JIMMIE Macgregor's letter on Dr Hannah Stirling (Letters, November 15), prompted me to write about that other great champion of Loch Lomond, Tom Weir.
Had he lived as long as Hannah, Tom would also have been 100 years old this year and to mark the centenary of his birth, on December 29 a life-size statue of him is to be erected on the road to Ben Lomond, overlooking Balmaha Bay, which was one of his favourite places.
That Loch Lomond and Ben Lomond form the focus for Scotland's first national park is in no small measure down to the efforts of Tom and Hannah. For it was their successful Friends of Loch Lomond campaign back in 1978 to save Ben Lomond from a hydro-electric development which provided the impetus for the creation of the nation's first national park.
The conservation charity The Friends of Loch Lomond and The Trossachs, which carries on their pioneering work, has been assisting the Tom Weir Memorial Group with the effort to raise the £75,000 cost of the statue and anyone who would like to donate towards to the project and its associated picnic area improvements can do so online at www.lochlomond-trossachs.org or send a cheque to Friends of Loch Lomond and The Trossachs, The Old Station, Balloch G83 8SS.
John Urquhart, Trustee,
Friends of Loch Lomond & The Trossachs, c/o Balmillig,
64B Colquhoun Street, Helensburgh.
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