Episodes

  • Jen Scotney: Running Through the Dark | Podcast

    Jen Scotney: Running Through the Dark | Podcast
    Aug 27 2024
    John D. Burns talks to ultra runner Jen Scotney about the solace she found in running and how she has coped with the health challenges she has faced that have left her without the sport she loved. Running Through the Dark is a deeply personal book which faces the challenges of bereavement, chronic fatigue and facing up to losing a life long passion. Jen Scotney boasts an impressive record as an ultrarunner with podium finishes in the 108-mile Montane Winter Spine Challenger South and the 190-mile Northern Traverse. She is host of the Resilience Rising Podcast, a coach, writer, Mountain Leader and yoga teacher, which have followed her career as a human rights lawyer. Jen Scotney She has appeared in magazine features for Runner’s World, Trail Running and Women’s Running. She has been a guest host on the Wild Ginger Running YouTube channel, and a guest on the Tough Girl Podcast. She crewed for John Kelly’s successful Pennine Way fastest known time as well as for his Wainwrights Round in the Lake District. She grew up in the Peak District and now lives in the Scottish mountains with her husband Marcus and Sherlock the beagle. She is a trainee member of Killin Mountain Rescue Team. Running Through the Dark is her first book.
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  • David Barter. Great Scottish Bike Rides| Podcast

    David Barter. Great Scottish Bike Rides| Podcast
    Jun 25 2026
    John D. Burns talks to Dave Barter about his new book Great Scottish Bike Rides. (Available to pre-order now) Released 6 July. Scotland has some of the most spectacular scenery in the world yet many cyclists have yet to explore its wild roads. David has selected 25 of the finest routes available for all abilities. The book brings together twenty-five carefully curated road routes that showcase the very best cycling Scotland has to offer. From quiet Highland passes and rolling Borders roads to dramatic island loops on Mull, Skye, Arran and Bute, every ride has been ridden and refined to deliver an exceptional day in the saddle. The view from the summit of Bealach na Ba one of Scotland's most challenging rides. Photo Derek Williams David speaks about how his interest in cycling began and why he is so fascinated by the Scottish landscape. "In 2013 I left a well paid job to go on a mission to find the best road cycling in Great Britain and as a result “Great British Bike Rides” was born. In writing it I reaffirmed my love for Scotland and the fact that it really is my favourite place in the world. I’ve been visiting for over thirty years, returning year after year, and no matter how many times I go back, I find something new and a reason to return again. I’ve ridden bikes in many countries and many great locations, but Scotland offers something unique. Its road riding has long lived in the shadow of mountain biking and a handful of famous climbs, yet the real appeal lies elsewhere. The landscape delivers challenge, beauty and solitude in equal measure, and the roads follow the land rather than fighting it. Every ride feels different, shaped by weather, light and chance encounters. There is no such thing as a typical Scottish ride." Riding in the Highlands can come with its own challenges. A s David Explains. "I set out to ride Glen Kiltarlity without checking the snow cover. It was sunny in Tomatin when I left but once I got to the Glen I encountered some snow drifts. I thought I’d walk on for a bit to see if it cleared. After an hour I was committed. It didn’t clear until I reached the top after hours and hours of pushing my bike. I had a similar problem in Tarbert when it rained torrentially for the whole of the ride. I completed the loop with no photos and in a really bad mood so wrote no copy at all and had to go back and do it all over again months later. This has happened on many occasions and I now know these routes intimately." Cycling in Scotland offers two wheeled adventures unlike anywhere else in the UK. David's expertly written book will offer any cyclist, from beginner to expert the chance to explore the country's finest routes.
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  • Kev Mitchell: Scottish Mountain Rescue | Podcast

    Kev Mitchell: Scottish Mountain Rescue | Podcast
    Aug 17 2024
    Kev Mitchell talks about the vital work of Scottish Mountain Rescue.
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  • It’s Up to Us: Path restoration project | Podcast

    It’s Up to Us: Path restoration project | Podcast
    Jun 12 2026
    Derek Williams Sound Editor John D. Burns talks to Stuart Younie, CEO of Mountaineering Scotland and Ewan Watson, Project Manager for the Outdoor Access Trust Scotland about their three year project to restore the path network on An Teallach, one of Scotland's most iconic mountains. Stuart Younie (Helen Gestwicki) Ewan Watson (James Roddie) Stuart Younie CEO of Mountaineering Scotland said "This campaign and the restoration of the path on An Teallach has been a huge achievement through the combined efforts of OATS and Mountaineering Scotland and with the support of the outdoor community. We are really proud of the way that businesses, clubs and individuals have all stepped up and would like to thank everyone who has contributed and particularly the Scottish Mountaineering Trust, whose Diamond Grant kickstarted the whole project, and our lead sponsor Cotswold Outdoors. We hope we have managed to shine a light on the importance of investing in upland paths and the wider challenge of securing investment for this important work. I'm excited about where we go from here and selecting our next project for Its Up to Us." Ewan Watson, Outdoor Access Project Manager of the Outdoor Access trust for Scotland, said: "OATS and Mountaineering Scotland set an ambitious target of raising £300,000 to carry out footpath repairs on An Teallach. Thanks to the generosity of everyone who contributed we have reached this target and competed over 3km of work on An Teallach. "Specialist ‘hand build’ footpath contractors from Cairngorm Wilderness Contracts have spent nearly 800 days working on site, often in incredibly challenging conditions, to create a robust footpath that will provide sustainable access for years to come. They have been supported by volunteers from OATS who have assisted with the path works on a number of occasions throughout the project. Credit James Roddie Mountaineering Scotland Mountaineering Scotland is the membership and representative organisation for hill walkers, climbers and ski tourers in Scotland, with a membership of around 16,000 individual and club members and 130 affiliated clubs. We aim to inspire and encourage people to enjoy the benefits of walking, climbing and ski touring and provide guidance and skills training to mountain users to promote safety, self-reliance and responsible access in Scotland’s mountains and climbing venues. Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland The Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland (OATS) is a ground-breaking environmental charity. We promote sustainable access – developing, building and fixing upland and lowland paths, path networks, habitats and trailhead facilities, in popular, remote, and fragile places. We do this to support outdoors enthusiasts, land managers and local communities, and promote the health and wellbeing benefits of path use. We are at the forefront of developing partnerships to finance conservation projects, collaborating with others to make Scotland’s outdoor access network fit for the future, and bringing people together to learn how to make places that matter better for all.
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  • Henry Iddon & Max Leonard: Mountain Style | Podcast

    Henry Iddon & Max Leonard: Mountain Style | Podcast
    Aug 5 2024
    Everyone who explores the outdoors has a special relationship with their clothing. A cagoule can keep you safe in a storm, a duvet jacket might keep you warm through a freezing night, or a pair of gloves may save your hands from the numbing cold. In their new book, Mountain Style, Henry Iddon And Max Leonard are taking a look back over the years to the birth of outdoor equipment. in this podcast I'll be chatting to them about how the birth of specialist mountain clothing in the UK charts not only the growth of the outdoor industry but also a socail history of rising social mobility. When George Mallory made his fateful attempt on Everest in 1922 he was wearing was a high-tech windproof gabardine material, cut as a traditional Norfolk jacket style. Hi partner Sandy Irvine had fitted new-fangled zippers on to his clothing, to help with doing it up at altitude but that was all the specialist equipment the pair had. Until the 1950s most hill goers wore adapted street clothes and were wet and uncomfortable in all but the most benign mountain weather. Then things began to change. In Mountain Style, Max and Henry chart the rise of the out door industry and the growth of clothing designed for use in the outdoors as climbing and hillwalking boomed in the UK, creating a demand for functional, rugged clothing that could cope with the mountain environment. Henry Iddon Max Leonard For my generation of outdoor folk most of our kit came from Army Surplus stores. My first pair of winter walking trousers were my uncle's RAF trousers. They were wool, incredibly warm and comfortable. There's something reassuring in knowing your trousers played their part in the downfall of Hitler. For decades the image of a hillwalker in the public imagination was of someone in a bobble hat. That was probably because Tom Weir was the only walker most people saw on TV and he was never with out his woollen bonnet. Berghaus advertFootloose issue 27 July 1985 The story of the development of outdoor clothing is a social history. In the early years mountaineering was the reserve of a small number of people who had the leisure time and the funds to be able to travel to the mountains. Specialist outdoor gear began by a small number of elite climbers combining the technology from North sea oil and the sailing community to make the clothing they needed Over the years working class folk became more affluent and outdoor clothing attracted big manufacturers and entered the mass market. Then, being practical and comfortable, it made its way to the man in the street who had no intention of going near a hill but wanted something that would keep him dry. I know I'm getting old because my early mountain kit is now preserved in a museum. Mountain Style is available to pre-order now and will fascinate everyone with an interest in the history of outdoor pursuits whilst many old codgers like me will delight in in finding something and saying. "I had one of those!"
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  • Dan Bailey: UKHillwalking.com | Podcast

    Dan Bailey: UKHillwalking.com | Podcast
    May 29 2026
    For better or worse, the Internet has changed all our lives. Dan Bailey talks to John D. Burns about the influence the influence social media has had on how we relate to the outdoors. Dan is the editor of UKHillwalking and Gear editor for the site, the biggest on line network for climbers and hillwalkers in the UK. A service that has had more influence than any other on the outdoor community in Britain. He talks about the changes he has seen and what an increasingly digitalised future might mean. Dan Bailey Dan joined UKClimbing Limited as the part-time editor of UKHillwalking in 2011. His role became full-time in May 2016 when he took on the role of Gear Editor for both UKC and UKH. Dan discovered a love for the hills on family holidays to North Wales, allegedly making it up Cadair Idris at three-and-a-bit (he has to take his parents' word for that), and never really looking back. Day walks expanded into backpacking trips, and gradual progress through the classic scrambles led inevitably to climbing, for which he has endless enthusiasm but practically no talent. His passion for all things mountainous has led him from the Andes to Africa, the Pyrenees to the North Pennines; a cynic might point out that although he took nothing but photographs, he's sure as hell left a big carbon footprint. But Dan is usually to be found at home in Scotland, enjoying the world-class mountains and seascapes on his doorstep. Dan is the author of several guidebooks including Great Mountain Days in Scotland, Scotland's Mountain Ridges, The Ridges of England, Wales and Ireland and West Highland Way.
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  • Kat Hill: Bothy | Podcast

    Kat Hill: Bothy | Podcast
    Jul 3 2024
    John D. Burns talks to Kat Hill about her new book, Bothy, and her delight in these remote shelters. The pace at which our lives become increasingly complex seems to constantly accelerate. The computers, phones and artificial intelligence that we have created to release us from mundane chores seem, in fact, to have enslaved us. Who can resist constantly checking the phone to catch the latest trend and social media? Once we could escape the world by merely walking away from a phone that was attached to a wall. At one time there was a place where work, and even the cares of the world, could not reach us. Sadly, it seems that this time has passed and no matter where we are the electric machine clamours for our attention. Perhaps it is for this reason that the simple shelters scattered across the Highlands, known as bothies, have an increasing attraction. Kat Hill is an author & researcher based in the Highlands of Scotland, and her work focuses on questions of landscape, people, and heritage in various contexts. She has a PhD from the University of Oxford (2011), where she was also a British Academy Postdoctoral Award holder. Most recently she held an Environmental Humanities fellowship at the Institute of Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh and completed an MA in Environmental Humanities at Bath Spa. She is a Fellow at the IAS, Princeton University for 2024-25. Kat lectured at Oxford, UEA and Birkbeck College for ten years before leaving academia and London for a life in Scotland to write. She currently works as a Community Engagement Coordinator for Highlands Rewilding and offers bespoke 1-2-1 tutoring. She is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt and a European champion. Travelling to bothies around the UK, this book reveals the history of these wild mountain shelters and the people who visit them. With a historian’s insight and a rambler’s imagination, she lends fresh consideration to the concepts of nature, wilderness and escape. All the while, Kat weaves together her story of new purpose with those of her fellow wanderers, past and present. She moves from a hut in an active military training area in the far-north of Scotland to a fairy-tale cottage in Wales. Along her travels, she explores the conflict between our desire to preserve isolated beauty and the urge to share it with others – embodied by the humble bothy. To order your copy lick HERE Gelder Sheil Bothy These are just a few of the Bothies you can find in the Highlands of Scotland. They are maintained by the Mountain Bothies Association which relies on donations to carry out its work. Donate to the MBA HERE You can read stories about my travels to remote Bothies in my best selling book, Bothy Tales. I'm writing Bothy Tales II right now. Available in the Autumn. Buy Bothy Tales HERE
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  • Bobby Motherwell: Singer/Songwriter, Poet and Climber | Podcast

    Bobby Motherwell: Singer/Songwriter, Poet and Climber | Podcast
    Apr 28 2026
    Sound Editor Derek Williams In this podcast Bobby Motherwell talks to John D. Burns about his deep connection with wild places and how this inspires his music and poetry. There are times we all need to reaffirm our relationship with a timeless landscape. Bobby's writing speaks of how much it means to him not only to be in touch with the hills but also to take time to appreciate the small things like the call of a wild bird or the hum of an insect. Bobby finds these things essential, especially in times of loss when he has found contact with the natural world an important part of healing. In his music and poetry Bobby reflects the solace he finds in wild places. Bobby Motherwell Bobby Motherwell is a poet, singer/songwriter and musician from Glasgow. He lives in Howwood in Renfrewshire. He was until 2025 the Poet in Residence at RSPB Lochwinnoch where he still spends most of his spare time writing about and photographing the landscapes, surroundings and wildlife there. His writing is reflective of the natural world and is contemplative and meditative in essence. The results of his time there are compiled in his latest book Lochwinnoch: Birds, Words and Wetlands which was released this year at the Lochwinnoch Arts Festival. The projects he is working on currently include a book about the life and work of Alexander Wilson Poet/Naturalist and Father of American ornithology, and also a book documenting his ascent of the Matterhorn in Switzerland last year. Bobby will be performing poems and songs written during his residency at RSPB Lochwinnoch and also from his albums. Listen to Bobby's music HERE His solo music project is Sulidae, and his album first album Kitchen Sink Dharma was released in August 2022 to critical acclaim. The album was chosen as the featured album of the week on BBC Radio Scotland. His second album …an invincible summer received similar acclaim and success. He is currently recording his third album which will be released later this year. He released his first book Lots of Things in January 2023 which is a collection of poetry, prose and photographs and his second book of poetry Child in the Growing Old. Was released by Seahorse Publication in 2025. His poetry has been widely published in Scottish literary publications such as Dreich, S.C.A.P, Stanza and in Sweetycat Press (USA). He is a member of the Glasgow City of Poets and his poem The Swift In The Passing was commended at the Paisley Book festival in 2024. John will be appearing live in his one man show Bothy Tales on the 20th of June at Kincraig Community hall. Click HERE to book your tickets or follow the QR Code.
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