The River Dee was opened this year by Alistair Hume wearing a Hilltrek Dee Cotton Analogy Wading Jacket.
Cotton Analogy is a waterproof and breathable outdoor clothing concept designed for robust applications with a Ventile outer and Nikwax Analogy pump liner
What is Cotton Analogy fabric?
Cotton Analogy® combines a robust cotton Ventile® outer with a synthetic inner Nikwax Analogy® Pump Liner which pushes liquid outwards to keep you warm and dry inside. The result is a highly breathable, waterproof and tough fabric suited to cold weather mountaineering, field sports, game conservancy, bushcraft and outdoor photography.
Cotton Analogy® functions in a similar way to Nikwax Analogy®, well proven by Páramo in their highly successful range of Directional Waterproofs, by mimicking animal fur in providing both insulation and water-shedding.
All Cotton Analogy® Waterproof Clothing has been approved by Nikwax Fabrics and have also attained stringent standards – a minimum four hour resistance to 3cm of rain per hour – tested in the independent Leeds University Rain Room.
We have designed a range of technical outdoor clothing using the Cotton Analogy® concept.
Analogy is a trade mark of Nikwax Ltd
Ventile is a trade mark of Talbot Weaving Ltd
A made to measure Dee Cotton Analogy Wading jacket has been won Richard Ashby from Peterborough who caught the second heaviest salmon on the Glen Tanar Estate on the River Dee in Aberdeenshire in North East of Scotland.
Richard, who has been a regular visiting angler to the Estate for the last five years, caught a 25lb salmon on the Craigendinnie beat in May. 
Richard was just beaten to the first prize by Mark Slight who caught a 25.3 lb salmon.
Glen Tanar Estate wildlife manager, Colin McLean, said : “Thank you to everyone who took part in Glen Tanar Estate’s heaviest salmon competition and congratulations to our three winners. Salmon fishing on the estate has always been very popular, and the anglers seemed to enjoy the added good natured competition.”
All fishermen who cast their lines on one of the Estate’s four beats at Headinch & Cambus O’May, Deecastle, Waterside and Ferrar and Craigendinnie were eligible to take part in the competition.
Made at our workshop in Aboyne, the Dee Wading Jacket uses Cotton Analogy fabric to keep the salmon angler dry and warm in the worst conditions on the river.
Susan Griffiths, who designs and manufactures our outdoor clothing, talks about working with Ventile
‘I was very lucky enough to complete my apprenticeship at Hilltrek in Aboyne in the 1990′s and I have continued learning working with the fabric. When we first started out using Ventile there were not many other companies making outdoor clothing with the fabric. This was in the days before the internet and our Ventile clothing was mainly supplied to customers in the North of Scotland. With the introduction of our website in 2004, sales took off globally and have been continuing to grow ever since.
My skills and knowledge of Ventile have grown alongside Hilltrek and every day working with the fabric brings a new challenge. Many of our customers ask for slight alterations or additional features on our standard designs and these designs have subsequently evolved over the years. The first bespoke design that I produced was an Exploration Jacket for a customer who intended on using it in the Antarctic, which was a challenging design with many features. I also designed our ‘Wee Trekker’ range of Nikwax Analogy clothing for children and developed our clothing designs in Cotton Analogy, which combines Ventile and Nikwax Analogy.
Ventile as a material is in a class of its own and working with it involves a higher skill than other fabrics as there is no room for error– any mistakes show and there is no way to erase them! For this reason you have to be 100% confident working with the material. Such a good quality material stands for itself but it’s important that the style and quality of the garments we produce reflects the quality implied in the name‘Ventile’.
Understanding our customers is also fundamental and, being a small company, I have maintained first hand contact with the people who are using Ventile every day for a variety of outdoor pursuits. Although I feel sometimes that I’ve heard most uses of our Ventile clothing, there are always surprises!
Customers requests and feedback shape my knowledge and experience and I think this has been the key factor in producing some of our best garments yet. We have made clothing for a wide range of people from all over the world and our appreciation of individual requirements has resulted in many returning customers.
I continually strive to ensure that people associate the Hilltrek brand with the same quality and respect that Ventile has earned for itself and, at the end of the day, I have to be personally satisfied that each garment is of the quality that people have come to expect of Hilltrek.
As the Hilltrek Brand continues to grow, and we continue producing these quality garments, each day I’m reminded that no matter how many years experience we have in this type of work….we’re always learning.
Our new Liathach Cotton Analogy Extreme Smock has now been approved by Nikwax.
The Liathach is our top end Cotton Analogy Smock combining an outer of Ventile® with a Nikwax Analogy® Pump Liner
It is based on our popular Foinaven Cotton Analogy Smock with several new features:
The Liathach Smock is priced £325 in standard sizes and £365 made to measure. It is available in L24 Ventile and optionally in heavier L19 Ventile for an additional £40.
For the history of the smock read the story of its development and earlier trial smock in the Arctic.
The Modified Foinaven Smock is featured on 3D photography company Outsphere’s website. Look for the image of the orange jacket.
Last Sunday the Aboyne Nomads Mountain Biking Club visited Glen Tanar Estate to learn about the extensive mountain bike trails.
Eric Baird, Glen Tanar Ranger, resplendent in his Hilltrek Assynt Jacket, explains the Glen Tanar trails to members of the Aboyne Nomads Mountain Bike club.
Eric led the club round the trails on his mounatin bike still wearing his Assynt Jacket. It goes to prove that full length Ventile and Cotton Analogy jackets can be used for mountain biking!
Eric Baird with Aboyne Nomads
For more pictures see the Glen Tanar Rangers blog
See the Aboyne Nomads on YouTubeon the Fungle rated as one of Scotlands top 5 mountain bike trails.
GlenTanar estate will give away a Hilltrek made-to-measure Dee Wading jacket worth £265 to the fisherman who lands the second heaviest salmon on its River Dee beats this season.
The heaviest fish will win a weekend break in one of its luxury cottages.
Interested? See http://www.glentanar.co.uk/salmon_fishing.html
We are not using troubled Glasgow football club to test our jackets but they could use the money…
Glen Tanar Ranger Service provide outdoor education and environmental activities in Glen Tanar, the ideal location to test our Assynt Cotton Analogy Jacket. The estate has internationally important conservation sites – eagles and osprey raise their young here, the elusive capercaillie and Scottish crossbills live among the pines of the old forest.
Mike Martin, one of the rangers, is pictured on the Glen Tanar Rangers blog putting the Assynt Jacket through its paces on a Walking To Health walk.
To learn more about Glen Tanar and the work of the rangers see the Glen Tanar website.
It was a cold and bright day on the 1st of February when Paul Whitehouse the famous TV comedian opened the salmon fishing on the River Dee at Potarch Bridge.
I was invited to join the opening ceremony and donned my Liathach Cotton Analogy Smock to combat the cold and naturally to show off the garment to anyone who was interested and there were a few.
Many local celebrities attended the ceremony including Ian Murray senior and Ian Murray junior, father and brother respectively of Davie Murray, who tested our Dee wading Jacket.
Young Ian is a man of many ’pairts’ including hillwalker, author, folklorist, fisher, bushcrafter, consultant etc. -see Ian’s website for more. His books are excellent and we hold them all in stock.
I spoke with many local Deeside celebrities during the ceremony including renowned kiltmaker Pam Blackhall, local artist Howard Butterworth, Neil Bain of Braemar Highland Safaries, local councilor Peter Argyle, Andrew and Jenny Cox of the Kinord Hotel, Derek and Jean McCulloch of the Lodge on the Loch. There were many more but there was too little time to get around.
Drams were provided to keep out the cold and food provided by the excellent local Potarch Hotel
Too find more about Paul Whitehouse’s love of fishing the River Dee see the STV video and the River Dee Trust website.
‘If you can’t beat then join em’ step 2 -a second Hilltrek product is now available on Amazon.
Assynt Cotton Analogy Jacket
If you are an Amazon fan you now can buy both the Braemar Ventile Smock and the Assynt Cotton Analogy Jacket alongside an array of Paramo Clothing and other outdoor stuff in the Hilltrek store.
See www.amazon.co.uk and search for Hilltrek.
