© walkhighlands.co.uk
Spending by the thousands of Scots and visitors when they, for example, walk and stop off along the West Highland Way or when they stay overnight before and/or after bagging Munroes has now reached an impressive £1.26 billion for the Scottish economy. See this from the Scottish Business News Network:
‘The research by VisitScotland found that in 2015, 4 million trips by visitors from the UK included walking as an activity, with figures broken down into short walks (up to 2 miles) and long walks (minimum of 2 miles). The latter increased by almost a fifth (18%) on the previous year.’
If you want more detail including how well Rouken Glen did and to see a fine video of our landscape go to the full report, below:
https://sbnn.co.uk/2017/08/03/new-research-shows-scottish-walking-tourism-worth-1-2bn/
Footnote: See those ticks? There not mine. I’ve done precisely none of those walks. I’ve done a handful of Munroes but………….ALL of the Galloway hills and some of them repeatedly, so there.
Talking-up Scotland 
Couldn’t find figures for English rambling revenue. Do remember driving by a guy in Derbyshire as he left his car, with an ice-axe in his rucksack to toddle up Mam Tor (1695 ft).
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I do hope you find the figures for England, I’ve spent a fortune along Hadrian’s Wall! – I’ll buy any old tat me. And thank you for a list of all those walking routes, I keep meaning to look up an overview to put some on my own list. Should I admit that I’ve never actually finished any long distance walk? And mostly just done bits of them – I have done a huge chunk of the forth/clyde canal walk, and that was so long ago that we stalled at a point just before Falkirk – to wait until they built the Falkirk Wheel! Which I do like visiting now, but I usually go there by car – and Roughcastle is only a short walk away from that (roman ditches and holes and things from the days of the Antonine Wall) – and I’ve had a birl on the Wheel a few times as well (and buy lots of tat at the shop). Did you know that the power required for the Falkirk Wheel to make a half turn (with or without a boat/boats – archimedes and displacement and weights means the weight in the caissons are always the same) is less than it takes to boil a kettle! Energy saving, and it is the World’s First and Only Rotating Boat Lift. Excellent engineering and design there.
Munroes are always impressive John, ,,, should I admit to having always fallen short of an actual Munroe? (except up at the Cairngorms where you start at 3000 feet practically so its cheating).
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I know the wheel and Rough Castle well. Used to live in Wallacestone.
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I’m at the Falkirk Wheel right now with my grandson. I’m an ex aircraft engineer so I find it fascinating to watch. Thanks for energy usage info -That makes it even more amazing.
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Hi John, Hi all – Wow John – you’re on absolute fire today with your good news articles. Brilliant stuff.
Since various scottish engineering /history vibes seem to be playing out here can I draw attention to an article from the Evening Express website re. a fabulous bit of work from all those involved to move a massive piece of engineering work safely across an historic Aberdeen bridge?
An Aberdeen first was made as a load weighing more than 400 tonnes crossed a 137-year-old bridge.
The large pressure test vessel made its way from Aberdeen Harbour to the new Balmoral Subsea Test Centre on Wellington Road.
The vessel plus the transportation vehicles tipped the scales at more than 420 tonnes.
The load travelled over the 137-year-old Victoria Bridge in Torry as the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge would not have been able to bear the weight.
McIntosh Heavy Logistics (MHL) and Cadzow Heavy Haulage carried out the move and the vessel was lifted into place by Global Energy Group.
Gary McIntosh of MHL said: “This was a very challenging yet remarkable achievement and took in excess of 12 months of planning.
“The move from quayside to Balmoral Park went wholly according to plan. The time spent liaising with the various partners and authorities was well spent.”
This is the latest vessel to be installed at Balmoral’s hyperbaric test centre and measures some 3.35 metres in diameter by 11 metres in length.
The quality of engineering, logistics and project planning involved in this task was simply staggering – world class – and done right here in Scotland (that’s too wee, too poor… etc Scotland).
Worth noting that the specialist subsea technologies centre was very recently established by Balmoral Offshore Engineering involving £1.5M investment from Balmoral and £1M support from Scottish Enterprise (ie from the SNP Scottish Govt). See below short press report from May 2017:
A specialist centre for testing new subsea technologies is to be set up in Aberdeen.
Balmoral Offshore Engineering said it hoped new jobs would be created by the open access, ultra-deep water hyperbaric test facility.
The company is investing £1.5 million in the project with additional support of £1 million from Scottish Enterprise.
The Scottish Government said the move would more than double the capacity of large-scale open access pressure testing vessels in Scotland, from two to five.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced the investment before attending the National Economic Forum in Inverness.
She said: “This specialist facility will allow new products to be developed and existing ones to be tested and improved. This will bring huge benefits in developing and supporting emerging technologies in the oil and gas industry.
“Scotland is a world leader in subsea engineering, already accounting for around 15% of the £50 billion global subsea market and as our Subsea Engineering Action plan has outlined, we want to build on this, supporting companies to grow and ensure we have the class-leading test and research infrastructure needed to meet future needs of a sector that already employs 38,000 in Scotland.
“The Energy Jobs Taskforce has made a strong commitment to supporting higher levels of innovation within the sector and this is a great example of this.
“While it is clear the oil and gas sector faces ongoing challenges, this investment continues to underline the many opportunities that remain in Scotland’s world-class supply chain.”
Jim Milne, chairman and managing director of the Balmoral Group, said: ” The establishment of Europe’s leading hyperbaric test centre in Aberdeen further strengthens the city’s position as a centre of excellence for the global subsea industry while also opening up opportunities to work with the renewables and defence sectors.
“The Balmoral Subsea Test Centre currently employs 12 people and in addition to safeguarding those positions there is a high probability of adding to this number in the short to medium-term.”
See Doing the Day Job? – see the SNP Scottish Govt.
Cheers all, Ludo
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Wow yourself Ludo. Another fine contribution. Did you get me Habermas reference?
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Hi John – Hi all – Yes indeed I John – did see your Jurgen Habermas observation – but then lost it – couldn’t remember which post it was in so hadn’t felt able to respond once I had time – Fairly typical of my organisational skills I’m afraid.
Confess I don’t know a huge amount re. Jurgen’s work but if you reckon he would be proud of all the denizens of this fab blog then that pleases me.
I came across Jurgen tangentially several decades back when doing some work on Max Webber and was mightily impressed at the time – but never followed up properly.
I have a particular professional interest as an SLT re. Jurgen’s experience of speech issues around his cleft palate. I don’t know whether he had access to SLT in his childhood – we were pretty much in our infancy back then (plus ca change I hear echoing about the halls!) – There would have been some good practitioners on the go then in Germany I suspect – but plenty of charlatans too. (‘King’s Speech’ territory in all probability).
I recall a theory that Jurgen’s lazer-like focus on Communicative Competence was coloured by his own high focus on speech and language in childhood. I like to think that story has truth in it.
I would argue this blog is indeed Deliberative Democracy in action – and it would, in my opinion, fall within his Theory of Communicative Action.
Don’t know what folks reckon? – apologies if I’m havering here.
Cheers, Ludo
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No idea Ludo, who is Jurgen Habermas?! I got some clues from your comment, but the name doesn’t mean anything to me so can’t put it in context. Sounds like some interesting theories… At least I don’t think you are havering 🙂
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_sphere
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Fascinating thank you! I think I am at my limit just reading the wiki entry though, far too many big words – most of which, I am convinced, are madey-up – and will leave yous two to the philosophising 🙂
At least I am educated: now I know ‘public sphere’ is an actual thing that was theorised!
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