People & Place
Wardens, warden bothies and who is actually out there in winter
A small number of people keep upland infrastructure working through the months when almost nobody visits.
People & Place
Rangers, guides, farmers and residents of the places we visit briefly.
25 articles · updated August 11, 2026 · page 2 of 3
People & Place
Photographers, drones and the etiquette that has not caught up
Drone use in wild places is regulated unevenly and resented widely, and the rules are stricter than most operators assume.
People & Place
The economics of a mountain hut
A building at two thousand metres with no road runs on helicopter deliveries, volunteer labour and a very short season.
People & Place
Volunteers who build steps out of stone
Upland path repair is skilled manual work done largely by small teams and volunteers, in weather.
People & Place
Shepherds, hefting and knowledge that lives in the sheep
Hefted flocks know their own ground without fences, and that knowledge cannot be quickly replaced.
People & Place
Access campaigners and how rights were actually won
Modern access rights came from organised trespass, decades of negotiation and specific pieces of legislation.
People & Place
The people who arrive for the season and leave with it
Mountain villages and coastal towns run on workers who appear when visitors do. The arrangement shapes housing, wages and what a…
People & Place
When a valley's houses become somebody else's holiday
Beautiful places attract buyers who do not need a local wage. What follows is predictable, contested and hard to reverse.
People & Place
Place names are the oldest surviving record of a landscape
Before anyone drew a map, people named the ground for what it did. Those names are still on the map, describing conditions that may…
People & Place
Transhumance: the people who still move herds up a mountain
Twice a year, animals walk between winter ground and summer pasture. The practice shaped whole landscapes and is now maintained by…
People & Place
Wallers, thatchers and the trades that hold a landscape up
Dry stone walls, hedges and roofs are not decoration. They are structures with a working life, maintained by a small number of…
People & Place
Trail angels and the informal hospitality along a long path
On established long-distance routes, an unofficial network of lifts, water caches and spare rooms grows up beside the trail. It…