The original programme was about one hour long featuring four different people/groups but I’ve edited it to just under 10 minutes by cutting out everyone that isn’t me….

If you can’t get BBC Alba on your TV it’ll be on iPlayer until my unwitting Clarkson-esque comments get it pulled, so catch it while you can.

“With the current worldwide population shift towards an urbanised existence, the benefits of getting back in touch with the natural landscape and the lure of these wild remote places has never been greater. For many, living there has become a regular way of life, far from the comforts of modern living.

We meet a young family who spend each summer on the isolated island of Mingulay; an aspiring wildlife photographer and travel writer in remote Knoydart; a city-based guidebook writer who’s aim is to get people out to the wild places (that’s me); two Skye sisters who have set up a wilderness boot camp; and some of the Stornoway Kayak Club as they explore the rugged Lewis coastline and camp out on one of its many offshore islands.”

There’s a short trailer here, in which I feature for the first couple of seconds under my nice yellow MSR tarp. Oh, and I’ve got no idea how to watch it from abroad either….

“My Wild Land” – Wild Land News Autumn 2011

Contemplating 24 hours of Cairngorm berry lectures with a cubic metre of cake

Things I’ve been doing in September

I’ve been following with interest the peculiar outdoor blogger infighting which seems to have fizzled out along with the equally peculiar heatwave. I’ve received numerous emails and messages from people seemingly taking sides and attempting some kind of inquisition to out those that don’t conform to some quite fluid unwritten rules. Amongst the noise there were some comments and views that helped me to shape the first gear reviews on Walkhighlands where I’m lucky enough to have a certain amount of flexibility and editorial control. The nature of the site allows me to cherry-pick items from manufacturers that don’t always feature in the mainstream outdoor press for whatever reason, and it appears that some (thankfully very few) of the larger distributors and PR companies just don’t seem interested in a purely digital medium. There are some familiar brands in there – the likes of Rab, Montane and Berghaus contrasted against Chocolate Fish Merino and Finisterre plus a few lesser-known European brands that have supplied some interesting stuff.

Rather than offering the familiar scoring system the reviews will be closer to a ‘state of the market’ overview where the reader can benefit from something they generally can’t experience – my access to lots and lots of the latest kit. In each category – October features hats & gloves and winter daypacks for example- I’ll be looking at up to ten different models with a range of price tags and features. I’ve had the stuff for a while now and I’ve used it outdoors (there are incriminating photos on at least two Facebook profiles…) so I have a good idea of how it performs and any interesting (or annoying) features. I’d love to spend a long time with each item before writing the piece, but that’s just not feasible. For one item that’s unlikely to change specification over the course of a year that’d be great – but ten winter daypacks? Not going to happen. By the time I’ve finished it’ll be summer and somewhat irrelevant. Bloggers can (and do) take on that responsibility and I’ll continue to offer than kind of thing on here – a place where a snow-shovel review in June won’t cause the editor to alter my medication.

I spent an enjoyable weekend in the Cairngorms with three guys that I’ve walked with plenty of times before, just not all at the same time. This was predominantly a pleasure trip including beer and a debrief of Colin‘s Colorado Trail experiences, but with varying fitness levels and mountain experience they were also superb guinea pigs to help consolidate the skills acquired on my recent Mountain Leader Training course! I was testing a few items for upcoming reviews as well as providing a couple of items for others to look at – I figured that the Cairngorm plateau would provide a decent dose of heavy weather and it didn’t disappoint. As well as some more ‘traditional’ items I was testing a prototype Trailstar inner from OookWorks and the three Trailstars formed a superb MLD marketing shot beneath Shelter Stone crag by Loch A’an. You can find photos from the trip in Tookie‘s Flickr set here and Steve‘s Facebook album here (you’ll probably need a Facebook account).

I went to the Outdoor Trade Show in Stoneleigh, Warkwickshire which necessitated a long train journey and dodgy hotel but was rewarded with some lovely meetings with lovely people that I’d only ever spoken to online. I left with a selection of energy bars and cosmetics as well as a slight case of gear overload and some slightly negative vibes from distributors and retailers starting to worry a bit. Exciting gear for next year? Paramo’s revamped female range looks very nice – there’s tapering and all sorts going on. The Torres Core and Sleeves package is entirely mental but worryingly logical, and the Torres insulated trousers seem to have slipped under my radar. I like the look of the new lighter Vango tents – I’ll have one of those to play with when they’re out – as well as the Force 10 down/synthetic mix sleeping bags. Granite Gear packs have been picked up in the UK by distributor 9Point9 to complement their Big Agnes lines, and rebadged variations on the GoSystem Fly/Ti seemed to be on every stand.

Around the same time I confirmed my appointment as Web Editor for Outdoor Enthusiast Magazine, a quarterly multi-sport magazine available primarily in outdoor retailers. I’ve been working on content for a sparkly new website due to go live pretty soon which aims to fill the gap between issues of the print magazine. I’ll be offering outdoor news snippets, more gear reviews and the odd video in an attempt to engage with a very mixed audience that participates in a wide range of outdoor activities. I told them I’m allergic to horses.

I’ve just finished choosing the photos for my Arran guidebook as well as making the more menial decisions on things like chapters and captions, but I was pretty excited to get my first glimpse of the cover – a beautiful illustration by the awesome Vicki Gausden. I’ll upload it when I get clearance. A few additions and quite a bit of editing and preamble and it’ll be good to go.

Now we’re into October I might even get out for a walk  - I’ll be the one trying to use eight rucksacks at once.

I started blogging in the not-so-distant past, posting the usual trip reports, detailed gear reviews and interesting relevant snippets from around the internet – the standard fare that you’ll find on most outdoor blogs. I then began to get paid to write what are basically detailed trip reports for Walkhighlands, which then transformed to getting paid to write guidebooks for Pocket Mountains. As a consequence of this I stopped posting trip reports on my blog, and almost out of embarrassment started referring to it as my site when the term web log wasn’t really relevant any more.

This site then became a repository for gear reviews focusing on the lightweight end of the backpacking spectrum, and as anyone that has ever written a gear review and checked their traffic figures knows, people do a lot of gear research on the internet. My monthly hits soared as PR companies realised the value of my kind of website and its ability to spread the word far quicker than print publications to a much wider worldwide audience. I began to receive exclusive samples and get them online before the outdoor magazines to quickly gain that coveted spot at the top of the Google search results before the magazines could get their reviews printed.

I then started to dabble with simple video reviews. Nothing fancy, just a camera, table, some gear and a slightly posh English accent. There may have been a penguin once. These videos allowed me to expand my audience to encompass those that prefer their media moving, speaking and easy to distribute. I also published the site on Kindle. My monthly hits increased further.

I embraced social media, making good use of Twitter and Facebook (OK, primarily Twitter) and my Twitter follower numbers rose to well over 1000 (plus some very strange people). This facilitated further opportunities amongst online-savvy PR companies who know the value and reach of social media, and I got to meet (both digitally and in the real world) some great people.

I began to get published in both online and print periodicals, became semi-respectable and joined the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild which presented me with an Ikea-style assemble-at-home press pass and access to some of the great minds of the outdoor industry. I’m still too nervous to post in the online forum in case I get found out.

Now I’m being paid to do the very thing that I used to do for free on this site/blog. I’ve progressed from being a pretty regular contributor to the busiest walking website in the UK to the position of Gear Editor (and power-hungry forum moderator), and I’ll soon be running a brand new website for an existing outdoor publication. I have been commissioned to write and photograph three guidebooks over the next few years with a fourth pretty much confirmed, as well as a few features for magazines. I continue to work as a HV electrical design engineer (with a postgrad arts degree) and hope to complete my Mountain Leader assessment next year. My partner has just recovered from breast cancer. I still overuse parentheses.

None of this stuff would have happened if people didn’t read my words, view my videos, follow me on Twitter and criticise my ability to centre a kettle on top of a meths stove.

Thanks.