Wild Writing winner Melissa Harrison

A London magazine journalist is the winner of this year’s Wild Writing competition.

The results were announced at the Fort William Mountain Festival with sub-editor Melissa Harrison picking up top prize for her short story Dimmity. Second place in the John Muir Trust organized contest went to South African Michelle Frost for her Leap of Fate, and the third-place prize was won by Martin McKendry from Northern Ireland for Misinformed.

Ms Harrison won a guided day out on one of the JMT’s properties in the competition, which was judged by author and folklorist Margaret Bennett. Ms Bennett said: “I was delighted to be asked to judge this competition. I enjoyed reading all of the entries and it was great to see there are so many inspiring writers out there. I was particularly impressed with all of the young bards who entered their poems.”

Sarah Lewis, conservation officer for Nevis, one of the JMT’s properties, said: “It was fantastic to see so many good entries and such high creativity. We have seen a startling connection with natural landscapes.”

Winner of the Gaelic category was Neil McRae with Fada air Chùl; Iain Dubh’s Michaelmas won the poetry award, and Grant MacCallum from Invergarry Primary School won the children’s category with his poem Mountain.

More than100 entries were received for the competition, now in its third year. The theme for this year was experience in wild places, and was open to both fiction and non-fiction works.