MEET THE STEERING TEAM
Members of the Steering team are always pleased to hear from any member - please do get in touch.
Introducing your Steering Committee...
CO-ORDINATOR: Rob Mc Morran
Rob grew up in the shadow of the Brandon Mountain range in Co. Kerry in Southern Ireland. He first came over to Scotland when he was fifteen to climb on Ben Nevis and in the Cairngorms and has been hooked ever since. Following a degree in Ecology at University College, Cork and numerous Scottish walking and climbing trips, Rob finally settled here in 2003 when he began an MSc in environmental management at Stirling University. Following the completion of his MSc, he undertook a PhD in forestry management with UHI Millennium Institute. Since completing his PhD in 2007 Rob has been involved with research projects relating to rural land use, wild land and forestry, through his job at the Centre for Mountain Studies in UHI-Perth College. He now lives in Aberdeen with his girlfriend Triona, travelling to Perth a few days a week and working at home the rest of the time.
He has an active interest in all things wild, both from a landscape and nature perspective, and is very much looking forward to working with the SWLG and supporting the cause of wild land preservation and enhancement throughout Scotland.
Contact Rob
MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY: Grant Cornwallis
About 20 years ago, I joined the SWLG and was enthused by the open, friendly and democratic nature of the AGMs. In the early 1990s, with Lionel as Co-ordinator, we had fine meetings like the one where that fellow Ian Wilson (who just happened to own the mineral rights to lots of potential superquarry sites) helpfully showed us why large, exploitative developments have to be opposed. Had such superquarries been approved 10 years ago, it would be much harder to resist the current assault from the profit seekers and their bogus green revolution of wind turbines for all. Cries of “it’s too late now, the wild lands have been industrialised already” are mercifully premature, though the threats are legion and have feet of concrete!
The SWLG inspired my group of young hill-goers then, so I believe we can help develop awareness of, and rouse opposition to, the threats facing Scotland’s wild land now. If we allow the exploiters and despoilers (the very same people who brought us Credit Crunchies for breakfast, mind) to proceed unchecked, then future generations will curse our stupidity, whilst they pay the full price for the greed of our times. Some legacy.
Oh, and I’m 41, a piper and traditional singer, who enjoys the rock-climbing and bothying life, which I preferred to attending university.
Contact Grant
TREASURER: Tim Ambrose
I have been Treasurer of the SWLG since 1988, when I was a working Chartered Accountant. I was brought up in Surrey, but after several walking holidays in Scotland when I was a student, I decided to come and live here in 1975, and have never regretted this. I have climbed most of the Munros and visited many of the islands, the best ones many times, with some dull, and some difficult ones still to do. Lucky enough to get early retirement three years ago, I am now studying full time for a degree in geology at the University of Aberdeen, in the hope that I will eventually be able to understand a bit about the country and rocks I go wandering over.
I love the wildness you can sometimes find in Scotland, and hate the desecration of the mountains by dams, roads, bulldozed tracks and their scars, fences, wind turbines, pylons, ski-lifts, sharp-edged forestry, and too many sheep and deer preventing regeneration of native trees and plants. Keep roads and quadbikes to the valleys and periphery, bring back highland ponies for transport in the mountains, and let the beaver and the wolf roam free.
Contact Tim
David Jarman
I have lived and worked in Scotland - Central Belt and Black Isle - since graduating. Close involvement in regenerating heavy industrial and mining areas inevitably raised the question 'how can Scotland compete, at the periphery of Britain and Europe?' - one answer being by protecting and promoting its world-class environment and landscapes. As an active member of several mountain-going clubs, the value of the wilds to a wide range of ordinary Scottish people has become very evident to me. Family and friends have brought many foreign visitors, who marvel at the ease of access to very wild places - and at the insouciance with which policymakers are prepared to diminish and sacrifice them. Completing the mainland Munros is a vague aspiration, with research into the dramatic events which have shaped them taking ever greater precedence. A series in the Scottish Mountaineer is showing how 'round the back' can be just as worthwhile as 'up and down'. I give slide shows to clubs, which is an immense pleasure; and gave the leading evidence on landscape issues to the Beauly-Denny Inquiry, attending it over several months, which was immensely disheartening.
Contact David
Calum Brown
Calum is a keen hillwalker, climber and amateur photographer with a strong interest in conservation, having spent as much time as possible in the wilder places of Scotland since moving from mid-Wales to Skye at the age of five. Calum has a BSc in Astrophysics and an MSc in Managing Sustainable Mountain Development, which focussed on the Scottish environment and the issue of re-wilding. He has worked in conservation in Scotland, the USA and Slovakia, and is currently pursuing a PhD in statistical modelling of rainforest ecology at St Andrews University - within easy reach of some wild land!
Jayne Glass
Jayne moved to Scotland after she met her husband in Fort William in 2003. Seeing the West Coast that summer in non-stop sunshine for 3 weeks reignited her passion for wild mountain areas and she’s been in Scotland (with the odd spell in Canada/Spain) ever since. Now happily settled in Aberfeldy, she feels very lucky to live and work in close proximity to the crags, hills and glens of the Highlands.
Since 2007, Jayne has been a PhD student at the Centre for Mountain Studies at Perth College UHI. Her work is looking at sustainability in Scotland’s uplands, developing a sustainability assessment toolkit for upland estates. She is also volunteer sub-editor of The Scottish Mountaineer magazine.
In her spare time Jayne can generally be found rock climbing and watching films.
Contact Jayne
Graeme Cornwallis
Graeme (46), originally from Edinburgh but resident in Glasgow for most of the last 32 years, is a private tutor of maths and physics, as well as an author and photographer. A keen interest in walking an exploring has taken him around the Munros twice but also to wild places from remote arctic islands to African deserts. Graeme says he joined the SWLG because he’s passionate about wild land, believing that the steady encroachment of (particularly industrial) development is detrimental to us all and should be opposed where possible.
Images on this site that have been taken by Graeme (www.cornwallis-images.com) are available as art posters in two sizes through his website. If any particular image isn't listed on the website and a poster is required, please place a request to sales@cornwallis-images.com.
Contact Graeme
|
