What we would like to read
- Practical route guides to walks in the Highlands and Islands, with honest notes on how hard they are and where things go wrong
- Long-distance trails such as the Great Glen Way, the Skye Trail and the Cape Wrath Trail, with planning advice
- Getting around without a car, including buses, trains and ferries to the islands
- Nature and landscape guides: seabirds, seals, native woodland, peat bogs, geology, with advice on watching wildlife without disturbing it
- Bothies, access and responsible camping
- History on the ground: shielings, cleared townships, drove roads and lighthouses that visitors can actually go and see
- Island life for visitors, written with respect for those who live there
- Outdoor skills, such as navigation, reading a mountain forecast and winter basics, if you are qualified to teach them
- Kit and travel advice that comes from experience of Scottish conditions, not from a product page
What we will decline
- Generic "top ten things to do in Scotland" lists and rewritten guidebook text
- Anything written mainly by AI, or spun from other articles
- Anything on gambling, adult content, pharmaceuticals, crypto or get-rich schemes, however it is linked to the outdoors
- Advice that encourages unsafe or irresponsible behaviour, or that sends crowds to fragile places without care
- Invented statistics, testimonials, experts or trips you did not take
- Pieces whose real aim is to carry a link to something unrelated to the subject
Length and style
Aim for 900 to 1,500 words in plain British English. Start with the answer to the question your article sets out to answer. Tell us where each fact came from, and link to primary sources for anything that changes, such as rules, fares and dates. We edit everything for accuracy, clarity and house style, and may decline a piece at any stage.
Original work and disclosure
Everything you send must be your own original work, and must not have appeared elsewhere. Photographs must be yours, or properly licensed, and credited in full.
You must tell us about any commercial interest in what you write about, such as an employer, client, sponsor or free trip. Sponsored or commercially linked pieces are marked as such. Links must be relevant to the article and useful to the reader, and we will remove any that are not.
How to pitch
Email [email protected] with the subject line "Pitch", and include:
- A working title and the question your article answers
- A short outline, plus a sentence on why you are the right person to write it
- A link to something you have already written, if you have one
- Any commercial interest or links you are proposing
Please do not send a finished article first. If the idea does not fit, we will try to say so quickly.