Edinburgh Outdoors

• The Pentland Hills with Sean Magee

  Sean Magee headed outdoors and launched CPS Activities after a long career in recruitment, first aid training and social care.  Having found the career of his dreams means Sean can now take put his well-honed teaching skills into practice up in the hills teaching navigational skills, outdoors awareness, rock climbing and mountain guiding.  In a first for Edinburgh Outdoors we were slightly inside and started out talking in Sean's campervan in Castlelaw carpark on a Sunday morning, but once the sun came out we headed up the hill to view the Iron Age Souterain and enjoy some views.   Sean has good views on career change, following your heart and gives some great tips for what to take on a hill walk, how to keep warm (always useful on this podcast!) and what to carry in your rucksack.    If you want to visit the Souterain yourself, it is here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/jta8qjHaGiTP8Wdu5 And to find out more about Sean's business: https://cpsactivities.com/mountain-leader-and-climbing-instructor/   a

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• Pilrig Park with Griffen Fitness

  Tracy Griffen is a really impressive personal trainer who uses the outdoors as a core part of her workouts.  After leaving Australia thirty years ago, Tracy has built a business that brings the Scottish outdoors into people's active lives.  Like many of us she relishes the changing seasons and brings a sense of nature into her courses and sessions.    We walked round Pilrig Park which is to the North East of Edinburgh and has previously been a private garden of a grand house and the site of a 16th century fort, but is now a busy city park.  We discovered a connection to Robert Louis Stevenson's mother who lived in the house and checked out Edinburgh's oldest allotments where Tracy has a plot and brews up tasty mint tea.  We also met Coco the fitness pug - Edinburgh Outdoors' first canine interviewee.  Find out about Tracy's upcoming courses and hear about how she uses unusual items around Edinburgh's parks to recreate the benefits of a gym without the monthly fee and having to be inside. To visit Pilrig Park: https://maps.app.goo.gl/pfAsqj4ub34pExfW7 To find out more about Griffen Fitness: https://www.griffenfitness.com/ And the facinating and clever Threadinburgh website has a page about the Stevenson's family, the Balfours, and their association with Pilrig House:  here    

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• Lost Shore Surf Resort

  The Lost Shore Surf Resort is Edinburgh's coolest new activity centre and so much more.  Set beside the International Climbing Arena in Ratho to the west of the city and close to the airport, Lost Shore is centred around Europe's largest surf pool.  In addition to the pool the site includes luxury lodges, a wellness centre and events space, a restaurant, saunas and a surf shop.  Even in mid January the place was buzzing! The technology within the pool creates a range of waves that are ideal for beginners to professionals and is a brilliant place to learn how to surf, or to hone your skills.   I met with Andy Hadden who has spent 12 years raising finance, designing the location and finally getting to open this amazing place.  Listen to the story behind the development, hear how the waves are created, how people manage to be warm enough to surf in Scotland's winter and explore the site with me as I interview Andy beside the crashing waves while watching some seriously cool surfing! Lost Shore Surf Resort: https://www.lostshore.com/ Google map location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/VMjgpZckhmhYqpdQ9      

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• 'Netwalking' with Katie Paterson and the Outsiders

  Katie Paterson is a truly inspiring and talented woman who has cycled round the world on an astounding journey, worked on national campaigns to get more people outside and launched the hugely successful The Outsiders outdoor networking group.  Now in it's second year, the group brings together sole traders and freelancers to 'netwalk' in the outdoors once a month in a different location in Edinburgh.  The group is inclusive and friendly and is growing fast, bringing a support network and providing a team or tribe for people who work alone and who want more of the outdoors in their life.  I met Katie on top of Calton Hill where she had first experienced her Outsiders light bulb moment.  We talked about her epic round the world cycle, the life of a sole trader and how she finds inspiraton and regeneration from being outside.  If this episode doesn't make you leap off the sofa and head outside and up a hill, nothing will! To join the Outsiders group or find out more: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12952571/ To read Katie's fascinating blog about her round the world trip: https://thefreewheelers.uk To see where we were and locate Calton Hill: https://maps.app.goo.gl/9eNG4nNe6czb2hHZ6    

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• Discovering Calton Hill and the Conservation Trust

  Calton Hill Conservation Trust is a relatively new team of volunteers who are preserving and enhancing the historic Calton Hill right in the middle of the city.   Set above Princes Street with stunning views in all directions, Calton Hill is a popular spot for visitors to escape the streets and see what it is that makes Edinburgh such a stunning location.   With views to the local hills, to Fife across the water and to the mountains in the North West, no wonder the hill attracts so many visitors. I went along to find out how the Trust was getting on and what their volunteers can expect to be involved in. I met Simon Holledge who chairs the Conservation Trust that has been working to tidy up the hill, repair drainage and also to understand better the wildlife of this unique and special place.   Listeners can hear how the Trust was established, about recent wildlife surveys undertaken and some smatterings of history about the iconic structures on the hill.  To find about more about the Calton Hill Conservation Trust: https://caltonhilltrust.org/ To find the location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/WSLJx34zJH5uG1dK7 And to see a 1692 image of the view from Calton Hill: https://www.roe.ac.uk/japwww/old_edinburgh/malloch_1693.jpg    

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