About Us

Our People

Guides

ABOUT US

GUIDES

Our Guiding Team

Our team consists of the best guides in Scotland and they all share three important qualities: experience, knowledge and a passion for wild places. Equally important to the technical skills of our guiding team is a sense of humour and the ability to ensure that a wide range of clients of all ages and abilities enjoy the very best Scotland has to offer. Our guides are among the very best in Scotland.

Each of them is qualified through the National Governing Body relevant to their skills (eg - Scottish Mountain Leader Association or the British Canoe Union). Many of our guides are qualified to lead several different types of activity. Your guide will hold the requisite qualifications for all guided activities included in your holiday.

Far beyond this, however, their vast experience and passion for Scotland sets them a cut above the rest. Professional and helpful, they look forward to showing you around the Highlands and will happily share their vast knowledge and experience with you.

Tim Francis, Senior Guide

A passionate biker and hill-walker, Tim is a former business development manager who spent 4 years working in South America before returning to the Highlands to live and become a mountain biking and walking guide. We're pleased to say that he is now a much happier chap, becoming one of the most respected guides in Scotland. Tim is equally at home guiding gentle walks through the Hebridean machair as battling a Cairngorms blizzard on our winter trips. Tim's favourite trip is the epic Coast to Coast - insisting that this is one of the best mountain biking holidays you can find anywhere.

Activities - Mountain Biking, Walking & Winter Walking

Myles Farnbank, Director Of Training & Senior Guide

Myles is our Director of Training and still very much an active member of our guiding team. With more than 20 years experience in Scotland's outdoors, he is highly qualified in many activities with a focus on sea kayaking and open canoeing. He has more than a passing interest in wild food which means that meals on Myles' trips may well have some very fresh ingredients! If he had to choose a favourite trip, it would be our sea kayaking expedition through the Summer Isles.

Activities - Walking, Sea Kayaking, Sailing, Muliti-Activity, Canoeing

Jeremy Martin, Senior Guide

Jeremy Martin is one of the top sea kayaking guides in Scotland, despite the fact that he's from New Zealand! His passion for the outdoors is unbeatable so it was no surprise to us when he was a finalist in Wanderlust magazine's World Guide Awards in 2009. Jeremy has a strong connection with Scotland that stretches back to his childhood when he spent a lot of time in the Highlands. He now lives in a permanent summer, moving between Scotland and New Zealand.

Activity - Sea Kayaking

Steve Willis, Senior Guide

A former wildlife ranger, Steve now spends his time guiding clients on walking trips, or on trips which combine sailing and walking, where he can share his incredible knowledge of wildlife with our clients. Cheerful and friendly, Steve is great fun to have on a trip and seems to like the rain as much as he does good weather! Steve often guides on private group trips with a wildlife focus to them, such as bird-watching in the Outer Hebrides or mammal spotting in the Cairngorms. His favourite trip, however, is our combined sailing and walking trip, Island Odyssey, which explores the Inner and Outer Hebrides and, if the conditions are right, ventures out to St Kilda.

Activities - Walking & Sailing

Bec Morris

Rebecca’s life is an adventure. She started travelling and exploring the world with her family at the age of three and has never stopped. She loves the outdoors and is passionate about Scotland and its wild places. An experienced coach and guide, she has sailed or kayaked to every Island on the West Coast of Scotland. Her knowledge, wealth of experience and bubbly personality make her the ideal companion in the mountains or on the sea. Her ethos is sharing the passion, the love and the enjoyment of exploring and journeying.

Activities - Sea Kayaking, Walking & Sailing

Carron McKellar

Having travelled extensively in Europe and beyond, for Carron there is nothing quite like the mountains and wilderness of Scotland. She enjoys nothing more than sharing this passion with others. Whether through the landscape itself or her storytelling (true or false... we’re not always sure!), we defy anyone not to leave a trip affected in some way by her enthusiasm!

Activities - Multi-Activity, Walking & Winter Walking

Mark Cox, Guide

Mark is a talented all-rounder who leads many of our Wilderness Walking, Sea Kayaking and Mountain Bike trips in Scotland. His passion for taking clients to the wild places of Scotland is hard to match and he always goes the extra mile to deliver an amazing trip for his groups.

Colin Prior, Senior Guide

Colin Prior is one of Britain's leading landscape photographers. His spectacular panoramic images capture the beauty and eternal quality of the world's wild places, especially those of his own native Scotland. He brings to his work a strong personal vision combined with supreme technical mastery. Shooting at the 'magic hours' of dawn or dusk, he is able to catch those rare moments when composition, fine light and colour combine to create a remarkable image. Colin directs and leads our photographic adventures programme, sharing not just his skills and knowledge but also his passion for Scotland's wild place.

Activity - Photography

Craig Tweedie, Senior Guide

Craig has been exploring the highlands for over 20 years on various adventures and has been fortunate enough to have travelled to some great places around the world; most recently he has explored Stewart Island and Fjordland, New Zealand. While these places are amazing, Craig feels that they can’t compete with the west coast of Scotland. His favourite trip is kayaking at north end of Rona, as it is a fantastic place with a great 360 panorama of the North West, as well as fascinating history and inquisitive wildlife. He is involved in adventure education and youth development but enjoys sharing the beauty of Scotland with all ages.

Activity - Sea Kayaking

Kirsty Chuchla

As a native Scot, Kirsty is very proud to share her knowledge of our beautiful country with clients. Whilst growing up in the Central belt, Kirsty spent many family holidays in the Highlands where her love of nature and the outdoors grew. She has hiked, climbed, paddled and biked in various corners of the World, but enjoys nothing more than an adventure in the mountains of home. Her enthusiasm and passion for all things Scottish is topped off with her big smile and infectious laugh, which brightens even the rainiest midgie day!

Activity - Walking

Mark Chadwick, Guide

Mark's laidback character and easy-going manner make him great company on any trip. Despite his tender years, Mark is a highly experienced sea-kayer with many expeditions and journeys under his belt (or spray deck!). His favourite sea-kayaking trip is our Outer Hebrides expedition, while on land he enjoys leading walking holidays on his home turf, the Cairngorms.

Stuart Hood, Guide

Born and brought up on the coastline of Arisaig, Stuart has been sea-kayaking in these waters for many years and is a Level 4 coach, as well as a qualified canoe coach and walking guide.^ Stuart leads many of our family-orientated trips, beginner’s courses and expeditions in the Sound of Arisaig. His relaxed demeanour and intimate local knowledge of the Arisaig area makes Stuart a great choice for trips in this part of the Highlands.

Activity - Sea Kayaking

Ben Dodman

Ben lives near Fort William and enjoys kayaking in his home patch - the Sound of Arisaig. Ben is a Level 4 sea-kayaking coach and leads many of our family-orientated trips, beginner’s courses and expeditions in the Sound of Arisaig. Ben is very patient and an excellent instructor, so is an ideal choice for our family adventure holidays based at Loch Morar.

Activity - Sea Kayaking

Carol Lang, Guide

Carol is a sea kayak coach who has a big love of the sea. Her wealth of knowledge on the water, and her stories and shanties that tell of its past will ensure your experience is like no other. A wee person with a big personality, her passion for the outdoors and wilderness is highly contagious.

Activity - Sea Kayaking

Graham Moss

Graham has been working on the outdoors for over 20 years. During the winter months he works as an avalanche forecaster on Ben Nevis and during the summer he splits his time between mountain biking, sailing and leading mountaineering trips either in Scotland or in the Alps.

Activities - Walking & Sailing

Keith Miller

Keith has been walking and climbing throughout the UK and overseas for many years. After a career in environmental conservation, latterly as Senior Conservationist for the John Muir Trust, Keith is now self-employed. In winter Keith undertakes work as a Forecaster for the sportscotland Avalanche Information Service (SAIS), and runs winter hill walking skills and navigation courses. During the rest of the year he runs navigation & mountain environment courses, leads walks & treks in the UK & abroad, and carries out upland plant surveys.

Tony Powell

Tony lives in Oban working as a mountain instructor. He has a huge passion for the Scottish mountains which also overspills into his enjoyment for teaching and coaching mountain skills. Having climbed and guided all areas of the UK, he has also lead expeditions to the Alps, South America, Kilimanjaro, and the Indian Himalayas. With a wealth of experience and training behind him, Tony is also a Training Officer of the Oban mountain rescue team.

Activities -Walking & Sailing

John Ormiston

Growing up in the heart of the Cairngorms and now living on the west coast of Scotland, John takes full advantage of all the natural resources on his doorstep, canoeing on the tranquil lochs, sailing and sea kayaking to beautiful Hebridean islands, walking the magnificent Argyll hills and skiing the Nevis slopes in Winter. John studied geology in a previous life, worked offshore in Scotland's oil industry and ran a timber building company - so has a wealth of knowledge and experience to bring to any of his trips.

Ali McGhee

Ali has studied sports coaching and development of sport over three years, then trained for a year at the national outdoor centre for Scotland (Glenmore Lodge) where he gained much of my technical knowledge. His passion is to explore as much of the Scottish coast line as possible in a sea kayak. He particularly enjoys expedition kayaking. Multi day trips leave him with a feeling of real exploration.

Simon Coker

After roaming around the UK and further afield for a few years Simon is settled back in Scotland. Living within sight of the northern Cairngorms means that climbing and skiing conditions can be assessed from the comfort of the living room! Happy just to be out and about Simon is a keen paddler, mountaineer, skier and biker. With a background in education and marine biology he trys to make sure everyone get's what they're looking for on a trip and maybe learns something along the way.

Malcolm O'Reilly

Inspired by a childhood passion for animals, Malcolm gained his degree in Animal Biology at Bangor University. This gave him the chance to work with octopi and play in the mountains - leading eventually to a career as an outdoor instructor and wildlife guide. He now enjoys helping people discover the wildlife and landscapes of remote places by foot, boat, bike or ski. For practical reasons he has, however, had to swap his octopi for a collie.

Lorraine McCall, Senior Guide

Lorraine is a remarkable lady who has undertaken some incredible adventures in the great outdoors. She completed all of the Munros in a single, mostly solo, journey so knows Scotland's mountains better than most. At our last staff gathering in the Cairngorms, she offered to walk to the house where we were staying from where she was in Glencoe - a 50 mile journey through some of the most remote and wild country in Scotland! Lorraine also assists on some of our sea-kayaking trips. Her favourite trip, however, is probably our wilderness walking holiday which explores Cape Wrath and the North West Highlands.

Activities - Walking, Sailing & Winter Walking

Biscuit

So why is he called Biscuit and does he have a real name? Ask him if you are lucky enough to be guided by our most laid back guide. Biscuit's incredible enthusiasm for the outdoors is matched by his skill not just in a canoe but also on the hills or on a mountain bike. Great with kids, Biscuit also leads many of our family adventure holidays based in Perthshire.

Activities - Canoeing & Family

Laura McAuley

Laura can't decide which outdoor sport she enjoys the most, so she makes sure her expeditions involve as many as possible. Most often found using a canoe to access some of Scotland's most remote mountains, but is just as at home on a bike or crag. She loves to share her knowledge of the natural world and a slice of home baking out of the teepee.

Activity - Canoeing

Dave Walsh

Dave's love of paddling makes him an excellent companion on any expedition. He enjoys exploring rivers and lochs in all manner of craft but is equally happy with a great mountain day. Dave's eagle eye is likely to spot an eagle, dolphin or osprey long before anyone else.

Activity - Canoeing

Jamie Robinson, Skipper

Jamie's life has been the sea since he moved to the Knoydart Peninsula in 1982. He skippered his first boat at 16 and has not looked back - there are few skippers on the West Coast with such a depth of knowledge and experience. A great entertainer, Jamie was the UK Sea Shanty Writing Champion for 2 years running.

Activity - Sailing

Chris Lindesay - Skipper, Corryvreckan

Chris Lindesay has found the good life - and is loving it! A former risk assessor turned pub landlord, Chris and his wife Von made the move to the Scottish Highlands a few years ago when they made the decision to make their passion their life. They have been introducing clients to the joys of sailing in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland ever since.

Activity - Sailing

Wilderness Scotland
Inverdruie House
Aviemore
Cairngorms National Park
Scotland, PH22 1QH

Tel:+44 (0)131 625 6635
Email: info@wildernessscotland.com

© 2012 Wilderness Scotland