At the risk of being all showy offy – well, to be honest there is no other way to do this – I have a new outdoors column in the Sunday Mail. This is Scotland’s biggest selling newspaper, which means I will be able to go on and on – and on!  about the great outdoors to even more people!

I am having to write this wee bit of PR myself because I do not have a fabulous PR department to do it for me. I just hope that lots of people read my weekly column and become as excited as I am about Scotland’s outdoors and the many amazing outdoors activities.

The outdoors themes will be varied and will appeal to all kinds of people, from families and novices to keen outdoors fans. I will be writing about gear and newsy bits and pieces each week, too. The link takes you to the main article. If you bought the newspaper you would have seen the full spread with gear and news items, as well as a fishing column written by Bruce Sandison.

I am very grateful to Sunday Mail editor Jim Wilson, who has been keen to include outdoors articles in his newspaper for years. Now he has found a bit of freelance writing budget has handed it to me. In an industry where budgets have been unceremoniously slashed in the past few years, I feel very honoured indeed to have a regular newspaper slot.

I know I’m going to enjoy writing about my favourite topic every week – and I hope you might occasionally buy the paper to take a look at what I’m writing about. Whoop, whoop!