Our next Indoor Meet will be held on Thursday 5th February 2026 and will be given jointly by David Frew Head of Mar Lodge Estates and Shaila Rao (NTS Conservation Manager).
David will provide an overview of the estate and its management, and Shaila will talk in more detail about woodland, peatland and some of the rare species work being carried out on the Mar Lodge Estate. The talk will be titled “Mar Lodge Estate – A Landscape Recovering”.
The Mar Lodge Estate is one of the most important areas for nature conservation in the British Isles and in 2017 it was awarded National Nature Reserve status – making it the largest NNR in the UK. David’s talk is likely to be both educational and enlightening.
The Grampian Club’s 98th Annual General Meeting will be held in the Sanctuary Meeting room at The Steeple Church in the Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4DG on Thursday 5th March 2026 commencing at 7.30pm. Teas and Coffees will be available from 7.15pm.
Once the business of the AGM has been completed we will be treated to the showing of a second collection of digitised images taken from the Club’s Glass Slide collection in the archives. This collection will be curated by Club Archivist Lorna Dalton and Assistant Secretary Cathy Kinnear. Here are a couple taken in these early days of the Club.
The judge this year is Michelle Duncan. Michelle is an amateur photographer who has spent time in many locations taking some fantastic
photographs. Michelle has learned from people such as Colin Baxter and will give a synopsis of her photography journey before showing the photos entered and announcing the winner
Submit your photos by 11th December by emailing them to Penny Lockwood at president@grampianclub.org.uk. You can send in up to 5 photos and Michelle will choose the best set of 5 and the best single photo. Please include a title for your photos. The photos need to be sent as JPEGs
Club Member Isdale Anderson will deliver a talk in trekking in the Pyrenees. Says Isdale: “The GR 11 goes from the Atlantic coast 820km to the Mediterranean on the Spanish side of the border with France. The central section leads into the magnificent Ordesa Canyon and into the High Pyrenees with peaks rising to over 3000m. This was the section that I walked during sixteen days in the summer of
2023 which I will talk about. The route led up remote alpine valleys and over high passes on rocky paths into quite remote territory. There were stays at mountain refuges but the best overnight stops were definitely the wild campsites with some amazing views.”
Straddling the border between France and Spain The Pyrenees are a mountain range that extends nearly 500km from The Cantabrian Mountains to The Mediterranean Sea
On October 2nd 2025 Paul Higginson from the Dundee Mountaineering Club will present a talk on his visit to Bhutan
The Kingdom Of Bhutan is a landlocked country which lies in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast
By David Jarman
We all know and usually love “stalker’s paths” when they come in handy for our chosen hill. But why were they made? (stalking is not the right answer). And when were they first called that, and by whom? (they weren’t originally, they were ‘pony paths’). Hamish’s favourite is on Gleouraich – where are yours? His has splendid zigzags – but most ‘stalkerpaths’ don’t (we’re calling them that to save on apostrophe’s).
Club Member John Tavendale will present a talk on his Trek through the Jotunheimen National Park in Norway earlier this year.
A seven-day high level route, staying in Norway’s hut system including traversing glaciers and climbing the highest peak in Norway and Northern Europe. A beautiful Arctic landscape of tundra, mountains, glacial lakes, valleys and more river crossings than you thought possible, amongst the legendary home of the Norway’s giants.
Search and Rescue Dog Association (SARDA) members work as volunteers, helping police and mountain rescue teams find lost walkers and missing persons in challenging outdoor environments. At the Indoor meet they will be providing an interesting talk about their work in Scotland.
There will be a slide show of photos entered for the photo competition held after the AGM. Information about how to enter the competition will be sent out mid December.
A chance encounter between a Scotsman and a Buddhist monk in 2014 changed their lives forever. James Lamb tells how they set up a charity and a trekking agency after the avalanche above Everest Base Camp. This will be highlighted by clips from BBC’s Adventure Show. As the charity grew and the trust between the Sherpas and James was cemented it became clear how much their culture was at risk. This led to a documentary being made to highlight this concern, “Sherpas Speak” which was the People’s Choice at DMFF.
Find out how the charity and work to protect the Sherpa culture has progressed over the intervening years.
