What are the rules of etiquette in a bothy full of strangers?How cold, exactly, can a Scottish summer get?And how many cans of beer can a man carry whilst fording a swollen river? Second Man on the Rope tackles all these questions and more, a celebrating Scotland's mountains come sun, sleet or snow, through the stories of a great climbing partnership. Ranging from the Cairngorms to Glencoe, from Nevis to Knoydart and from the Cuillin to the Cobbler, this book weaves the story of a friendsh...

Acknowledged as a classic of mountain writing, this book takes you into the bothies, howffs and dosses on the Scottish hills as Fishgut Mac, Desperate Dan and Stumpy the Big Yin stalk hill and public house, evading gamekeepers and Royalty.

Ian R Mitchell recognises his hometown is an often underloved place, but in Aberdeen: Beyond the Granite he sets out an overwhelming case as to why this sentiment is thoroughly undeserved. An Aberdonian born and bred, Mitchell has lived in Glasgow for almost four decades. Returning to his roots, he delves into Aberdeen's rich and often unseen history and culture from an exile's perspective, revealing a proudly unique city, home to the world's oldest surviving company, the UK's oldest newsp...

Ian R. Mitchell takes the reader on an urban promenade along the Clyde and finds its character is created from far more than the remnants of shipbuilding. "Clydeside" relates stories of conflicts, people and communities, while incorporating present-day walks in these oft-forgotten areas, to allow the reader to fully appreciate the culture and history. Exploring more than just Glasgow itself, the book meanders from Coatbridge to Cathcart, Garngad to Greencock. Proving there's far more to Pa...

With this book is completed a trilogy of works begun in 2005 with This City Now: Glasgow and its Working Class Past, and continuing with Clydeside; Red Orange and Green in 2009. The three books have all had similar aims in trying to raise the profile of forgotten or neglected areas and aspects of Glasgow and its history, in a small way trying to boost the esteem in which such places are held by the people who live in there and by those who visit. Moving away slightly from the working class...

Winner of the Outdoor Writers Guild Award for Excellence In this new book on pre-mountaineering ascents and near ascents in the Highlands, we have at last a work which does justice to those who lived and worked, travelled and fought in the Highlands before Walter Scott. PROF. BRUCE LENMAN Marvelous account of mountaineering's prehistory... as colourful as it is thought provoking - THE SCOTSMAN This work tells the story of explorations and ascents in the Scottish Highlands in the days befor...

Acclaimed hillwalking writers Ian R Mitchell and George Rodway tell the fascinating story of Aberdeen-born Alexander Kellas, and his contribution to mountaineering from the 20th century to the present day. Now a largely neglected figure, Kellas is the pioneer of high altitude physiology, his climbing routes still in evidence today. Follow Kellas' journey, which takes him from the Scottish Cairngorms to the Himalaya, and discover how his struggles and explorations have impacted upon mountai...

Walking Through Glasgow's Industrial Past sets out to retrieve the hidden architectural, cultural and historical riches of some of Glasgow's industrial and working-class districts. Many who enjoy the fruits of Glasgow's recent gentrification may be surprised and delighted by the gems which Ian Mitchell has uncovered beyond the usual haunts.

The often harsh and unforgiving Australian landscape was a far cry from what the early colonisers were used to, and it proved a daunting obstacle to settlement. However, a few brave and at times foolhardy men were determined to prove themselves equal to the challenge. AUSTRALIA'S GREAT EXPLORERS looks at the tragedies and triumphs of men such as Wentworth and Lawson, Hume and Hovell, Burke and Wills, Leichhardt and Strzelecki as they battled to conquer the Great Diving Range, find an elusi...

An "exciting and dramatic" history of the raiders who ruled the lawless Anglo-Scottish borderlands for over a century ( Cumberland News).Nowhere else in Britain in the modern era, or indeed in Europe, did civil order break down over such a wide area, or for such a long time, as on the border country between Scotland and England. For more than a century, the hoofbeats of countless raiding parties drummed over the border. From Dumfriesshire to the high wastes...

This is the thrilling story of Angus Og MacDonald, Lord of the Isles, during the turbulent days of Robert the Bruce.The grandson of the great Angus Mor, direct descendant and successor of Somerled himself, the semi-independent prince of the Hebrides and much of the West Highland mainland, Angus was a worthy representative of a notable line, living in dramatic and exciting times for Scotland and England, for Ulster, Man and Ireland.He took his part in it all, an active suppo...

Although the nineteenth-century elite looked on the Highlands and Islands as a sporting paradise, for the indigenous population it was a turbulent place. Rather than a rural idyll, the glens and moors were home to poachers and whisky smugglers, while the towns were always ready to explode into riot and disorder. Even the Hebridean seas had their dangers while the islands seethed with discontent. Whisky Wars, Riots and Murder reveals the reality behind the facade of romantic tartan and vast...