Ben Dolphin: Feasting on the Cairngorms with fresh eyes
“It smells so clean!” he said excitedly.
Ben Dolphin
Ben Dolphin: Sound awake – nature’s noises are one in the eye for a sleepless night
I wake up suddenly and slowly realise that I’ve been rubbing my eye. I blink a few times but nothing seems out of the ordinary. I look at the clock: 04:21.
Ben Dolphin: An American in loud cuckoo land is already my highlight of the year
As a busy ranger in the Cairngorms, when you’re working with the public in some of the most spectacular and beautiful landscapes in the country, the memorable moments come thick and fast.
Ben Dolphin: Excuse me if I’m rambling – but I love it
I was at the Scottish Ramblers Gathering in Melrose last week which is an annual three-day celebration of social walking. That is, walking in a group.
Ben Dolphin: When getting cold feet is just what the doctor ordered
Last week, during a long walk back from a particularly heathery Cairngorms lump, I stopped at a well-known pool on the Dee.
Spending a penny is not enough: walkers should linger longer in the places they visit
One of the nicest things about a Ramblers group walk is the possibility of coffee and cake at the end.
Hats off to the things that make memories
I always put my hat and gloves in the same handy place whenever I get home, on a shelf near the front door.
Attitude at altitude: why are some walkers more remote than the landscape?
“Hiya!” Oh it’s such a small word. Such a simple word. So easy to utter.
Life through a lens: are photography and social media robbing us of real experiences?
At 7am the fog was rolling in over the farms, so I rushed up my local hill to watch the sunrise. I spent a sublime two hours up above the fog watching the beautiful lightshow unfold.
This is definitely the finest walk in Scotland (apart from all the others)
“So……what’s your favourite walk in all of Scotland?”
Mountains of litter: why do some walkers treat our beautiful landscape as a giant bin?
In 2014 I was in the Cairngorms and walking a track near Loch Etchachan, the highest loch of its size and one of the more remote ones in Scotland, when something white caught my eye in the otherwise brown landscape.
The hills are alive with the sense of winter
I am going to say a word. A very naughty word. It has four letters, begins with an S and is likely to cause a large number of people some degree of distress... so be sure to cover your ears if you don’t want to hear it. Are you ready? Okay, here goes:
Ben Dolphin: I’m all for the ‘bad critters’ in kids’ books
Last month I found myself reading two children’s books, pondering which of the two I’d rather read to a group of toddlers who would soon be learning about ‘critters in litter’ (wee beasties in the undergrowth). One was about a badger and one was about a worm.