Scots Ramblers' president hit by third tragedy

The newly elected president of the Ramblers’ Association in Scotland has suffered a third family tragedy.Dennis Canavan, the former Labour MP turned Independent, lost his 41-year-old son Mark to motor neurone disease, less than three months after the death of his 35-year-old son, also called Dennis, from a brain tumour.In 1989, Mr Canavan’s son Paul died at the age of 16 from skin cancer.  Mr Canavan, the MSP for Falkirk West, will fly to Australia for the funeral of Mark who lived there with his wife Sandra and five-year-old son Tommy.

Access-case tycoon showed 'lack of respect' to court

A Scottish tycoon who wants to keep walkers off her estate has been accused of showing a lack of respect to a court.Stagecoach boss Ann Gloag’s reasons for not turning up in person to the hearing into access on her land have been described as ‘derisory’.The Ramblers’ Association counsel John Campbell QC said it was extraordinary that she had chosen not to attend a hearing she had herself brought.

Baby sleeps through Wasdale rescue drama

A 14-month-old baby was among a family party rescued from the flanks of Scafell Pike.40 Mountain Rescue Team (MRT) members were involved in the search for the missing family of four, who had got lost descending England’s highest peak.All four, from Bude in Cornwall, were unharmed after their ordeal, which began on Monday night when they took a wrong turn coming off the mountain and ended up in Piers Gill at the head of Wasdale.

Low down on the high-level route north

Picture this: a private company wants to build a massive new transport route through some of England’s wildest country.Right: on the route, wild Pennine sceneryThousands of foreign workers will be employed during the construction project, and local resources will be plundered to provide stone and other raw materials for building.It will be necessary to build a temporary town to house the workers as well as a factory on an upland moor close to limestone pavement and cave systems.

Russian Nevis woman 'lucky to be alive'

Rescuers say a Russian woman was lucky to survive after spending the night in freezing conditions on Ben Nevis.The woman was reported missing late on Thursday evening and Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team started a search, despite her having phoned her boyfriend earlier to say she was off the hill.She was found at 1.30pm near the Allt Coire Eoghainn with a badly broken leg.

Outdoor labels: grough peers between the hangers

Outdoor gear shops are like a Santa’s grotto of expensive goodies, luring us into the multicoloured wonderland of Gore-Tex and Polartec.Right: outdoor clothing: we go under the labelBut unlike Santa’s grotto, nothing’s for free and it’s easy to come away with a bag full of waterproofs and a severely lightened wallet.

Naked ambition: tackling Munros the exposed way

Extreme sports seem to be cropping up all over the place these days. Right: Karla and Stuart admire the view Meall GhlasGone are the days when it was ...

Flat-pack Snowdon cafe takes shape in warehouse

The edifice which will grace the top of Wales’s highest mountain is being assembled in a Deeside warehouse.In true Ikea fashion, the frame of the new Snowdon visitor centre is a flat-pack design, and engineers are going through a dry run in the Corus factory, presumably to make sure there are no missing nuts and bolts or door hinges.If it’s anything like grough’s attempts at flat-pack assembly, there will be a few choice words being uttered on Deeside and a fair bit of scratching of heads as incomprehensible diagrams are studied.Hafod Eryri, as the new café – sorry, visitor centre – will be known, will be galvanised after disassembly and loaded in neat ten-ton chunks on to the Snowdon Mountain Railway for its journey to the summit.

Cumbrian man dies after Blencathra fall

The winter of 2006-2007 is proving a grim one for fatalities on Britain’s mountains.A 63-year-old Cumbrian walker was the latest to die when he tumbled from Hall’s Fell Ridge on Blencathra.