I suspect John Muir, the father figure of the worldwide conservation movement, would have been delighted to know a long-distance walking route, a coast-to-coast route to boot (pardon the pun), had been created in his name across the land of his birth.
On face value a route between Dunbar and Helensburgh has as much appeal as diving with sharks but in reality it passes through some delightful landscapes, as I discovered on a walk which followed the Union and Forth and Clyde canals between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
The great advantage of this walking route is that it is close to the large conurbations of Scotland and I've no doubt that many thousands of people will use it.
My real hope is that people will remember John Muir and his legacy. It was through his campaigning and writing that the USA gave national park protection to many of the nation's landscapes.
Here in Scotland, his homeland, we are losing our wild lands at a rate that will have John Muir turning in his grave, largely at the expense of a burgeoning onshore wind industry and a proliferation of bulldozed tracks. Our politicians should remember Muir's words: "In wildness is the preservation of the world."
l Cameron McNeish is editor-at-large of TGO magazine
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article