Rewilding is the best defence against wildfires (and why the Telegraph is unsurprisingly wrong): spectator.com/article/rewi...

Rewilding is the best defence against wildfires

Rewilding is not the cause of Britain's worsening upland wildfires. Increasingly, it looks like one of the most promising solutions.

spectator.com

This should also become policy in Scotland. Solar power works: so should car parks. And green spaces should be saved.

Bylines Network@bylinesnetwork.co.uk · last mo.

As Britain swelters through another heatwave, few people will have heard that ministers have quietly dropped plans for solar carports. Cars cooler in summer. Shelter from the rain in winter. Clean electricity all year round. A missed opportunity? @eastangliabylines.co.uk

Shocking to discover designating AI data centres as “National Critical Infrastructure” means water companies are prohibited from restricting water to them even in times of drought. Households will lose water first. Thanks to @olliehayes.bsky.social at @globalactionplan.bsky.social for joining me

Data Centres vs. Drinking Water: What Matters To Us Most?

Podcast Episode · The Rest Is Politics · 30 July · 16min

podcasts.apple.com

People aren't struggling because there's not enough oil and gas - they're struggling because of the oil and gas companies who Burnham is lying down for. Greed is the problem, not resources.

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 6d ago

Burnham promises ‘pragmatic’ approach to North Sea oil and gas

New post Parkswatchscotland: The potential ecological impacts of the fire in Strathy Nethy and Glen More https://parkswatchscotland.co.uk/?p=33526

Who planned the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony. Currently listening to some posh bird doing a 'sensitive' version of The Proclaimers' '500 Miles'. Utterly appalling.

Lot of sense in Nick Kempe's article on the Glenmore fire in the #Cairngorms parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2026/07/18/l...

Learning from the 'Glenmore' wildfire in the Cairngorms National Park needs to start now - parkswatchscotland

While efforts to contain the Glen More wildfire continue (see here) and have had some impact, it now appears likely only rain will extinguish it.   In the last year the Cairngorms National Park Author...

parkswatchscotland.co.uk

Cloudy and rainy up on top, but what a superb day I had on Saturday wandering over Beinn Bhrotain in the Cairngorms

People are being advised to avoid the Glenmore and Loch Morlich area today due to the ongoing large wildfire. Campsite, ski area and road closed.

Sometimes nothing special has to happen to make a day great - just being afoot in the Cairngorms is special enough. cairngormwanderer.wordpress.com/2026/07/01/a...

‘Slough is like an experiment’: Europe’s largest datacentre hub leaves town sweltering

‘Slough is like an experiment’: Europe’s largest datacentre hub leaves town sweltering

Emerging research suggests datacentres create a heat island effect, pushing up temperatures in the immediate vicinity by as much as 9C The community living next to the largest datacentre park in Europe say the scorching summer heat has grown unbearable. On days like Wednesday, said Nabeel Nawaz, the store manager of a Chaiiwala franchise in the centre of Slough, the heat is like something “pinching your body and burning your skin”. Continue reading...

theguardian.com

A glorious day cycling along the Fife coast, between Kirkcaldy and Inverkeithing. A real treat seeing the profusion of colour in all the wildflowers. And, of course, that rather bonnie rail bridge.

The things you end up doing in life that you never envisaged: this week I became a remote location chimney sweep at Corrour Bothy in the #Cairngorms.

Fancy getting into #hillwalking? Why not start with @MountaineeringScotland’s free Sofa2Summit online course? 📸 Mountaineering Scotland & The Adventure Photographers

📢We're recruiting for an exciting new mountain woodland #PhD on "Mountain birch genetics & recovery in Scotland"! Full funding is guaranteed for this project involving molecular genomics & high-altitude field experiments at #Corrour & Mar Lodge. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Away up Glen Prosen at the weekend and did Dreish and Mayer "from the back". Didn't see a thing all day because of cloud, wind and rain, but the hills always reward and, looking to my feet, the prizes included Cuckoo Flower, Star of Bethlehem, Marsh Marigold and Trollius.

Sad news. For pure melodic invention he was a real master, such a delight to listen to.

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 2mo ago

Sonny Rollins, colossus of jazz saxophone, dies aged 95

I just signed a @scotrewilding.bsky.social petition: Scotland Needs a Nature Minister. Sign here: actionnetwork.org/petitions/sc...

Scotland Needs a Nature Minister

This year Scotland signed off on the Natural Environment Act, setting up a framework to create nature recovery targets. Now, it’s up to the new government to create targets that will lead to the resto...

actionnetwork.org

NEW CAIRNGORMS BOOK ON THE WAY Thrilled to say that I've signed a contract for the publication of my first book. 'Stories of a Landscape' tells of the people of the Cairngorms from earliest times to the present day. It should be published by Tippermuir Books later in the year.

Don't often get out of the Cairngorms, but it was worth it this week for this stunning view of Ben Nevis from one of the hills above Loch Arkaig.

‘The biggest, baddest, saltiest chick you would ever see’: why no one sang the blues like Big Mama Thornton

‘The biggest, baddest, saltiest chick you would ever see’: why no one sang the blues like Big Mama Thornton

Gay, fearless and utterly unique, Thornton had a hit with Hound Dog before Elvis – but was then fleeced and forgotten. One hundred years after her birth, a new documentary sets the record straight

theguardian.com

New post Parkswatchscotland: The LLTNPA’s war against visitors at Loch Lubnaig and the Falls of Falloch https://parkswatchscotland.co.uk/?p=32802

Spring in the Cairngorms: redding up a bothy toilet and enjoying both blizzard and sunshine. cairngormwanderer.wordpress.com/2026/04/08/w...

Welcome to spring

Easter Sunday in the Cairngorms: bitter wind and heavy snow. I’ve always loved the mountains in winter, from early experience of climbing hills in the snow as a teenager to later years of more tech…

cairngormwanderer.wordpress.com

When spring does come to the hills it can seem very sudden: there's two days and about ten degrees between the first picture and the last. More see-sawing to come before summer, but it's on its way.

New post Parkswatchscotland: Why the Cairngorms National Park targeting outdoor recreation won’t save the capercaillie https://parkswatchscotland.co.uk/?p=32690

The new fire byelaw for the Cairngorms National Park is about to begin, banning fires and barbecues between 1 April and 30 September each year 🔥 Read our FAQs for everything you need to know ➡️ bit.ly/4m2ew95

Sad to see him go. A great writer and creator.

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 5mo ago

Len Deighton, spy novelist and author of The Ipcress File, dies aged 97

A missed summit. Sometimes it hurts, but can still be a glorious day. cairngormwanderer.wordpress.com/2026/02/16/a...

It's @walkhighlands.co.uk time! And in my latest column I'm taking a closer look at the weirdness that is Fata Morgana. I've only seen this bizarre mirage a couple of times, and this particular sighting was on 27th December on Carn na Drochaide. My brain hurts after writing it though! 😆

Fata Morgana: when Morgan le Fay comes out to play

At first it was subtle, barely enough to suggest anything was amiss - a long, flat-topped plateau in the distance, somewhere over towards Drumochter, and I was struggling to identify it. We do of c...

walkhighlands.co.uk

Another toilet change at Corrour Bothy in the #Cairngorms. Heavy going in the snow, especially with one MO jet-lagged and one just old, but, hey, you take the good with the not so good.