Calum grew up on a croft above the Sound of Mull, the youngest of four, and left at eighteen to work on fishing boats out of Oban. He came back to the hills in his thirties, trained as a mountain leader and joined Landfall in its first year. He has led most of our Scottish departures since, in every month of the year.

He plans by the weather, not the brochure. If the cloud is down on the ridge he will take you along the shore instead and tell you why it is the better day. He cooks on the bothy trips, carries a spare pair of gloves for whoever forgot theirs and plays the whistle badly when asked. He lives in Oban with a collie called Skerry.