Cameron McNeish
Encyclopedia
Early days
Cameron was brought up in the Glasgow area and did much of his early walking as a youth in the Campsie FellsCampsie Fells
The Campsie Fells are a range of hills in central Scotland, stretching east to west, from Denny Muir to Dumgoyne, in Stirlingshire. . The highest point in the range is Earl's Seat which is 578 m high...
. As confidence grew he moved further afield to bigger mountains and his first Munro
Munro
A Munro is a mountain in Scotland with a height over . They are named after Sir Hugh Munro, 4th Baronet , who produced the first list of such hills, known as Munros Tables, in 1891. A Munro top is a summit over 3,000 ft which is not regarded as a separate mountain...
was Ben Lomond
Ben Lomond
Ben Lomond , , is a distinctive mountain in the Scottish Highlands. Situated on the eastern shore of Loch Lomond, it is the most southerly of the Munros...
. For a number of years McNeish worked for the Scottish Youth Hostels Association
Scottish Youth Hostels Association
The Scottish Youth Hostels Association , founded in 1931, is part of Hostelling International and provides youth hostel accommodation in Scotland...
as a warden and for a period ran the busy hostel at Aviemore
Aviemore
Aviemore is a town and tourist resort, situated within the Cairngorms National Park in the Highlands of Scotland. It is in the Badenoch and Strathspey committee area, within the Highland council area. The town is popular for skiing and other winter sports, and for hill-walking in the Cairngorm...
, 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 MagazineTGO Magazine
TGO is a British monthly consumer magazine focused on hillwalking and backpacking, first published in 1978. It was edited for many years by Cameron McNeish. Chris Townsend, and Jim Perrin are among many regular and long-term contributors to the magazine. Comedian Ed Byrne currently writes a column...
http://www.tgomagazine.co.uk/ (formerly The Great Outdoors), a position he still holds today. In 1999 he became outdoor correspondent of the Sunday Herald
Sunday Herald
The Sunday Herald is a Scottish Sunday newspaper launched on 7 February 1999. The ABC audited circulation in April 2011 showed sales of 31,123.From the start it has combined a centre-left stance with support for Scottish devolution...
writing the weekly Peak Practice column. Throughout the late 1980s, McNeish contributed and wrote regularly for outdoor programmes on BBC Radio Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland
BBC Radio Scotland is BBC Scotland's national English-language radio network. It broadcasts a wide variety of programming, including news, sport, light entertainment, music, the arts, comedy, drama, history and lifestyle...
, in 1991 he scripted and hosted The Munro Challenge for BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
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
British Academy Television Awards
The British Academy Television Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts . They have been awarded annually since 1954, and are analogous to the Emmy Awards in the United States.-Background:...
-winning The Edge: One Hundred Years of Scottish Mountaineering and in the same year The Great Outdoors, a six part series for Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
. His best known television work is the Wilderness Walks programmes that he made for BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
: the first series was broadcast in 1997 and the second in 1998. McNeish was a consultant and guest on the 2007 series Mountain
Mountain (TV series)
Mountain is a British television series written and presented by Griff Rhys Jones that was originally broadcast 29 July–26 August 2007 on BBC One....
. In the first programme he guides series presenter Griff Rhys Jones
Griff Rhys Jones
Griffith "Griff" Rhys Jones is a Welsh comedian, writer, actor, television presenter and personality. Jones came to national attention in the early 1980s for his work in the BBC television comedy sketch shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones along with his comedy partner Mel Smith...
to the summit of Scotland's most northerly Munro, Ben Hope
Ben Hope
Ben Hope is a mountain in northern Scotland. It is the most northerly Munro, standing alone in the Flow Country south-east of Loch Hope in Sutherland. The mountain is a roughly triangular wedge, with a great crag on the west, with two lower shoulders to the south and northeast...
, in a snowstorm. He is also a regular contributor to the BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland is a constituent part of the British Broadcasting Corporation, the publicly-funded broadcaster of the United Kingdom. It is, in effect, the national broadcaster for Scotland, having a considerable amount of autonomy from the BBC's London headquarters, and is run by the BBC Trust, who...
series, The Adventure Show
The Adventure Show
The Adventure Show is a monthly sports magazine programme produced by Triple Echo Productions for BBC Sport Scotland, and broadcast on BBC Two Scotland. It has been hosted for most of its run by Dougie Vipond, who replaced original presenter Lindsay Cannon. Cannon now works on the show as a producer...
. After a break of a number of years from book writing, McNeish released "The Sutherland Trail: A Journey Through Scotland's North-west" in August 2009 in conjunction with award-winning photographer and film maker Richard Else. The book is a description of a week-long walking route through Sutherland
Sutherland
Sutherland is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic administrative county of Scotland. It is now within the Highland local government area. In Gaelic the area is referred to according to its traditional areas: Dùthaich 'IcAoidh , Asainte , and Cataibh...
, in the far north-west of Scotland.
Views on Renewable Energy and Wind Power
McNeish is opposed to the spread of wind farms in wilderness areas, with reasons for his opinions including the energy payback of turbines: "The environmental costs in creating the turbines, transporting the infrastructure, etc. is far greater than any carbon gas savings" http://www.blencathra.net/quotes.php. He is also opposed to the development of turbines because their use means "Scottish tourism and the Scottish landscape are being sacrificed" http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2004/may/07/utilities.greenpolitics. He has also criticised alternative energy policy for being a "one-horse renewables programme that pushes large-scale wind farms to the virtual exclusion of other sources, such as tidal power and biomass" http://www.walkmag.co.uk/blogs/opinion-time-for-a-rethink-on-renewables/.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 HighlandsScottish Highlands
The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
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
Newtonmore
Newtonmore is a village in the Highland council area of Scotland. It has a population of about 1000. The village is only a few miles from a location that is claimed to be the exact geographical centre of Scotland...
with his wife.