Mountain mending in Scotland
Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million has helped leave a lasting legacy on some of the highest peaks not only in Scotland, but in the whole of the British Isles.
The Scottish hills are often claimed to be wilder, more rugged, more intimidating than their southern counterparts, and perhaps with good reason. Of the hundred tallest mountains in the British Isles, just three are outside Scotland. Almost every peak over 1,000m is found in Britain’s northernmost kingdom. When you factor in the remoteness of many areas of the highlands, and the often unforgiving nature of the weather patterns that dominate in these areas, it’s not surprising that they’re often treated with a bit more respect by walkers and mountaineers, not just from Scotland but the world over.
Yet that intimidation factor doesn’t reduce the numbers drawn to ‘Munro-bagging’. Despite the extra challenge of climbing many of these peaks, lots of walkers and climbers remain wholly undeterred in their quest to climb the 282 highest in Scotland. And while some mountains, like the aptly-named ‘Inaccessible Pinnacle’ on Skye, require serious commitment and mountaineering skills, lots just need a pair of walking boots.
Mend The Cairngorms - Beinn a'Ghlo
If the extra height, exposure and weather are important factors to consider for those choosing to walk these hills and mountains, spare a thought for those whose job it is to look after them. Individual Munros might not draw the eye-popping numbers of honeypot areas south of the border, like Scafell Pike, but that doesn’t mean the mountainsides are pristine. In fact, there is still such a serious erosion problem here that since 1998, the Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland (OATS) has worked tirelessly to protect the highlands. Originally envisaged as a body just for the Cairngorms, its work has rapidly expanded to cover the whole of Scotland, especially the areas in its two enormous National Parks.
An innovative body, OATS has collaborated on some of the most interesting conservation projects in the UK, like the award-winning ‘The Mountains and The People’, which has been running for several years and focuses on bringing volunteers out and having them work alongside professional path builders, to try and cover the enormous network of rights of way that crisscross Scotland’s mountains.
The Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million campaign has left a lasting legacy on two very different mountains in Scotland, thanks to a partnership with OATS and Mountaineering Scotland. Ben Vane, a true everyman’s mountain, is within touching distance of Scotland’s major population centres and hosts one of the country’s most popular walks. Carn Liath, by comparison, is a rugged and steep-sided march up onto the Beinn a’Ghlo massif, which hosts three Munro tops. Alike in dignity no doubt, these two mountains needed more than £100,000 to repair enormous erosion scars. The MOM team were able to drum up big support for the Scottish mountains, who were not featured in the earlier 2016 campaign, and thanks to the generosity of hundreds of donors large and small, both mountains are now being repaired thanks to the hard work of OATS.
If you want to check on the progress of those two projects, head over to the OATS website and have a look at their recent blog posts about it. To support the BMC’s ongoing charitable access work, consider donating to ACT using the information below.
- Low-Impact Christmas Gifts For Walkers and Climbers
- Top 11 tips to improve your winter hiking & mountaineering for International Mountain Day
- BMC North East Area Meeting
- Julie Smith
- Have Your Say: 2025 to 2030 BMC Strategy Consultation
- Five of the best beginner ski tours in Chamonix
- Everything you need to know about the ongoing Roseberry Topping footpaths repairs, North Yorkshire
- Top 10 snacks for winter walking and mountaineering
- Iggy Rinaldi shortlisted in top 10 for SportsAid One-to-Watch Award
- The secret to a crowd-free ski tour in the Bernese Alps, Switzerland
- Rock climbing in the remote Bektau mountains of Kazakhstan
- Tabitha O'Caroll
- Nina Henderson
- Mia Coia
- Kasha Ogilvie
- Emma Bush
- Scott Dearie
- Sam Pigden
- Martin Cusack
- Ken Pallister
- Clarke Noone
- Youth Climbing Series Grand Final
- Did you know? You can donate free of charge to the BMC this Christmas
- Basic Child Safeguarding Training | Thursday 10th April
- Climbing Equipment Safety
- The British Mountaineering Council Launches Ambitious Climate and Sustainability Action Plan
- Everything you need to know about the proposed new National Park in North Wales
- Our 6 favourite sunrise & sunset routes for National Hiking Day
- Top 6 accessible routes for wheelchairs, mobility scooters and prams
- The British Mountaineering Council welcomes the British Boulder and Lead Championships to Manchester
- Five reasons to go trekking in Europe
- Julie Smith appointed as Head of Finance at the British Mountaineering Council
- BMC Winter Lecture Series: Bristol
- BMC Winter Lecture Series: Manchester
- BMC Winter Lecture Series: Bangor
- Best 6 climbs at Carn Gowla, Cornwall, according to our Local Access Rep
- Your Climbing Counts | Survey Results
- Bouldering outdoors for the first time
- David Hamilton
- Five historic walking routes to explore Scotland in autumn and winter
- 5 favourite Exmoor walks using the new Great Bradley Bridge
- Time Together: Lucy Garlick and Natalie Stilwell
- Basic Child Safeguarding Training | Monday 13th January
- Basic Child Safeguarding Training | Tuesday 18th February
- Basic Adult Safeguarding Training | Monday 20th January
- Basic Child Safeguarding Training | Wednesday 19th March
- December BMC Open Forum
- Clubs Open Forum
- Promoting your club using social media | Club Support Webinar
- Mental health, nutrition & exercise during menopause
Related Content
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Work to improve the first route at Roseberry Topping from Newton Woods to the summit is now complete, but there are 9 more sections of path repair to go over the next two years. Here's everything you need to know about the ongoing repairs, where to walk, when and why.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Help the BMC's Access & Conservation Trust raise FREE donations with all your online shopping this Christmas with Easyfundraising
Mend Our Mountains Articles
This Sunday is National Hiking Day, celebrated on 17 November, encouraging people to get outdoors and enjoy the beauty of nature through hill walking. Use the BMC's hiking route ideas to inspire you and our mapping discounts and freebies to navigate your way.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
With a new all-terrain, electric mobility scooter in the Cotswolds Natural Landscape thanks to Mend Our Mountains support, we celebrate the rise in accessible outdoor routes with a top six across the UK.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Part-funded by the BMC, the new Great Bradley Bridge in Exmoor opens up access to the famous, 117-mile Two Moors Way long distance walking trail. Here are our five favourite walks that take in this new crossing.
Hill Walking News
With almost 2,000m of footpath around Haytor Rocks in Dartmoor newly repaired, thanks to BMC Access & Conservation Trust funding from the Mend Our Mountains campaign, here are our top 5 walks and climbs in the area.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
The BMC’s Access & Conservation Trust (ACT) is pleased to announce a seventh project within the Mend Our Mountains campaign for 2024.
Hillwalking Destinations
Glen Coe's Aonach Eagach ridge is the most legendary Grade 2 scramble in Scotland. Do you have the skills to take it on?
Hillwalking Destinations
Sarah Stirling lists five of the easiest Munros for beginner hikers to bag!
Mountaineering
Mend Our Mountains Articles
One of the biggest projects ever supported by Mend Our Mountains has hit its huge fundraising target, enabling repairs to be made to badly damaged sections along the South Downs Way.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
The dramatic skyline of the Great Ridge walk connects the summits of Lose Hill and Mam Tor in Derbyshire’s Hope Valley. Heavy footfall left the path in a badly eroded state and work to repair the damage to the path started in March this year, and has seen 500 metres of the most serious damage along the path repaired to protect the surrounding landscape and bordering habitat.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
A kilometre-long stretch of one most heavily eroded footpaths in the heart of Bannau Brycheiniog (The Brecon Beacons) has been fixed, thanks to £12,100 of funding from the BMC’s Mend Our Mountains crowdfunding campaign.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
England’s highest mountain has been a constant headache for its custodians, the National Trust and Fix the Fells, as ever-increasing numbers seek to top England’s highest summit. Yet a poignant anniversary has highlighted the continuing need for large-scale projects to repair and revamp its slopes and pathways.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
In the last three years Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park Authority have been very active in working on a number of lower level bridleways around Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) and more recently started work on the bridleway connecting Capel Curig to Crafnant. While some of these trails have given opportunities to link communities and provide access to lesser-abled users, the scale and nature of the works on some of the routes that pass through some wild and remote areas has also surprised many users.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
The money raised through the Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million appeal has started going into work on the ground, after a dramatic helicopter airlift helped path repair work to get underway on Yorkshire’s highest peak.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Commuting with crampons, hard outdoor labour, and spending 120 hours a week with your colleagues - we speak to a mountain path repairer to find out more about the highs and lows involved in this vital job.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
The Nuns Cross Path is used by more than 30,000 walkers and 10,000 mountain bikers, as well as horse riders, disabled ‘trampers’ and many others each year - it is a shining example of the accessible but wild landscape Dartmoor can be. But a combination of extreme weather, like the storms of winter 2014, and erosion damage had taken its toll over the years. In stepped the BMC's Mend Our Mountains campaign.
Access & Conservation
Seven things you always wanted to know about path repair (but were too afraid to ask)
Hill Walking Articles
'Called to the Mountains' on BMC TV is a meditative, beautiful black and white short film focussing on Kirsty Pallas, a 26-year-old outdoor instructor and mountain rescue member from Oban in Western Scotland. Sarah Stirling catches up with Kirsty to discover more about the film and, as Kirsty's maternal side of the family are Indian, diversity in the British outdoors.
Mountaineering
A bit of Scottish winter climbing history, plus a range of classic routes from Grade II to V, complete with big stunning photos and brief descriptions. You're welcome.
Indoor Climbing News
Works on the upgrade of the bouldering facilities at Edinburgh Leisure’s flagship climbing arena at Ratho will begin on Monday 3rd June following a major funding investment from sportscotland’s Sport Facilities Fund. There will be a steady schedule of works across the summer and autumn as the changes occur.
Access Articles
BMC volunteers from the Get Stuck In programme joined Fix the Fells last month in Wasdale on Lingmell Breast, one of the main routes up to Scafell Pike. They spent the day helping to maintain part of this hugely popular footpath up to England’s highest mountain.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Mend Our Mountains is back for 2024 with six incredible access and conservation projects across England and Wales. This project is funded by the BMC’s Access and Conservation Trust charity (ACT) and we would like to thank all our members, supporters and volunteers for making vital work like this possible. Here’s what is happening this year as a result of your funding, including volunteering events you can get involved with.