Outdoor

Summer in the City

3 Jul 2007

It’s summer. Well, as close as it gets to summer in Scotland. Sunshine is carefully rationed so when it does make an appearance you’d better be prepared to make the most of those breaks in the cloud. Here we present some of the best ideas for enjoying…

Travel - Russia

3 Jul 2007

(Image: The Moscow train) Imagine going to Moscow and not seeing Red Square. From behind the police cordon I cursed Condoleezza Rice - not for US foreign policy, but for potentially messing up my trip. She was visiting the Kremlin and as a result…

Music lovers asked to walk on fire for charity

19 Jun 2007

Music lovers heading for this summer’s Belladrum festival are invited to take part in an exciting challenge - a fire walk across hot embers to raise funds for the Highlands’ Cancer Caring Centre. The Maggie’s Blaze Firewalk Challenge will take place…

Laid-back bikes

18 Jun 2007

Remember that ad from the early 80s flogging the Yellow Pages where the kid asks for a bike for his birthday? The grim up north dad is banging on about a saddle looking like a razor blade but buys his lad one anyway, mumbling, ‘Well, I were right about…

Festivals

5 Jun 2007

At last, summer’s here and the time is right for dancing in the streets. Not to mention fields, parks, islands, pubs, clubs and village halls. As the festivals season gets underway across the globe, Brendan Perring and Cate Simpson present a…

Life & Style - Travel

22 May 2007

The car rental clerk has me sussed. ‘Of course, for only an extra US$100 you can have this.’ Turning the page of his display book, he taps invitingly on the upper corner of a photograph. There, glistening in the Californian sunlight, is a Chrysler…

Travel

Life & Style

8 May 2007

(Picture: © Anne Pinniger) ‘Tropic of Capricorn’. It’s just there, written clearly on a road sign in the middle of nowhere. Dirty yellow sand in the air, the track ahead glittering with fool’s gold as though it had been chucked away. The landscape…

Travel - Whisky galore!

Life & Style

24 Apr 2007

In almost any bar in Paris or Barcelona, you’ll spot young females drinking whisky. Not old men in tweed bunnets, swirling heavy tumblers and singing to themselves but young, fashionable women. A whisky-cola may be a very popular ladies’ choice in clubs…

Scottish Outdoor Access Festival

Nationwide, Sat 28 Apr - Mon 7 May

23 Apr 2007

FESTIVAL Launched in 2005, the Scottish Outdoor Access Code encourages people to enjoy the great outdoors in a safe and responsible fashion. To walk through fields without damaging crops, picnic without leaving litter, and making sure your dog…

Life & Style - Travel

A passage to India

10 Apr 2007

I’m sitting enjoying the shade of the imposing Lakshmana temple on a hot and dry day in Khajuraho when a party of Japanese tourists interrupts my peace. The small group stands bunched around one corner of the intricately adorned building, giggling into…

Travel - Magical Mystery Tour

Life & Style

27 Mar 2007

I should declare my partiality from the outset: I was born and bred in Manchester. Healthy disdain for our neighbours to the west is not so much a point of view as birthright. But perhaps I’ve judged too hastily. Change is in the air over Merseyside…

Activity Sports - Mountain Biking

Easy Rider

27 Mar 2007

In Glentress forest, in the Tweed valley, a series of mountain bike runs have been created on Forestry Commission land, just outside Peebles. At the bottom of the hillside, the ‘Hub in the Forest’ is an activity centre that services the needs of the…

Activity Sports - Snowboarding

Lower Slopes Drifter

27 Mar 2007

David Laing attempts to master one of the fastest growing sports in the world

Festival Fever

News

27 Mar 2007

Early Bird tickets still available for The Outsider

Activity Sports - Off Road Driving

Crash Course

27 Mar 2007

Despite getting stuck in a stream, Claire Prentice enjoys a lesson in off road driving

Deerstalker

Rural rat race

12 Mar 2007

If you go down to the woods this month, be sure of a big surprise. Unless, of course, you are one of the 500-plus loons who have already signed up for the Deerstalker, an assault course through the countryside, forests and hills around the Borders…

Edinburgh Moonwalk

26 Feb 2007

Anyone out for a quiet stroll across the Meadows in Edinburgh might be in for a surprise, as 8000 women (and a few men) from all over Scotland descend on them, wearing decorated bras and pink baseball caps. This is the Edinburgh MoonWalk - not a genteel…

Loch Fyne

Love in a cold climate

31 Jan 2007

It’s not always easy doing nothing, but that’s what we’re here to do. Stop, relax, get away. And Loch Fyne, a blue grey landscape cut in two by an opaque, metallic body of water, gives the impression we’re hundreds of miles away from home and not just…

Executive campaign set to sponsor Outsider Festival

3 Jan 2007

Highland 2007, the year-long celebration of Highland culture, has announced that The Outsider Festival will be sponsored by the Scottish Executive’s sustainable development campaign, It’s Our Future.

Monster Street Party

The monster is loose

11 Dec 2006

As the sun sets on another spectacular series of Hogmanay parties the length and breadth of the land, the January blues won’t bring determined party animals quite as low as usual. Highland 2007, Scotland’s yearlong celebration of Highland culture past…