One of the country’s leading outdoors writers and broadcasters revealed he will be working with the BBC this year to film a project that will follow a route from Scotland’s border to its north-west extremity.
Cameron McNeish will start at Kirk Yetholm in the Borders and wind his way to Cape Wrath for the series.
And with the nation’s independence high on the political agenda, Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond has given his blessing to the route, which is being dubbed the Scottish National Trail.
Mr McNeish, former editor of TGO magazine, said the idea came during a trip to Nepal having heard about the Great Himalayan Trail, which runs the length of Nepal.
The idea is not to create new paths, but to use existing ones linked to create the trail from the South to the North-West.
He said: “Basically, we’re using the existing footpaths that are there. We start off on St Cuthbert’s Way, do a couple of days on the Southern Upland Way, move on to some Tweed Trails, go into Edinburgh, then walk beside canals to the West Coast, then the Rob Roy Way. We’re kind of linking them all together.
He also said there was a move to have a definitive route for the section north of Fort William.
“There have been a few meetings in Scotland about the Cape Wrath Trail,” he said. “It’s a fabulous, fabulous walk from Fort William to the most north-westerly part of Scotland.
“At the moment there are two or three separate ways. There was a meeting with Scottish Natural Heritage and they’re quite keen to see one distinct route, so that will probably happen.”
Keep an eye on the BBC programme schedule for this series – it should be worth watching out for.
Find out more about the Scottish National Trail
