The name Backcountry Survival Ltd (BCS Ltd) sums up what we do perfectly – we love to get into the more remote places and teach skills for living in an area for a prolonged length of time, making use of the materials and natural resources around us. Our wilderness survival courses in Scotland aim to offer everyone a challenging but rewarding experience – whatever skill-level or experience.

Our Mission

Our aim is to get our clients travelling and navigating through a wide range of terrain in a safe and environmentally sensitive way. We are immensely proud of the Cairngorm National Park and Scotland as a whole, which is how Backcountry came to be. Started up in 2009 by founder Neil Foote and recently taken over in 2020 and now trading as Backcountry Survival Ltd we will continue to build on the reputation of delivering solid, interesting, exciting but most importantly, relevant survival courses that can be implemented in a wide range of scenarios.

We Are Different

Backcountry Survival Ltd is different from other Survival companies, our clients have the opportunity to learn survival skills relevant to any environment and in an environmentally sensitive way. Our bushcraft and survival courses also complement a variety of outdoor activities such as hill walking, trekking, sea kayak trips, cross country skiing and so on, as they provide key survival and navigational techniques that would benefit anyone spending time in a diverse wilderness environment.

Knowledgeable, Experienced & Qualified

Whether you’re making plans for your next expedition and need survival training, guidance on equipment or advice, or indeed are interested in how to cope competently and confidently in any extreme environment, then you’ve come to the right company – we are knowledgeable, experienced, qualified.

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A team of skilled & experienced instructors delivering specialist survival training.

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Instructor Profiles

Graham Melloy: Director / Chief Instructor
Graham grew up in Northern Perthshire and spent a lot of his formative years in the outdoors learning the outdoor ways in the woods and hills along the River Tay. It was in the ACF where he did his first survival course in 1986. His love of survival continues as a commissioned officer in the British Army where he has completed several SERE courses including the Land Survival Instructor Course and the Unit SERE Instructor Course. He has been a navigation instructor for over 25 years and has navigated in all corners of the world. He holds the NCFE Defence SERE Advanced Survival Instructor Award, the NCFE SIA Level 4 award as well as winter mountaineering and teaching qualifications.

Graham has conducted survival training in various corners of the globe including the United States, South Atlantic, Europe, Mediterranean, Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Derek Robertson: Director / Instructor
Derek grew up in Northern Perthshire along with Graham Melloy the Chief Instructor and Graeme Stuart and spent his younger days in the woods and hills around Tayside fishing, hunting and shooting as well as learning the outdoor ways from farmers, gamekeepers and woodsmen and did his first survival course with the Army Cadets in 1986. His love of survival continued with a full career in the Army serving in all corners of the world. He holds the Woodland Skills Leader (WSL) and Land-Based Survival Instructor (LSI) awards as well as mountaineering, skiing and teaching qualifications.

Abigail Robertson: Instructor
Abi has been an instructor at BCS since 2018, she is a qualified Woodland Skills Leader and a Land-Based Survival Instructor.

Abi grew up as a military child, this saw most of her childhood in the woods or up a mountain. She has been an Army Cadet Instructor for the Black Watch Battalion since 2015 which has allowed for her Adventure Training, Instructional and Navigational skills and experience to be expanded. Abi is a qualified Outdoor First Aid Instructor and Alpine Ski Leader. With a love of mountain biking, rock climbing, hiking mountains and skiing, Abi has a lot of experience in the outdoors.

Andy Lewis: Instructor
Meet Andy, an adventurer and passionate Survival Skills expert. As a hugely experienced Bushcraft and Survival Instructor Andy has spent time in some of the most remote and extreme environments in the world; including the Nepalese Himalayas and Norway's Mountainous Hardangervidda wilderness. Andy is a qualified Mountain Leader and a former expedition co-ordinator, he is a full-time professional instructor of the highest calibre, delivering IOL accredited instructor training, regular courses, one-to-one skills training and bespoke, with us but mainly with his own company 'Survive and Thrive Wellbeing CIC' based on the Cheshire border.

"Be prepared and learn skills for life" is the ethos he lives, works and inspires others by.

Callum Michie: Instructor
Callum grew up in the North East Perthshire, on his family's hill farm, where he spent most of his childhood exploring the surrounding woods and hills. Learning about the land from gamekeepers, farmers and woodsmen. At school Callum took part in several orienteering competitions which gave him a good understanding and practice in navigating. In his late teens Callum became an instructor at an outdoor activity centre, instructing survival taster sessions, giving him a base to build his knowledge and practical skills from. Callum became a qualified instructor through BCS and joined the team in 2020.

Michael Robertson: Instructor
Michael has been an instructor at BCS for since 2018 he is a qualified Woodland Skills Leader and a Land-Based Survival Instructor.

Michael grew up as a military child, this saw most of his childhood in the woods or up a mountain. Michael's teenage years saw him in the Army Cadets which provided him with navigational skills, instructional and leadership skills and helped him pursue his career in the Army. He is now serving as a Royal Engineer, spending his free time rock climbing, mountain biking or instructing survival.

James Lawrence: Instructor
James joined BCS as an instructor in June 2022. Growing up, he spent his time climbing trees or building dens with his friends. This love of being outdoors continued in the Air Cadets where he spent his first night under a simple bivi sheet.

After joining the RAF, he soon found a passion for survival. Qualifying as a survival instructor, he initially specialised in the maritime environment, training crews how to survive on the sea. More recently, he duel qualified as a land instructor, teaching the next generation of aircrew how to use nature to their advantage.

Sally Robertson
Sally has been part of the BCS team since 2020 where she dealt with a lot of the background work. In recent years Sally has undergone training and has become a qualified instructor where she is now actively involved in the delivery of many of our courses from family days to multi day survival courses. Sally has a very adventurous past, with a history in the cadet force, a love for the outdoors and more importantly a love for her two dogs Macdui and Torin.

Nikki Edmondson: Instructor
Nikki is passionate about the benefits of outdoor experiences for childrens' (and adults'!) overall wellbeing. She has worked as a nursery practitioner in a fully outdoor setting since 2019 and is experienced in working with children with ASN. Currently studying towards her Certified Outdoor Mental Health Practitioner qualification. Nikki is a qualified Woodland Skills Leader. When not playing in the woods she loves wild swimming.

Who We Are & What We Do

Our Mission

We Are Different

Knowledgeable, Experienced & Qualified

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Instructor Profiles

Partners & Links