Our partnership with the UK’s premier wildlife hotel, The Grant Arms

We are excited to launch our partnership with the UK’s only wildlife hotel, The Grant Arms in the Scottish Highlands. Nestled in Grantown on Spey in the heart of the beautiful Cairngorm National Park, The Grant Arms Hotel is the perfect base from which to explore this region’s stunning landscapes and discover its abundant flora and fauna. The finest river in Scotland, the River Spey, is only minutes away and there is no better place to spot rare and endangered species such as wildcat, red squirrel, osprey, pine marten, golden eagle and rutting deer.

The Grant Arms Hotel
Continue reading

Outdoor Stories: Alex and Jodie from Páramo HQ

Between them, HQ staff members Alex Beaumont and Jodie Clarke have an impressive 37 years of Páramo experience under their belts, so we thought it was about time we gave them a little overdue airtime in one of our newsletters. Alex is our patient Operations Director who knows everything there is to know about the business, whilst Jodie, as Head of Sales, has a real flair for what makes our retailers and customers tick. As befits a Páramo employee, they spend much of their spare time enjoying the great outdoors and we asked them to give us an insight into the kit they are never without.

Continue reading

Nick Baker’s Tips – Transitioning to Autumn.

Nick Baker is a well known naturalist and author and has graced the television screens and radio since the mid-1990’s. Due to the nature (quite literally) of his work, he requires the very best in outdoor clothing and has been a long-time wearer and advocate for Páramo Clothing. Here he shares his advice on how to tackle unpredictable, transitional weather as we are edging further into Autumn...

Continue reading

Páramo is the supporting wind beneath conservation project’s wings

As Ambassador for the UN Convention on Migratory Species, Sacha Dench campaigns to raise awareness of the problems facing many species and habitats around the world. Her latest expedition, Flight of the Osprey, is an innovative conservation project undertaken in collaboration with UN agencies, scientists, media and governments – and Páramo is honoured to have been chosen as its official clothing sponsor.

FOTO Team

Continue reading

Writer and wildlife guide David Chandler reviews our Páramo Poncho

We were delighted to bump into writer and wildlife guide, David Chandler, at this year’s Global BirdFair event in Rutland, which brings together wildlife conservationists, representatives of nature travel, birders and natural history enthusiasts from all over the world.

David is skilled in introducing non-expert audiences to the natural world and worked for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and BirdLife International for over 16 years before going freelance. He has a life-long interest in wildlife and communicates the natural world with huge enthusiasm.

David recently reviewed our famous Páramo Poncho for the Gear Finder pages of Bird Watching magazine and we’re very excited to share his findings with you…

Continue reading

Páramo in the squirrel woods

By early 2014, I had been monitoring and photographing red squirrels in West Cumbria for about 18 months. It rains in Cumbria (sometimes heavily) and I found that my existing waterproofs did not provide the required level of protection and comfort. April 2014 saw me in Scotland and the weather forecast, unseasonably warm, suggested that my trip, carrying heavy camera equipment, was likely to be a distinctly uncomfortable experience. I bought my first Páramo jacket, a Cascada, for the trip, was delighted with the results, and soon bought my first pair of Cascada directional trousers. My comfort level immediately improved.

Continue reading

Spectacled Bears protected in the Páramo

Páramo’s long-term carbon-balancing and conservation partner, World Land Trust (WLT), has announced that the Ministry of Environment of Peru has recognised a private conservation area (ACP) that will protect a large Páramo vegetation zone of the South American Andes. The community of San Juan de Sallique has pledged to protect approximately 8,650 acres (3,500 hectares) of Montane Forest and Páramo.

This reflects three years of work by the communities and WLT’s partner Naturaleza y Cultura Peru (NCP), securing the protection of this important habitat in perpetuity – an important step for wildlife such as Spectacled Bears and endangered Mountain Tapirs, but also a triumph for the communities dedicated to preserving their water sources through conservation and sustainable agricultural practices. Continue reading

Madagascar’s ‘Silk’ Route

I’ve been visiting Madagascar for over 20 years: in fact I’ve returned each year since 1991. Back then it captivated me like no place had done before, or since, and my enthusiasm has yet to diminish. Since my first visit in 1998, one place on the island has been my favourite – Marojejy National Park in the far north east. It is one of Madagascar’s wildest places.

I initially visited the park with just one aim – to get photos of the incredibly rare silky sifaka (Propithecus candidus). After considerable effort, I managed to get something, but of course this was in the days of film and by today’s standards the pictures were very poor. In more recent years, I’ve returned to Marojejy several times to try and improve on those images and to document more of the park’s diverse wildlife.

Continue reading