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Pioneer of Scottish Skiing Wins Mountain Culture Award

Myrtle Simpson, who pioneered skiing and guiding in Scotland, is the sixth recipient of The Scottish Award for Excellence in Mountain Culture.

I visited Scotland around 10 years ago and loved every minute of my trip. The most memorable however was the Jacobite Steam Train, that our hosts kindly took us on. I was a teenager at the time and pretended not to be interested in trains, but something was rekindled the moment I saw the train. We had young children travelling with us and although the journey is quite long, they were entertained throughout and had enough space on board for a little snooze on the way back. The train starts in Fort William and stops in Mallaig, and I cannot imagine people actually using the train as a means of transport as the journey itself is so pleasant.

The Scottish Highlands are one of the few parts of the United Kingdom to have a number of ski resorts. Aviemore is a centre for the sport in the Cairngorms. There are also other resorts such as Aonach Mòr, and slopes at Glencoe Ski area and Glenshee Ski Centre. The Midlothian Snowsports Centre near Edinburgh, known locally as "Hillend", is the largest dry ski slope in Europe.

More dry slopes can be found in Bearsden and a new indorr ski complex is up and running at Excape at teh Braehad Shopping Centre.

I have been skiing in Europe for many years now but the last two years I have decided to stay local. Luckilly for us and the Ski Slopes the snow has been phenominal the past two years and this year we are not even in January yet.

If our winters become like this, snowy and cold we should probably start promoting Scotland as a ski destination more.