Cameron McNeish

Cameron McNeish is a wilderness hiker, backpacker and mountain walker who is an authority on outdoor pursuits. In this field he is best known as an author and broadcaster although he is also a magazine editor, lecturer and after dinner speaker as well as being an adviser to various outdoor organisations.

Early Days

Cameron was brought up in the Glasgow area and did much of his early walking as a youth in the Campsie Fells. As confidence grew he moved further afield to bigger mountains and his first Munro was Ben Lomond. For a number of years McNeish worked for the Scottish Youth Hostels Association as a warden and for a period ran the busy hostel at Aviemore, in his early years he also worked as a ski and climbing instrucor. 1978 saw the publication of his first book, “Highland Ways” which was about backpacking in Scotland. In 1982 he started a weekly outdoor column in his local newspaper the "Strathspey and Badenoch Herald" called “McNeish at Large” and in the same year co-founded the outdoor magazine "Footloose" with two colleagues.

In the media

In 1985 he become editor of "Climber and Rambler" magazine, leaving in 1991 to become editor of TGO magazine ( formerly The Great Outdoors), a position he still holds today. In 1999 he became outdoor correspondent of the Sunday Herald writing the weekly "Peak Practice" column. Throughout the late 1980s, McNeish contributed and wrote regularly for outdoor programmes on BBC Radio Scotland, in 1991 he scripted and hosted "The Munro Challenge" for BBC Radio 4 to celebrate 100 years of the Munro Tables. During this time Cameron was still writing books and the immensely popular "The Munros Almanac" and "The Munros: Scotland’s Highest Mountains" were released in the 1990s.

In 1994 McNeish moved into television, presenting the BAFTA-winning "The Edge: One Hundred Years of Scottish Mountaineering" and in the same year "The Great Outdoors", a six part series for Channel 4. His best known television work is the "Wilderness Walks" programmes that he made for BBC Two: the first series was broadcast in 1997 and the second in 1998. McNeish's most recent involvement in television was as a consultant and guest on the 2007 series "Mountain". In the first programme he guides series presenter Griff Rhys Jones to the summit of Scotland's most northerly Munro, Ben Hope, in a snowstorm.

Travels

Cameron McNeish has travelled in many of the remote places in the world having hiked, backpacked, skied and climbed in the Alps, the Pyrenees, Spain, Iceland, North America, Norway, Sweden, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Central America, Slovenia, Russia, Guatemala, Corsica, Jordan and Turkey. Despite this most of his walking is done in the Scottish Highlands collecting data for his newspaper columns and creating podcasts for his personal website. Cameron completed his first round of the Scottish Munros in 1991 becoming Munroist no. 913, he completed his second round in 1996.

Cameron McNeish is president of the Backpackers club, vice president of the Ramblers' Association in Scotland, chairman of the Nevis Partnership and a trustee of the Wilderness Foundation. He lives in Newtonmore with his wife.

Bibliography

*"Highland Ways", Newcastle upon Tyne : Kate Spencer Agency, 1978 , ISBN 0950649309
*"The Spur Book Of Youth Hostelling", Bourne End: Spurbooks, 1978, ISBN 0904978982
*"The Spur Master Guide To Snow Camping", Bourne End : Spurbooks, 1980, ISBN 0904978427
*"Ski The Nordic Way, Milnthorpe" : Cicerone, 1981, ISBN 0902363328
*"Backpacker’s Scotland", London : Hale, 1982, ISBN 0709198787
*"Backpacker’s Manual", Oxford Illustrated Press, 1984, ISBN 0946609012
*"Northern Scotland (Lets Walk There)", Poole : Javelin, 1987, ISBN 071371770X
*"Classic Walks In Scotland", Sparkford : Oxford Illustrated, c1988, ISBN 1855092298 (with Roger Smith)
*"The Book Of The Climbing Year", Wellingborough : Stephens, 1988, ISBN 1852600438 (Editor)
*"The Best Hill Walking in Scotland", Moffat : Lochar, 1990, ISBN 0948403306
*"Scotland (Walking in Britain)", London : New Orchard, 1991, ISBN 1850791686 (with Atholl Innes)
*"The Munro Almanac", Glasgow : Neil Wilson, 1991, ISBN 1897784392
*"25 Walks: The Trossachs", Edinburgh : H.M.S.O., 1994, ISBN 0114951667
*"The Corbett Almanac", Glasgow : Neil Wilson, 1994, ISBN 1897784147
*"The Edge, 100 Years of Scottish Mountaineering", London : BBC Books, 1994, ISBN 056337084X (with Richard Else)
*"The Munros, Scotland's Highest Mountains", Edinburgh : Lomond Books, 1996, ISBN 1900455137
*"Wilderness Walks", London : BBC Books, 1997, ISBN 0563371765
*"More Wilderness Walks", London : BBC, 1998, ISBN 0563384506
*"The Face: Six Great Climbing Adventures", London : BBC, 1998 (with Richard Else)
*"Scotland’s 100 Best Walks", Edinburgh : Lomond Books, 1999, ISBN 0947782664
*"The Wilderness World Of Cameron McNeish", Glasgow: Inn Pin, 2001, ISBN 1903238307

External links

[http://www.cameronmcneish.co.uk/ www.cameronmcneish.co.uk]

References

* [http://www.cameronmcneish.co.uk/biography/ Biography page on www.cameronmcneish.co.uk]
*The Munros, Scotland’s Highest Mountains, 2006, Cameron McNeish, ISBN 1 84204 082 0
* [http://www.abebooks.com/ www.abebooks.com]