Dr. Adam Watson

1930 -

Ecologist, mountaineer, environmental campaigner and authority on the Cairngorm mountains. Brought up in Turriff, Watson studied at the University of Aberdeen, although his interest in the environmental began in childhood. From the age of seventeen, he began mountaineering, greatly influenced by his friend Tom Weir (b.1914). He spent his professional career in scientific research, with the Nature Conservancy Council and the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology at Banchory. He has written fifteen books on landscape and wildlife, including the definitive mountaineering guide 'The Cairngorms', which has been in-print since the 1960s.

Watson was a founding-trustee of the John Muir Trust, and was presented with a lifetime achievement award at their 21st anniversary conference at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre in 2004.

Watson lives in Crathes, where he continues his scientific research, involving the recording of Ptarmigan, Golden Eagles and snow-patches in the Cairngorms.

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