Hostile Habitats – Scotland’s Mountain Environment: A Hillwalkers’ Guide to Wildlife and the Landscape, Mark Wrightam (Ed.), Nick Kempe (Ed.) (2006)
Publishers blurb: This is the first guide to Scotland’s mountain fauna, flora and landscape written for hillwalkers. “Hostile Habitats – Scotland’s Mountain Environment”, takes an in-depth look at the upland environment of the hillwalker and outdoor enthusiast, with chapters and identification sections on climate, geology, landscape, plants, animals, birds, insects, human influences and conservation.
My thoughts: This is an interesting and informative book. Although a fair chunk of the information was stuff I know (or should have remembered) from my Environmental Science study days, it was really useful to have all this explained in relation to mountains specifically. The identification chapters are clear and illustrated with good photos and although it is not a field guide, it can used to help with identification of plants or mosses if you’ve photographed them.
The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd (Paperback) (ISBN: 9781847674241)
Publishers blurb: The Living Mountain is a lyrical testament in praise of the Cairngorms. It is a work deeply rooted in Nan Shepherd’s knowledge of the natural world, and a poetic and philosophical meditation on our longing for high and holy places. Drawing on different perspectives of the mountain environment, Shepherd makes the familiar strange and the strange awe-inspiring. Her sensitivity and powers of observation put her into the front rank of nature writing.
My thoughts: This is beautifully written prose through which Nan Shepherd describes her immersion in the Cairngorms. For Shepherd, being outdoors is a sensuous experience. She lives off wild food, eating cranberries, cloudberries, blaeberries, drinking from the “strong white” water of rivers. She swims in lochs, and sleeps on hillsides.
The First Fifty: Munro-bagging without a Beard by Muriel Gray ISBN-10: 0552139378 (Out of print)
One of the funniest hillwalking/Munro bagging ‘guide books’ around. I remember when I fist read this in the 1980s it struck a chord. Then, us females were trying to fit in a man’s world – and men’s-cut clothing – and doing it in our way. Muriel explains the importance of the flask of tomato soup (something I’ve never carried on the hill); conveys images of breathing ‘Breathable Fabrics” and explains the opportunties us women had to get up close and personal to nature when attending to toilet stops!
