A Quick Catch-Up From The Press

Robert Lovell 20 May 2026

I feel like a bit of a broken record when I write that it’s been a busy start to the year – perhaps it’s just perennially busy, and if that’s the case 2026 has been no different. I’m writing this off the back of a week in Scotland trying to find dry rock to climb… we’ve had wind, rain, sun, even snow, and just about successfully achieved our aims. Visiting new venues, and a healthy dose of catching up with a partner I’ve climbed with for over 10 years. Just before that my family and I were in the North-West for a few days where we managed to get three generations of Lovells up Stac Pollaidh, a lovely wee mountain that never fails to delight.

It’s been a while since I wrote to you, so I thought I’d give you a short update on what we’ve been up to here at the Press. The excitement of three major new books being published in the last three months of 2025, then barrelling straight into the Fort William Mountain Festival in February 2026, meant we’d been focused on the immediate term for some time – so it’s been nice to look further ahead at where we’re going in the longer term.

We’ve got two Scottish Mountaineering Club guidebooks coming out soon which, in some ways, couldn’t be more different. Sure, one is for climbing and the other scrambling, but it’s really the areas they cover. We have Skye Scrambles, an area that has become super-popular as a must-visit tourist destination (though you may not find many regular tourists on routes described in this guide!), and a climbers’ guide to Dumfries & Galloway, an area that possibly isn’t (but definitely should be) on the dedicated climber’s list of places to visit. It’s a great example of the breadth of material produced by the SMC, and we’re delighted to add another two guides to the series.

Just a couple of months after the launch of these books, we’ll be publishing Cleare Perspectives, the richly illustrated memoirs of John Cleare. For those of you who don’t know who he is, this article, published last year, will provide some insight. John was a true gentleman and a delight to work with, and we can’t wait for this book to hit the shelves.

Looking a little further ahead, we’ve got new editions of Hostile Habitats and Scottish Hill Names being published in the autumn, and at least one other very special book that we hope to bring to you before Christmas – more on this later in the year.

I mustn’t miss the opportunity to mention Creatives. Every time we receive a submission for our online publication, it provides a little lift. It feels such a privilege to have your work shared with us, and for you to trust us to share it with the wider community. There is such talent out there, and Creatives is building a really special record of the creative response to the mountain environment.

There is a huge amount of development going on behind the scenes here at the Press, all of which will ultimately result in more books and content for you to enjoy reading – books that will build appreciation of the places we hold dear and the people and communities interwoven within them, expand horizons and – we hope – inspire you to visit new places, have new experiences and create lasting memories of your own.

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