About Journeys

Regenerative adventures: Positively impacting nature and local communities

How will your adventure have a positive impact on the environment, local community and you?

  • We employ local guides. As well as sharing their love of their home with you, they will tell you stories of the landscape, its history & the nature restoration taking place.

  • No matter how you arrive at Comrie Croft, you will leave for your trip on foot or by bike (no private vehicles are used).

  • Travelling slowly through our Scottish landscape, you will have time to stop and appreciate the natural world around you. This makes us happy and positive and we are sure it will do the same for you.

  • Our trips allow you to be in the moment and leave the stresses of modern life behind. There is something about being physically active in nature that just makes you feel good.

  • All food on our trips is locally grown, sourced & prepared. Supporting our local economy, reducing food miles and providing delicious fresh seasonal food is very important to us.

  • Your trip directly supports rewilding Comrie Croft. Ecological surveys have shown this is working! In the past few years we've witnessed the return of Red Squirrels, White-Tailed Eagles (the largest bird of prey in the UK), Pine Martin and Red Kites.

  • More than 40 people's livelihoods are based at the Croft. Our local buying policy means that more than 80% of your spend is retained locally. And as active partners in our community, we are especially involved in getting people outdoors and appreciating our natural environment.

  • By booking a Journey you’ll support the MTB Trail Therapy Programme. Two of the very first Trail Therapy practitioners work at Comrie Croft. They deliver this important programme, FREE, twice a year to people who are struggling with their mental health.

MEET YOUR GUIDES

Emily Greaves

HEAD GUIDE & COACH

  • A former Captain in the Royal Engineers, Emily has over 25 years experience of leading in the outdoors. She has trekked, climbed and cycled mountains all over the world including the Simien and Bale Mountains in Ethiopia, Upper Mustang in Nepal, the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia, the Alps and Pyrenees. This wealth of experience makes her a genuinely interesting guide and great companion.

    Emily has now turned her considerable energies into being a guide and coach here at Comrie Croft and a tutor for Cycle Wild Scotland. 

    The first ever person to qualify as a Mountain Bike Trail Therapy practitioner, Emily is well-regarded for her ability to create positive spaces for people to get into mountain biking and learn new skills. She is part of the Dirt Divas team and works with other coaches across Scotland in an effort to make mountain biking and off-road riding more accessible to women.

    Any meeting with Emily comes with a tidal wave of positivity that you will find yourself being happily swept away by.

    When not riding one of her many bikes, you’ll find her knitting hats, cold water dipping and enjoying the outdoors with her family.

    • British Cycling Level 3 Mountain Bike Leader

    • British Cycling Level 2 Coach

    • Mountain Bike Trail Therapy Practitioner

    • British Cycling Mountain Bike Tutor

    • Cycling Scotland Go MTB Level 5 Instructor

    • Mountain Leader Summer

    • Silver Velotech

    • Outdoor First Aid

    • Member of the PVG scheme

Emily Wormald

MTB GUIDE

  • Em is a Level 3 MTB guide, and Level 2 MTB coach, but more importantly loves being in wild places with her bike. A keen gravel rider, mountain biker and bikepacker, Em lives just outside of the Lake District.

    During the pandemic, Em saw the need for community and confidence building on bikes (as well as wanting some new friends), so she founded the Lakes Gravel Gang, a women's gravel cycling community, which is now a joy-filled community of women riding bikes together. She delivers mechanics skills sessions, intro to bikepacking weekends and works for a family cycling website - but also loves wild swims, cafe trips and a good a Netflix binge!

    Em will be the first to suggest a cafe stop or to cheer you on on a technical section of trail.

    • British Cycling Level 3 Mountain Bike Leader

    • British Cycling Level 2 Coach

    • Summer Mountain Leader

    • Outdoor Leadership Degree

    • Outdoor First Aid

    • Member of the PVG scheme

Gordon Grant

MTB GUIDE

  • In between bringing up a family and working abroad for many years, Gordon has managed to squeeze in a wide range of outdoor adventures including Mountain Biking, Climbing, Mountaineering, Ice climbing and Ski touring. He has a chatty, easy approach to outdoor leadership, is genuinely interested in all his clients and goes out his way to make people feel at ease. 

    In addition to pursuing his activities he is an active operational member of Tayside Mountain Rescue and spends the rest of the time walking his daughter’s old long haired chihuahua!

    As with all the team, Gordon is a firm believer in the fitness and health benefits given to all people taking part in outdoor activities pitched at the correct level of adventure relative to their experience. 

    • Level 2 Mountain Bike Leader (Trail Cycle Leader)

    • Summer Mountain Leader

    • Outdoor Adventure Foundation Degree

    • Remote Rural Emergency Technician and Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician

    • Winter Mountain Leader"

    • Outdoor First Aid

    • Member of the PVG scheme

Aaron Gray

MTB GUIDE & COACH

    • British Cycling Level 2 Mountain Bike Leader

    • Cycling Scotland Go MTB Level 5 Instructor

    • Outdoor First Aid

    • Member of the PVG scheme

Leanne Whitehead

MTB GUIDE & COACH

  • Leanne is a mountain bike leader and coach who is passionate about getting more people riding bikes. She counts Comrie Croft as one of her favourite places to ride and loves showing clients the trails and helping them build confidence on corners, rocks, and drops. She is especially interested in increasing the number of women and girls on bikes. Her second passion is cake, and no ride is complete without it!

    • British Cycling Level 2 Mountain Bike Leader

    • Cycling Scotland Go MTB Level 5 Instructor

    • Outdoor First Aid

    • Member of the PVG scheme

Russell Newham

MTB GUIDE & COACH

  • It’s fair to say that Russell has had a fairly diverse career and, after a decade, he decided that the corporate world wasn’t for him. He left his role as a Sales Manager and completed his teacher training, gaining a PGDE in Secondary Education (Geography). After a short stint in the classroom the calling of the outdoors was too strong to resist. He began an 8 year stint in the outdoor industry working in various outdoor centres and on Criminal Justice expeditions as a Development Trainer.

    Returning to the classroom was inevitable but Russell manages to combine this with his passion for developing people in the outdoors in his role as Pupil Suppoprt Teacher, Outdoor Activities/DofE Coordinator and Contingent Commander of the Combined Cadet Forces.

    Russell’s life has always been underpinned by his love of bikes, especially silly ones with one gear. Although no stranger to a bike race, his real passion is journeying. He feels there is no better way to explore the outdoors and has shared many adventures with like minded people in Scotland, Morocco, The Alps, Norway and Slovenia.

    • SMBLA Mountain Bike Leader

    • SMBLA Trail Cycle Leader

    • British Cycling Night Leader

    • Go MTB Level 5 Instructor

    • Summer Mountain Leader

    • Winter Mountain Leader

    • MLTA Rock Climbing Instructor

    • UKCC Level 2 Paddlesports Coach

    • Canoe White Water Leader and SUP module

    • RYA Powerboat Instructor

    • RYA Yacht Master

    • Outdoor First Aid

    • GTCS Registration (Geography) with professional recognition in Outdoor Learning

    • DofE Assessor

    • Outdoor First Aid

Scott Murray

MTB GUIDE & COACH

  • Scott has been riding a bike for as long as he can remember. From jumping over anything he could find to many trips up north biking in the Cairngorms with his family. 

    Scott moved to Fort William to complete a leadership in the outdoors course with the sole aim of turning his obsessive bike hobby into a job. It worked! 

    Scott is a superb coach, his relaxed manner puts the most nervous rider at ease. He can ride the gnarliest of gnar, breaking it down into bite sized chunks so you can too!

    Currently back at uni studying counselling part time. Scott is passionate about the positive effect two wheels has on mental health.  Everybody could do with some trail therapy.

    • Trail Cycle Leader

    • British Cycling Level 2 Coach

    • Mountain Bike Trail Therapy Practitioner

    • Cycling Scotland Go MTB Level 5 Instructor

    • Gold Velotech

    • Certificate in outdoor leadership

    • Outdoor First Aid

    • Member of the PVG scheme