Building outdoor skills and confidence at Glenmore Lodge
Building outdoor skills is a fantastic way to gain confidence to have adventures. We spoke to Isla McCay, Communications Officer at Glenmore Lodge on what inspires her, and the work centre has been doing to increase the accessibility of outdoor adventure sports, so that more people can enjoy the benefits of being active outdoors.
When we’re active outdoors, whether it’s a gentle stroll through a forest, scaling a mountainside or paddling a gushing rapid, we know in those moments and afterwards that it’s one of the best things we can do for our physical and mental health. Connecting with nature is essential for our wellbeing, and with so many ways to do it (on foot, wheels, by boat) outdoor adventures can look different for everyone.
At the foot of Cairngorm, nestled amongst the ancient Caledonian pines of Glenmore Forest, sits Scotland’s National Outdoor Training Centre. Glenmore Lodge was founded in 1948 with the purpose of assisting individuals to ‘discover their physical, mental, and spiritual potential in the outdoors’. It was recognised then that everyone in Scotland should be able to enjoy the physical and mental health benefits of being active in our stunning natural landscapes, and that there was a need for a place where people could learn the skills they needed to do so safely. That the Cairngorms were chosen as the home for the National Outdoor Training Centre also reflects the importance of the area as one of Scotland’s wildest and most nature-rich environments, in which people should be encouraged and enabled to explore responsibly.
Over decades of supporting the growth and development of the outdoor sector in Scotland, Glenmore Lodge has taken a leading role in enabling more people to spend time in nature and provided them with the skills, knowledge, and inspiration to pursue independent adventures. While our mission is unchanged and its importance perhaps greater than ever, today we have a stronger understanding of the barriers that prevent everyone from accessing the outdoors and experiencing its benefits. Sometimes the hurdles that make it more challenging for people to access the outdoors can be physical, such as disability, finances, lack of accessible infrastructure, or of transport. For others, it can be a lack of outdoor experience among their family or community, a lack of visible representation, or circumstances in their personal life such as caring responsibilities.
Being a national resource for the people of Scotland to learn how to enjoy the outdoors means Glenmore Lodge is accessible to and inclusive of everyone. Through working in partnership with others across the outdoor community, we strive to create a centre that is welcoming in every sense of the word. Most recently, after several years of supporting their work, Glenmore Lodge has partnered with Able 2 Adventure to further develop the accessibility of outdoor adventure sports so that more people can enjoy the benefits of being active outdoors. We also work closely with the Martin Moran Foundation, Àban Outdoors, and Urban Uprising among others to facilitate outdoor experiences and leadership development opportunities for those from underrepresented communities.
In addition, we’re proud to play our part in the local Cairngorms community by providing free access to our facilities for local clubs and Kingussie High School’s wellbeing sessions for pupils with additional support needs, and providing skills training days including mountain biking and winter skills for Kingussie High School pupils.
Central to Glenmore Lodge’s training style is the idea of ‘challenge by choice’; you get to choose what adventure looks like for you, and if you’re ready to stretch your comfort zone then you’re able to do it with support and expert guidance. Trying something new, and potentially discovering a new passion for exploring the outdoors in a different way, or continuing to develop your skills and build your confidence for bigger adventures, is satisfying and empowering. Being physically active in the outdoors can inspire us to grow our confidence and resilience in ways we can apply to other aspects of our lives, and has significant health benefits.
We want everyone across Scotland to be able to experience the power of outdoor adventure, whatever shape or form it takes for them. This is why we’re still striving for our purpose to enable everyone to ‘discover their physical, mental, and spiritual potential in the outdoors’ today.
Improving health and wellbeing is part of the #Cairngorms2030 programme, made possible by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to National Lottery players.