Ronald Turnbull

Ronald Turnbull was born at St Andrews, Scotland, into an energetic if not especially distinguished fellwalking family. His grandfather was a president of the Scottish Mountaineering Club, and a more remote ancestor was distinguished as only the second climbing fatality in Snowdonia. He now lives in the Lowther Hills of Dumfriesshire. Most of his walking, and writing, takes place in the nearby Lake District and in the Scottish Highlands.

In 1995 he won the Fell Running Association's Long-distance Trophy for a non-stop run over all the 2000ft hills of Southern Scotland; his other proud achievements include the ascent of the north ridge of the Weisshorn and a sub-2hr Ben Nevis race. He still likes to mix some fast and challenging outings among gentler walks. He enjoys multi-day treks, through the Highlands in particular, and has made 18 different coast-to-coast crossings of the UK. He has also slept out, in bivvbag rather than tent, on over 70 UK summits. Outside the UK he likes hot, rocky areas of Europe, ideally with beaches and cheap aeroplanes. Recently he achieved California's 220-mile John Muir Trail and East Lothian's 45-mile John Muir Way in a single season, believing himself the first to have achieved this slightly perverse double.

His recent books include The Book of the Bivvy, and walking/scrambling guides Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, The Cairngorms and Ben Nevis & Glen Coe, as well as Three Peaks Ten Tors – a slightly squint-eyed look at various UK challenge walks. He has five times won Outdoor Writers' & Photographers' Guild Awards for Excellence for his guidebooks, outdoor books (including Book of the Bivvy), and magazine articles. He has a regular column in Lakeland Walker and also writes in Trail, Cumbria and TGO (The Great Outdoors). His current, hopelessly ambitious, project is to avoid completing the Munros for at least another 20 years.

Ronald has won the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild award for excellence six times.