About us

Scottish Mountaineering Press is an award-winning publisher that exists to promote and share Scotland’s natural wonders. We do this by embracing the creativity and art borne of an explorer spirit, and celebrating the endeavour and joy in a life lived outdoors. For us, there’s no better place in the world to do this than Scotland.

We work with authors and artists to realise their vision in print and on screen. Through art, poetry, photography and prose, our publications capture the moments when nature stuns us into silence and stops us in our tracks, when time slows down and we look up and out with a sense of freedom.

Through our partnership with the Scottish Mountaineering Club, we publish guidebooks that cover hillwalking, scrambling and climbing. We want our guides to be the first you reach for when you head for the hills, cliffs and outcrops of Scotland.

Scottish Mountaineering Club

We are a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Scottish Mountaineering Trust, a charity whose primary objective is to promote health, education and recreation by fostering knowledge of upland geography, biology and weather, and the skills needed to venture safely into the mountains. All of our profits are channelled into the Trust.

Scottish Mountaineering Trust

The environment

All of us here at the Press care deeply about the environment, but as producers of physical products, we acknowledge that carbon emissions are an inevitable byproduct of our business. From our printing processes to the systems we use and the travel incurred to bring our publications into being, our impact is not insignificant.

Working with OurCarbon, we have calculated the total emissions associated with the running of our business and with the production of our books in the 2021/22 financial year, and we have offset these with a combination of Verra-accredited afforestation and biochar production. All our books are printed on Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) accredited paper.

How you can help

We’d love you to buy our books, but we’d rather you didn’t unless you really want them, or you think someone else will.

While we aim to inspire you to spend time in Scotland’s wild places, we hope you’ll join us in our commitment to preserving and enhancing these fragile habitats by giving careful consideration to how you engage with them.

Meet the team

Rob Lovell, General Manager

After spending the first third of his working life in the telecoms industry Rob became a publisher in 2018 and has been running the Press ever since. Having climbed in a variety of places he now has a young family and, aside from the occasional Scottish adventure, can usually be found beneath Northumbrian sandstone outcrops trying to spot handholds.

Deziree Wilson, Editor

After many years in adventure education and broadcasting, Deziree returned to university in 2018 to complete a master’s degree in journalism. She now works as a freelance writer, editor and illustrator, but continues to spend as much time as possible climbing, skiing and mountain biking in Scotland and the Alps.

Gino Di Meo, Design Boss

Our not-so-secret-secret weapon can be held responsible for Press’s relaunched identity and the wonderful books published since 2020. He brings his vast experience in design, an artistic eye and a love for books to transform the vision of our authors into award-winning publications. Residing in a basement somewhere near Hexham, he is occasionally coaxed out and up a hill with the team.

Kat Bennett, Marketing/Engagement

Since joining the team at the start of 2022, Kat has brought order to the Press’s marketing, event and engagement activity—as the most nomadic member of the team, she’s the one you are most likely to bump into in the Highlands or have pop her head into your local indy bookshop. She balances out hours behind the laptop with ML work and time in the hills with friends, climbing, scrambling, running and more.

Alex Marceau, Creatives Editor

Alexandre Marceau is a French-Canadian writer who can often be found rock climbing, reading, or searching for traces of tall tales and new stories among the Scottish hills. He holds an MSc in Creative Writing from the University of Edinburgh, is the Co-Founder of and Fiction Editor at yolk, a Montreal-based literary journal, and his fiction has appeared—or is forthcoming—in The Inkwell, From Arthur’s Seat, The Mitre and the Quebec Writers’ Federation’s Chronicling the Days. 

Christopher Smith-Duque, Production

Chris divides his time between painting, house renovating, and guidebook production, and enjoys most things that rocks have to offer—climbing, hiking, skiing, fell running, and geology. His art is informed by his experiences in academic research and time spent in the great outdoors, from climbing on the sun-drenched sea-cliffs of Cornwall to swinging axes in the Cairngorms.

Chris Ravey, Director (voluntary)

Chris started hillwalking and climbing in the Peak District, and a move to Scotland in his teenage years added fuel to the fire, providing a great foundation for his ongoing adventures around the world. Besides climbing, Chris enjoys canoeing, kayaking, sailing and skiing. He is an engineering geologist and has a lifelong interest in mountain literature and guidebooks.

John Hall, Director (voluntary)

After a lifetime of involvement in both the outdoors and education, John still takes every opportunity to climb and walk in the Scottish hills. He brings his wealth of experience to the Scottish Mountaineering Press to help educate and inspire the hillgoers of the future.

Susan Jensen, Director (voluntary)

Susan does a bit of whatever is going outdoors—rock and winter climbing, hillwalking, ski touring, alpine climbing, expeditions to the greater ranges, mountain and road biking, some hill running, and even jumping into the North Sea on the odd occasion. Susan has had stints as editor of the Fell and Rock Climbing Club and Alpine Journals, and she is currently the SMC climbers’ guides Series Editor.

Iain Young, Director (voluntary)

A geologist by profession, Iain has walked, climbed and skied both in Scotland and many far-flung parts of the world. He has always believed in the power of good writing and photography to inspire others, having been inspired himself by the likes of Tom Patey, Kim Carrigan and Galen Rowell. Iain lives close to the Cairngorm mountains and is currently an author for the SMC.

Brian Whitworth, Director (voluntary)

A keen climber in both summer and winter, Brian also dabbles in white water kayaking and cycling. He has completed all the Munros and now has only a few remaining Corbetts to tick off. Brian particularly enjoys travelling to new climbing destinations, and his favourite activity, if pressed on this, would be long mountain trad routes in the sunshine.