Enjoying the Scottish Nature can be a challenge for those of us with disabilities. A few projects within Year of Natural Scotland make the wilderness more accessible.

Year of Natural Scotland has set out to celebrate diversity with the following official website statement: “Year of Natural Scotland will inspire our people and our visitors to celebrate Scotland's outstanding natural beauty, landscapes, wildlife and biodiversity. It will be a year in which people in Scotland and our visitors discover or rediscover the natural attractions of the country and take part in an exciting programme of events.”

But how to take part in these celebrations if you are disabled? Here are a few projects we have found to enjoy the countryside:

Wheelchair walking

Not an actual initiative through Year of Natural Scotland, www.walkswithwheelchairs.com is worth a mention. The page lets people from all over the UK share walking routes accessible for wheelchair users. Quite a few routes can be found in Scotland both in easy-to-get-to and more remote areas. Close up maps of the walks and driving directions are provided, and the site also lets you know if there are picnic areas, toilets and parking available for disabled people. 

Guided train tours

Not actually taking you into the wilderness, but letting you enjoy it from a perspective is the View from the Train audio guides, which talks you through the nature passing by on six of the major train routes in Scotland: Edinburgh to Aberdeen, Edinburgh to Inverness (both via Inverkeithing and Stirling), plus the Glasgow routes to Aberdeen, Inverness and Oban. These are free to download to your Smart- or iPhone from the Scottish Natural Heritage page (http://www.snh.gov.uk/enjoying-the-outdoors/year-of-natural-scotlan...) and can be found in both Google Play and the App Store.

Disabled camping

As a young disabled woman herself, Julie McElroy has taken up the challenge of making the wilderness more accessible for disabled people. She will therefore run Ben Lomond Wilderness Project, which takes a group of young disabled people on a five day adventure, which will include one night of camping. The trip this year is fully booked, but it is possible to sign up for a reserve list in case of cancellations. More tours will become available in the future. Meanwhile you can read more about Julie McElroy in this week’s People’s Stories. Click here to read it.

Sense Scotland

A more art focused project specially created for disabled people is through Sense Scotland; Sense Scotland work with children and adults with complex communication support needs and multi-sensory impairments, and will take three groups into remote areas near Aberdeen, Dundee and Glasgow, where they will work with artists to create sensory artworks based on their experiences of the landscape, that map out the area. More about this and other outdoor Sence Scotland projects can be found here.

More 'artsy' Year of Natural Scotland projects can be found here