o u t d o o r
FOCUS
Adam
Watson
summer 2019
Contents
3 OWPG News
4 Here’s to the fi rst 50!
A breakdown of news from the Guild
and its members, including details of
this year’s AGM weekend
To celebrate Cicerone’s 50th birthday,
David Taylor talks to Jonathan and
Lesley Williams.
Wordsmith
7 Our associate members
8 What a Carry-On
10 The Raw and the Cooked
12 Orkney
14 Book Reviews
16 Psst, a word of advice...
Kev Reynolds meets someone with a
rather unusual souvenir...
An introduction to the companies
and organisations that share our
aims and values. In this issue: Cordee
Looking for the best way to carry
your camera? Jon Sparks does the
heavy lifting
Ronald Turnbull extracts
photographic insight from some
sophisticated French philosophy
Terry Marsh visits a northern
archipelago
Roly Smith reviews Quest into the
Unknown, The South Yorkshire Moors,
Nidderdale Way, and Loch Lomond &
Cowal Way
Andrew McCloy describes what you
can fi nd when you delve into OWPG’s
Advice Notes
Cover star
Steve Davison
Charmouth Beach looking to Golden
Cap, Dorset – part of the Jurassic
Coast World Heritage Site
A
n anonymous OWPG member once said:
‘There are two larger than life fi gures in the
Cairngorms: the Grey Man of Ben Macdui, and
Adam Watson.’ Few people have been so closely
identifi ed with one mountain range than the
wildly-white-bearded ecologist and mountaineer
Adam Watson and his beloved Cairngorms. Watson
died at the age of 88 in January.
When he was presented with the Guild’s coveted
Golden Eagle award in 2013, Watson claimed: ‘I knew
that when I went alone on a big trip on skis (to the
Cairngorms), that I would not just be coming back in one
piece, but better than when I started.’
In his acceptance speech, Watson was scathing about
the over-protective attitude to going to the hills. ‘You’re
told you shouldn’t go alone in summer, let alone in
winter – and it’s complete baloney… and completely
misguided.
‘There’s no substitute for a gradual apprenticeship,
where you start with lower hills…and gradually working
up to the higher hills in summer time, understanding
maps almost like a photographic memory, as well as the
terrain, and navigating and enjoying it, even if you can’t
see your feet in whiteouts.’
Watson’s apprenticeship was served in the company
of such giants as Seton Gordon and Tom Weir (a
previous winner of the Golden Eagle). Born in Turriff ,
Aberdeenshire, Watson was the son of a solicitor and
naturalist and gained a fi rst class honours in zoology
at Aberdeen University in 1952. After gaining his PhD,
he joined the Nature Conservancy’s unit on grouse
and moorland ecology, and his defi nitive Collins New
Naturalist book on Grouse was the result.
He later took up climbing and cross-country skiing
(he was the fi rst person to ski-tour the six Cairngorm
tops in one day in 1962), and rewrote the Scottish
Mountaineering Club’s guide to the Cairngorms in 1975,
updating further editions.
But the book Watson will perhaps be best
remembered for was his seminal The Cairngorms: their
natural history and scenery with Desmond Nethersole-
Thompson, fi rst published by Collins in 1974.
Despite being a scourge of the establishment, Watson
received many national and international honours,
including in 2005, the John Muir Trust’s lifetime
achievement award.
Watson was married to Jenny, who died in 2016, for
64 years, and is survived by his daughter and son and
two granddaughters.
www.steve-davison.co.uk
The Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild is the only UK-based association of media professionals
working largely or entirely on outdoor subjects. Our members cover every fi eld of activity and all
corners of the globe. They include writers, journalists, fi lm makers, photographers, publishers and
editors, all with a passionate interest in the outdoors. For more information visit www.owpg.org.uk.
All images and text copyright the authors. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material
without express and written permission is strictly prohibited.
2 Outdoor focus | summer 2019
o R
6
Roly Smith says farewell to a
true friend of the Cairngorms
Editing/design: David Taylor
[email protected]
ISSN 2043-8591 (print)
ISSN 2043-8605 (online)