Meet the editorial team

Francesca Donovan, editor

Based in a Peak District barn, Francesca Donovan joined The Great Outdoors team in 2022. After a rather sedentary upbringing, a fear of the gym led her onto the hills ‘late in life’ as a tool for fitness. Instead, she found community and adventure as well as a love of the natural world and the magic of mountains. Recently, she spent a summer as an outdoor instructor introducing young people in the Peak to the hills of her home. Her own adventures – so far – have taken her from Snowdonia to the Scottish Highlands by way of the Alps and Málaga mountains. After a decade in journalism at publications such as the BBC, ELLE UK, and DAZED, she can now combine her love of the outdoors with the written word. When she’s not writing or sharing your best mountain portraits on social media, you’ll probably find her hiking, swimming, scrambling or wild camping.

Chris Townsend, equipment editor

Our equipment editor Chris Townsend is known globally as a writer on hiking and backpacking skills and equipment, the author of 25 books – many of them award-winning – and as a record-setting long-distance hiker. He was the first person to complete a continuous round of all the Scottish Munros and Tops and the first person to complete a continuous walk the length of the Canadian Rockies. He has also walked the Scottish Watershed and walked coast-to-coast across Scotland 18 times. In the USA he has walked the Pacific Crest Trail, Continental Divide Trail, Pacific Northwest Trail and Arizona Trail plus several self-devised long walks. Other walks include south-to-north through the mountains of Norway and Sweden and 1000 miles through the Yukon Territory. He has also worked as a Nordic ski tour leader in Scandinavia and other places and as a trek leader in the Himalayas.

David Lintern, deputy editor

Mary-Ann Ochota, columnist

Mary-Ann Ochota is a broadcaster, writer and outdoorswoman. She’s a fan of bivvy-bagging, hiking with her kids and she can mostly find her way around a horse, bike or a boat. You’ll spot her on re-runs of Time Team, and more recent shows like Mystic Britain with Clive Anderson and on BBC Radio Walking the Iron Curtain. Mary-Ann is the Hillwalking Ambassador for the British Mountaineering Council, a trustee for the John Muir Trust and a patron of The Tony Trust, which gives grants to young people to experience outdoor adventures. She’s also honoured to be the Patron for the Ridgeway National Trail’s 50th Anniversary in 2023. Mary-Ann’s book Hidden Histories: A Spotter’s Guide to the Landscape is for anyone who wants to spot historical and archaeological clues in the landscape, from prehistoric barrows and ancient villages to lost field systems and standing stones.

Jim Perrin, columnist

Described in The Observer as “the pre-eminent writer on the British landscape”, the writer of our Mountain Portrait series is renowned outdoor, mountaineering and travel writer Jim Perrin. He is the author of several highly respected outdoor books, including two winners of the Boardman Tasker prize.

Lucy Wallace

Lucy is a Mountain Leader (Summer, Winter and International), and wildlife guide who has worked professionally in the outdoors since 2007. She is based on Arran and works throughout Britain, Europe and Tanzania, on everything from environmental conservation, the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme to Mountain Leader training and assessments. She has tested and reviewed outdoor gear for various titles since 2012 and joined the review team in 2019.

Alex Roddie

Alex has been a hillwalker, mountaineer, and backpacker since 2003, cutting his teeth winter climbing while working as a barman in the famous Clachaig Inn in Glen Coe, before backpacking extensively throughout Britain and Europe. He’s the author of several books and an editor, writer, and photographer across outdoor media. He’s been part of the review team for The Great Outdoors since 2016, and is based in Scotland.

Kirsty Pallas

Kirsty Pallas is a safety advisor for national body Mountaineering Scotland, and a freelance mountaineering instructor the rest of the time. She holds the Summer and Winter Mountain Leader and the Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor Awards (working towards the WMCI). She’s been working in the outdoors professionally since 2011 and was hillwalking long before. She’s also a member of Oban Mountain Rescue team.

John Manning

Hiking the Pennine Way in 1986 inspired John to spend his life writing about the outdoors. He penned a triple award-winning column while sub-editor on his local daily newspaper, before serving 13 years as deputy editor on The Great Outdoors. He’s contributed to most UK walking magazines and edited several titles in his own right. His hiking CV includes the US Pacific Crest and John Muir Trails, New Zealand’s Rees-Dart and Kepler tracks, and Finland’s Bear’s Ring.

Fiona Russell

Fiona is better known as Fiona Outdoors, a journalist and award-winning outdoors writer. She lives in the Scottish Highlands and enjoys hillwalking, trail and hill running, back country skiing, sea kayaking, off-road cycling and wild swimming. She was introduced to hillwalking while at the University of Newcastle in the early 1990s. Fiona has compleated the Munros and is now working through her Corbetts.

Peter Macfarlane

Peter combines a life in the outdoors with an engineering background to consult on gear design and carry out pre-production testing. His outdoors journey started with the scouts in the 70’s and drew him into the Scottish hills, where you’ll find him in every season, often with a tent. Peter tests gear throughout the highlands, as well during his regular work as a Woodland Trust ranger.

Lara Dunn

Lara has worked in outdoors media since the late 90’s as a writer, reviewer, and an editor in her own right across adventure travel and cycling titles. She has hiked, cycled, climbed, scrambled, trekked, ambled, and swum all over the UK and further afield.

James Roddie

James is a wildlife photographer and guide based in Inverness. He has been hill-walking and climbing in Scotland since 2007 and is nearing the end of his first round of Munros. Highlights of his outdoors career have included first ascents of rock-climbs in Glencoe, backpacking in the Yosemite backcountry, and perfect winter days on the Cuillin Ridge.