SO you are a Japanese tourist visiting Loch Lomond and you have alighted from the puttering ferry that takes you from Luss to Balmaha. You walk the 100 yards into Balmaha and there is a bronze-coloured statue of a man with arms outstretched, leaning on a wall, which is adorned with a bright red woollen hat that someone has placed on its head. Surrounding the statue are 12 folk also wearing red woollen bunnets, who are all playing ukuleles.

So you politely ask the man tapping his foot to the ukuleles what is going on. I try to explain, but fear I am not getting the whole story across. But you thank me anyway and take some photographs which you will probably puzzle over when you return home. And now I must try to explain it to Herald readers.

This was Weirfest, an annual festival to honour Scotland's most well known hillwalker, the late Tom Weir, and to raise funds to help maintain the little well-kept gardens at Balmaha where Tom's statue welcomes visitors to Loch Lomond. Glasgow has its Lord Wellington statue which has a striped traffic cone placed atop it. The Tom Weir statue usually has a red bunnet on it to remind you of the kenspeckle figure who would march over hill and brae in STV's Weir's Way, bringing his love of Scotland's outdoors to a television audience.

Many a late night boulevardier will have come home, switched on the telly in the wee small hours, and found an STV repeat of Weir's Way. The TV company clearly loved Tom, and their decision to constantly repeat the show had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that his contract did not include any repeat fees.

But the reason for the repeats is not important. What is important is the way Tom could instil in city dwellers the joys of escaping the clamour, stoor, and intensity of city life for the outdoors. For Tom himself was originally a city boy. He grew up in Glasgow's Springburn where his mother cleaned railway carriages, and was one of the band of post-war working class folk in Glasgow who took a bus or a train to the country to cycle, walk, camp and enjoy the company of like-minded souls.

As John Urquhart, vice chairman of Friends of Loch Lomond put it: "Tom Weir's origins in the midst of Springburn's heavy engineering din and grime gave little hint of what he would become. Then again, maybe his yearning for the unsullied beauty of wild places was an instinctive reaction to all of that - a lust for clean air and big horizons."

After the war he took the risk of become a full-time writer and mountaineer, taking part in expeditions to the Himalayas. He wrote books, regular columns in publications such as the Scots Magazine, and made Weir's Way for STV which ran from 1976 to 1987. Fashion was unimportant then, and he usually had a distinctive Fair Isle jumper and a toorie hat.

Russell Galbraith, who directed the programmes once told of an early Weir's Way when Tom was directed to walk towards the camera, say his piece, then keep on walking. The crew had packed up before they realised that Tom was still walking, and they caught up with him three miles down the road.

Last year money was raised to erect a statue to Tom, and a fine detailed work of art it is too, with binoculars around his neck, big walking boots and a rucksack at his feet. It is not on a plinth, and is instead cleverly attached to a dry-stane wall for stability, and folk can stand beside it and get their pictures taken with Tom. Stirling Council was quite clever however. They gave the space at Balmaha for the statue - but added that campaigners could in return maintain the little park it was placed in for the next 20 years, which is why Saturday's fund-raising event was taking place. Not a big fund-raising event with pre-paid tickets, stages and elaborate lighting. No, just a daytime show with a few old friends of Tom including Jimmie Macgregor and Alastair MacDonald with fundraisers discreetly standing with buckets for donations. You suspect it was the sort of show that Tom would have approved of as it was very accessible with little hassle - just as he wanted the hills of Scotland to be. Even the midgies came along to see what was happening.

As James Fraser, chairman of Friends of Loch Lomond, told me: "This is the second Weirfest, a celebration of the life of Tom Weir, but also showcasing Scotland's great outdoors which was Tom's raison dêtre. Tom's enthusiasm for the outdoors was infectious. He got out of a Glasgow as a young man and discovered the beauty of what is on our doorsteps and he wanted as many people as possible to experience it.

"Loch Lomond is only 20 minutes away from Glasgow by train to Balloch, and perhaps in the past people have overlooked it, going instead because of the novelty to say a weekend in Barcelona, but there are now 4m visitors a year to Loch Lomond from around the world, down south, and yes, from Glasgow."

To continue Tom's inspirational work, a booklet on exploring Loch Lomond has been produced with writings by Tom as well as stories and pictures created by children from local primary schools. As one wee girl, Beth Gilhilan, wrote after a trip up the hills: "When I got back to school I was cold and muddy but extremely happy and proud of myself. I feel very lucky to live in such a beautiful area of the world."

And it's true. The sunshine of Balmaha on Saturday, the views over the loch to the wooded island of Inchcalloch, and the vista of Ben Lomond and The Cobbler are inspiring. They must be, as I found myself tapping my foot to ukulele music, and how many folk are ever going to admit to that?