Festival fun at Fort William

Trust celebrates wild places, rainforests and fantastic films at the 2026 Fort William Mountain Festival.

Mid-February saw locals and visitors gather at the Fort William Mountain Festival to see the latest outdoor films and explore the area.

The Trust is a long-term partner of the festival, which enables us to connect people to wild places around the UK, including nearby Ben and Glen Nevis.

As sponsors of the festival’s International Film Awards Night, we were delighted to present the John Muir Trust Wild Places Film Award to Find Mòr - a film by Deep Wild Creative. 

^ Charlotte Workman and Steve Small of Deep Wild Creative receive their prize from the Trust's Nevis Manager Alison Austin.

The Find Mòr film follows a group of canyoneers over the span of two years as they embark on a journey of exploration into the hidden corners of the Scottish Highlands.

Rainforest theme

Huge thanks to everyone who visited the Trust’s stall over the long weekend to find out about the work we are doing to restore the local rainforest at Glen Nevis.

The woodlands there support rare and slow-growing lichens, mosses and fungi, many of which depend on trees that are more than a century old. High rainfall and a mild climate make this part of the West Coast an ideal refuge for fragments of ancient rainforest – a globally scarce habitat that once covered far larger areas of Britain.

Many of the lichens have wonderfully descriptive names and this year our Nevis Conservation Officer Julia Robertson devised a fun quiz (see below) for festival goers to enter for a chance to win one of two Ben Lomond Gin Schiehallion gift sets, kindly donated by Ben Lomond Gin!

^ Try the quiz yourself here* – just for fun as the prizes have been awarded!

Limited edition gin offer

Created in proud partnership with the John Muir Trust, Ben Lomond Gin’s Schiehallion Limited Edition is inspired by the wild foothills of one of Scotland’s most iconic mountains.

With the guidance of the Trust’s conservation team, three wild botanicals were carefully foraged from the foothills of Schiehallion itself - blaeberries, wild thyme, and birch leaves - creating a beautifully balanced Scottish gin that is sweet, spicy, crisp and floral. With every bottle sold, a direct contribution supports the Trust’s work to protect and enhance wild places, for the benefit of all.

• To enjoy an exclusive 30% discount on online purchases of the Ben Lomond Gin Schiehallion Gift Set before 31 March 2026, use code JOHNMUIR30 for a gift that celebrates both flavour and the future of Scotland’s wild places.

Exploring the rainforest

Festival goers were also given an opportunity to see our work for themselves by joining Nevis Conservation Officer Julia and ecologist Ellie Corsie from Nevis Landscape Partnership for a guided walk. The duo led a group off the path into the depths of one of our most pristine rainforest fragments to show off some of the rare, weird and wonderful species that call it their home.

Julia said: "We focused on why our rainforests are so important and globally rare, what happened to our lost rainforests in the past, current threats and what we are doing to restore these all important habitats. We hunted around to find some of our rare key rainforest indicator species (see photos below)."

Tackling invasive species

The weekend ended an invitation for volunteers to join us and our partners in Nevis Nature Network project to tackle one of the biggest theats to Scotland’s rainforest – the invasive rhododendron ponticum.

This fast-spreading plant shades out native plants, alters soil chemistry, and prevents the rich diversity of mosses, lichens, and ferns from thriving. We are working to remove it and open space for native woodland species to recover – helping restore the rainforest’s unique character and resilience.

Julia thanked all the volunteers (pictured above taking shelter from the rain) to remove the rhododendron: "Great progress was made and we had fun getting wet and muddy while mattocking away!"

*Spoiler alert for lichen quiz!

The three wrong answers are: alder hats, desperate Dave and frilly fruited snakeskin.