You probably know plenty of outdoor places that you can visit, having gathered the information from family, friends and experience over the years. But what if you’re new to this country? Scott Ferguson and Elaine Macintosh of SNH outline a couple of projects aimed at making that knowledge more widely available


“Fantastic day because I relax and forget about everything... my worries... thinking about many things. Quiet, peaceful... had time to listen to everyone and have an opinion.” Akhmed


Many of us are surrounded by information about special places to visit and things to do in the outdoors, so it’s easy to forget that knowing where to go and what to do isn’t as simple for everyone in Scotland.


I got a chance to experience this first hand when I joined a group from the Bridges Programme in Glasgow earlier this year. The group was visiting Cleghorn Glen Woods – which forms part of the Clyde ValleyWoodlands National Nature Reserve – as part of a ‘Community Introductions’ project. This is a programme of visits to ‘special places for nature’ for black and minority ethnic community groups. The group visiting Cleghorn Glen was just starting on a 14-week personal development programme with Bridges. The programmes aim to help refugees and asylum seekers living in Glasgow gain meaningful work experience. They offer training, official recognition and schemes to upgrade their skills aimed at helping refugee professionals get into long-term jobs at the appropriate level. It was clear from the start that the visit was a successful ‘introduction’. Martin


Twiss, who works out of the SNH Lanark office, led the group on a walk through the gorge, and Pammy Johal from Backbone (who has set up and will lead all the Community Introductions visits) then had us all exploring the woods while blindfolded. For some, it was their first opportunity to explore the Scottish countryside after two or three years living in Glasgow. As we walked back through the ancient


www.snh.gov.uk 29 2


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