting Stuart wrote to the Chair of the South area planning committee Cllr Paul Oldham and we received a response from Council officials indicating that the application had been delayed but would be considered later this year possibly in August. 

This month saw the conformation of new investment into sport resulting from the increase in the Scottish Government budget allocation to sportscotland. Stuart has been part of the leadership group representing Mountaineering Scotland on the CEO forum which has helped secure this additional funding and a communication went our recently inviting expressions of interest from clubs on one of the funding streams. Stuart is currently working with staff and Directors to identify projects which would be eligible for some of the other funds which have been made available. 

Historic Environment Scotland (HES) submitted a planning application for new fencing and signage on the Radical Road, below Salisbury Crags, Edinburgh, back in December 2025. The placement of the new fencing and the removal of some of the old fencing would allow climbers access to the South Quarry area for the first time since the Radical Road was closed due to rockfall back in 2018. Mountaineering Scotland submitted a response which you can view here. Whilst we welcomed the prospect of climbers getting back into the quarry, we raised some concerns about some of the details of the application. At a recent meeting of HES and Stakeholders, Catriona heard that, following a number of comments and objections, City of Edinburgh Council is still to decide the application, so the current barriers remain in place.

HES are also reviewing their climbing permits system, with the intention of reinstating it when access to South Quarry is re-established. Whilst we don’t endorse the use of climbing permits, as we don’t think the practice complies with the terms of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act of 2003, we are working with them to try to ensure that the system presents as minimal a barrier to access and safe practice as possible.

Following our initial response to the planning application in December, and the site visit in January, Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) have provided more information about the link path to connect the proposed new car park at Craig, Achnashellach. Catriona is now more confident that, if built as described, the new path will be fit for purpose for hillwalkers heading to the Munros of Sgùrr Chòinnich and Sgùrr a' Chaorachain, or the Corbetts of Sgùrr na Feartaig and Beinn Tharsuinn. You can view our additional comments here.

The 1^st of April saw the introduction of the new Fire Management Byelaw in Cairngorm National Park. CNPA undertook an extensive consultation on the Byelaw prior to its implementation, which Mountaineering Scotland took part in. Although we did not support the implementation of a Byelaw, we are pleased to see that our requests for clarity around the use of camping stoves and fireplaces and stoves in bothies have been actioned. More recently some of our affiliated clubs raised concerns about how the new Byelaw might affect mountaineering club huts within the Park. Following discussions with CNPA they have included a specific section for mountaineering club huts within their guidance for owners which is available here.

The summer programme of mountain skills and climbing courses started this month, with one day navigation courses in Arrochar and the Pentlands and a variety of Ready to Rock climbing sessions taking place, from introduction to climbing, bouldering to lead sport and trad. New courses this year include Introduction and Improvers Scrambling, Self Rescue for Climbers and Try your first summit, and there is still availability on most courses which run until October.

The full team also got a day out on the hill together helping Megan film some videos for our refreshed Sofa 2 Summit course. We're excited to see the end results with updated content!

Ross had a few meetings with the wider industry including Scottish Mountain Rescue looking at their latest annual review. And The Melanoma Fund, discussing how we can support spreading their sun-safe messaging this upcoming season and promote their Sunguarding online course.

Megan has been hard at work with the latest issue of Scottish Mountaineer all month, and it will be landing with members any day now. The digital issue is available now – members can access it by signing in to the members portal – more details on how to download the link are on our website here.

The team have also been working on updating Sofa 2 Summit, the free online guide to hiking that first launched in 2021, and has seen over 1500 people register to take part. We’ll be relaunching it in early summer with some exciting new content – sign up for email updates here.

The ThinkWINTER campaign continued through April as winter conditions and cold temperatures in the mountains continued over the Easter break. You can still give your feedback on this year’s campaign in a short survey designed to help shape this collaborative campaign in the coming years.

April marks the start of our Club membership year, and it’s been very busy with clubs renewing their affiliation and updating club members with us. An online training session for club secretaries took place on 1 April to walk them through the renewal process and talk through some of the frequently asked questions. For any that were unable to attend, a recording and guidance information have been emailed out, but do contact us if you need any further support.

The last weekend of April saw Megan attending the Scottish Youth Bouldering Championships at EICA Ratho, supporting the ClimbScotland team and getting lots of content for social media, while Helen and Christina headed over to Loch Lomond to join the Black Scottish Adventurers 4th anniversary hike up Conic Hill, followed by a very sociable afternoon on the shores of the loch. It’s great to see this vibrant and very supportive community thriving and continuing to grow, with members from all over Scotland of all ages attending their regular hikes and events.

April has been a month of momentum for ClimbScotland, with longer days, improving weather, especially towards the end of the month.

Our outdoor programmes have been ramping up, with members making the most of the conditions at various crags across Scotland, with ‘Ready to Rock’ lead by our endorsed AMI instructors and Robert leading on the delivery of our ‘RealRock’ programme too. Unfortunately, we did have to cancel our Academy Torridon trip on the weekend of the 4^th due to the wild weather forecast. Robert has also delivered Climbing Wall Instructor Training this month in Glasgow to members of our Scottish Squads and as well as EDI partners, supporting workforce development and participation across Scotland.

Speaking of workforce, Jonny Lowit joined the ClimbScotland Team as our new Head Coach and has had a busy start to the new role attending our joint Easter Camp at Edinburgh International Climbing Arena on day two, followed by a Development Squad weekend and then attending and supporting the Scottish Boulder Championships. Find more out about Jonny on our Meet the Team page.

The big event in April was our Scottish Youth Boulder Championships at Edinburgh International Climbing Arena which took place on the weekend of the 25-26. Saturday saw a 68 competitors across the U19’s, Senior and Veteran categories being tested by some amazing boulders set by Euan and his amazing setting team. On Sunday, we had 158 young competitors flood the EICA arena with new boulders set over night for them to jump on and attempt to crush! Massive thanks to our Competition Officer; Heather, Competition Coordinator; Neil, Head Setter; Euan, Chief Judge; Jack and all the volunteers who made the weekend a great success! Special thanks to RockCity, LostShore, Forma Design and Outlier for the awesome prizes!