Our Month: Mountaineering Scotland in August 2026

Our CEO Stuart Younie started August with a trip over to the Scottish Institute of Sport in Stirling to meet with sportscotland to discuss the allocation of additional funding to support our performance pathway. This is great news for the young climbers on our national squad and those younger climbers looking to progress on the development pathway. The £19k of additional funding will be supporting route setting and coach development as well as looking at the potential pathway opportunities around para climbing. 

August is also a busy month for the governance of the organisation with both the Finance and Risk Advisory Group meeting on the 6^th and the board on the 13th. Matters on the agenda included signing off the annual accounts, our insurance renewal, recruitment of Directors and a presentation by Ross Cadie on the work of the Mountain Safety team. Stuart also took some time out to meet up with the new CEO of Paddle Scotland, Mike Strang and discuss some of the common issues across the two sports.  He also had separate catch ups with Paul Ratcliffe CEO of the BMC about coach development and the CEO of the Association of British Climbing Walls Kath Hipwell about their climbing wall accreditation scheme and how it can complement Associate Membership of Mountaineering Scotland. 

Stuart also took some time out of the office to attend the Scottish Climbing Wall Network meeting in Perth on the 17th to present the new associate membership scheme and stress the importance of our relationship with climbing walls all over Scotland to help support the development of the sport of climbing. 

Following on from the success of the first phase of the It’s Up to Us campaign and the restoration of the path on An Teallach, we need your help to choose another mountain path for our next project. We are specifically interested in paths on a mountain or hill of 600m or more. The It’s Up to Us campaign focuses on mountain paths on private land, with little or no access to public funds for access improvements. If you know of a mountain path in need of repair, tell us about it here. Nominations close on 30^th September so get your suggestions in quick!

The recent Ramblers petition regarding North Chesthill Estate in Glen Lyon has generated a lot of interest about this longstanding access issue. We know this case is important to our members and Mountaineering Scotland has been actively involved for almost three decades now with our original file going back to 1996. We agree that the landowner’s actions, in actively discouraging even responsible access for two months or more every year, are not in line with the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 or the Scottish Outdoor Access Code. There have been numerous attempts to come to a compromise with the landowner, but sadly none of these have resulted in a long-lasting solution. If you are planning a visit to the Munros north of Invervar, our advice is to follow the established circular route, sticking to the ridges and avoiding the corries, except in an emergency.

We are continuing to liaise with the Outdoor Access Team at Perth & Kinross Council and the Local Access Forum and have been sharing information and evidence from our records, to support their discussions with the landowner. It is important to stress that the approach taken by the owners of North Chesthill is out of step with the approach taken by other estates across Scotland who we have a very constructive relationship with, recognising that deer stalking plays a critical role in tackling nature loss and climate change.

At the end of the month, we submitted an objection to Invercassley Wind Farm, a proposal for 20 turbines on the north side of Strathoykel, between Lairg and Ledmore, Sutherland. The turbines would be within the Reay-Cassley Wild Land Area and we are concerned about the visual impact  of this development from the summits of several iconic Scottish mountains, including Ben More Assynt, Cul Mor and Seana Bhraigh. You can view our full response here.

The Mountain Safety Advisors team have been out this month delivering navigation skills courses across the country, from the mountains around Braemar in the north to the Ochil Hills in the south, via Dunkeld and Glencoe. The team really enjoy delivering to our members in a range of locations around Scotland and hopefully this allows people to find a course that suits them. As I write, Kirsty and Max are preparing to deliver the Mountain Skills course in Glencoe which will be the same as our usual mountain skills weekend but will have the added benefit of also being aligned with the Mountain Training course of the same name. So participants will get some added extras as well as the usual high-quality training and experience. That will leave only the Arrochar Navigation and the Night Navigation courses in Pentlands and Dumyat before transitioning to winter!

Winter course dates and venues have all been organised and should be going live on our website soon, so watch this space as they tend to book quickly.  

At the start of the month, our team hosted a ThinkWINTER planning session at The Granary, Perth to plan for this year’s winter safety campaign. Colleagues from Glenmore Lodge, Scottish Avalanche Information Service, Mountain Training, Scottish Mountain Rescue and Developing Mountain Biking in Scotland came along for a busy day of ideas, inspiration and biscuits!

Membership and Club Development Officer Christina has had a busy month, attending the Scottish Climbing Wall Network Meeting at Perth UHI to discuss plans for a new Climbing Wall Associate membership with facility managers, hosting a Clubs Connect online call focussing on volunteer support and recruitment for clubs and joining the mental health group Blackdog Outdoors for a walk up Ben MacDui.

Megan has been working on the next issue of Scottish Mountaineer, organising a photoshoot with a group of members mid month to update our photo library, all alongside delivering our routine members news and other communications.

August has been a busy and productive month for the team, with everyone making the most of the longer days and warmer weather. This has been particularly important for our outdoor climbing programmes, Ready to Rock and RealRock, which have been delivered at venues across Scotland for climbers of all ages and abilities.

We’ve also been delighted to work alongside our friends at Common Wheel, supporting their service users to access outdoor climbing. Robert led a session at Neilston, making the most of some fantastic sunshine and providing another great opportunity for participants to get outdoors and enjoy climbing.

The team also headed indoors for a Scottish Climbing Wall Network meeting at Perth College Climbing Centre. A huge thank you to all the walls who were able to attend! In the morning, there was plenty of great discussion around developing coaching and route-setting networks, as well as Mountaineering Scotland’s new Associate Wall membership, including the opportunity for walls in attendance to provide feedback on the proposed benefits, we are looking to offer.

A special thanks to Nick Cooper from the Association of British Climbing Walls (ABC), who provided an update on the launch of ABC wall accreditation in Scotland, along with information on their incident reporting system. Alan Halewood also provided valuable information and guidance to walls around protecting themselves from litigation. After lunch, there was a great session from Petzl providing an insight into their current range of products and opportunity to try them out in the wall.

 Jack, Jonny and Euan have all been busy supporting the organisation and delivery of recent academy programme activity for our squads at EICA. Meanwhile, Heather has been keeping busy with competitions, with the qualifying rounds of the Fun Boulder competition coming to an end. Bookings have also opened for the Youth Climbing Series, which kick off in September.