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Winter is over: official
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Camera obscura for Cairn Gorm
Cairngorms tourists will be in the dark following a decision of the National Park Authority.Planners have approved a plan for a camera obscura above the Coire Cas car park, enabling visitors to get a new view of the area.The chamber will be in the existing garden area in a 19m tunnel.
Walker survives Highland mountain fall
A hillwalker was injured in a fall on a Highland mountain at the weekend.Glencoe Mountain Rescue team was called out on Sunday when the woman, who was walking with a group on Meal Lighiche, south of Ballachulish, tumbled 150 feet after a rock gave way under her.She suffered a broken arm, head injures and multiple bruising in the accident.
Osprey love triangle brings egg despair
Ospreys, those large, fish-eating birds of prey that visit our shores during the summer months, seem to be making all the news at the moment.There’s an osprey soap opera n full swing in the Highlands, involving a love triangle, murder and infidelity.Bird experts at the Loch Garten Osprey Centre watched with baited breath as a returning male bird found his former mate sitting on a clutch of eggs sired by a love rival.
Mountain council votes to raise subs
Charles Clarke was re-elected president of the British Mountaineering Council at the weekend.Subscriptions to the organisation will also be raised after members passed a resolution in favour.
Dartmoor chief to retire
Dartmoor national park’s boss has announced he will step down this year.Dr Nick Atkinson will step down as chief executive of the park authority in September after 33 years with the body, 16 of them as top officer.The authority is now inviting applications for the job, with a closing date of 18 May.Nigel Hoskin, chairman of Dartmoor National Park Authority, said: “Under the leadership of Nick Atkinson the authority has gained a deserved reputation for on-the-ground delivery and for its strength of partnership working.
Whale of a time for Loch Ness divers
Walkers in the Loch Ness area can expect to see strange goings-on in the murky waters of the loch this June.Rubber-clad divers will be battling with a two-ton marine creature near the village of Dores.
More Three Peaks Race pictures for you to view
There's another batch of photographs from the Three Peaks Race now online. You can see the collection by clicking here. You can also order picture...
McNeish will give Wainwright lecture
Tickets are now on sale for the Wainwright Society’s memorial lecture which will take place in October.Cameron McNeish, laird of all Scotland and scourge of cairn builders everywhere, will deliver the lecture at Rheged, near Penrith.Mr McNeish, editor of TGO magazine and author of numerous books, also presented the BBC2 series Wilderness Walks.
Paddler rescued during busy Scottish weekend
Scottish rescuers were kept busy at the weekend with a spate of incidents.The most dramatic rescue happened after a kayaker overturned on the River Findhorn in Moray.Rachel Walker, a paddler from Liverpool, received head and neck injuries in an inaccessible gorge between Randolph's Leap and the Mains of Sluie.
Wainwright baggers just get younger
A seven-year-old Cumbrian girl has beaten her sister’s former record to become the youngest to climb all the Wainwright fells.An ascent of Scafell on Easter Sunday took Kerry Regan into the record books at the age of seven years, nine months, beating the existing holder Jordan Ross who completed all 214 Lakeland peaks aged nine years seven months.Kerry’s older sister Ellen took the title in March 2006 when she was nine years ten months, but this lasted only seven months until Jordan, of Macclesfield, summited Castle Crag in Borrowdale.
New bus services to tempt Dales visitors
Authorities in the Yorkshire Dales are encouraging visitors to use public transport to cut down pollution.Two new bus services will run from outside the national park, linking with trains and tying in with a series of guided walks.The Cravenlink bus will connect with trains from Ilkley and Skipton stations and will run into Bolton Abbey in Wharfedale.
Everest hero Hillary in hospital after fall
Sir Edmund Hillary who, with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay was the first to climb Everest, is recovering in New Zealand after a fall.The 87-year-old, who has continued to campaign for the Nepalese people, was admitted to an Auckland hospital on Sunday following his tumble after returning from the Himalayan state.His wife, Lady June Hillary, said he is in a comfortable condition and improving.
Catch Three Peaks race this weekend
More than 500 super-fit athletes will be pounding the paths of the Yorkshire Dales this Sunday.The annual Three Peaks Race, run over 24 miles (39km) with more than 5,000ft (1,600m) of ascent over the Yorkshire fells Pen-y-ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough, will see holder Rob Jebb attempt to keep the title.On the summit of Whernside, with Ingleborough in the distance A good walking time for the strenuous course is around eight to nine hours, but the winner who scales the three fells and the terrain between them usually completes the course in less than three hours.
Everest protesters 'intimidated' by Chinese
Five campaigners who protested at Everest base camp against the Chinese occupation of Tibet said they were subject to intimidation after being arrested.The five were detained on the northern, Tibetan side of Everest after they unfurled a banner which read: One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008.The protesters returned to the Nepal capital Kathmandu on Friday after being held by Chinese guards for two days.
Extreme fire risk puts access land off limits
A national park has closed access land to guard against moorland fires.In a repeat of last year’s closures, the Peak District park authority has banned walkers from access land as fire risk indexes have hit critical levels.Kinder Scout summit: out of bounds The park authority stresses that public rights of way – footpaths and bridleways – are unaffected, but the right to roam on moors, introduced by the Countryside and Rights of Way Act (CroW Act), is suspended.
National park ban for bird man
A Merseyside man has been banned from every national park in the country.John Kinsley was also ordered not to enter any RSPB nature reserve by Llandudno magistrates after he was found guilty of disturbing rare birds of prey.The 36-year old, from Newton-le-Willows, near Warrington, caused a pair of goshawks to leave their nest and a clutch of three eggs failed to hatch.
Bryson will head rural-protection charity
A leading group which champions the protection of the English countryside is set to be led by an American.Bill Bryson, the witty journalist and author from Des Moines, Iowa, will head the Campaign to Protect Rural England – and he’s already started talking rubbish.Left: Bill Bryson at home in Norfolk ©David Rose Litter will be high on Anglophile Bill’s agenda: he has pledged to write to both likely Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Tory leader David Cameron to urge hitting fly-tippers and litterbugs with hefty fines.