West Highland Way: 'We owe a great debt to Tom Hunter'

She cared for "a succession of married couples", something that is only usually seen after road traffic accidents or terrorist attacks. 

"Not one of the couples left hospital as a pair," she says. "I prayed to see something other than what I'd been dealing with."

Walking the West Highland Way provided the antidote to the "evil" she witnessed in hospital wards.

The West Highland Way was approved for development 50 years ago in 1974 (Image: From public)

"From the word go it seemed as if the Way itself wrapped itself around me," she says of the famed Milngavie to Fort William trail. "The delight of the landscape unfolded each corner I turned."

"After the events of Covid walking the trail was surprising, joyful and healing. It has helped me to 'make my peace' with what happened."

Sue Butler sought respite from the horrors of Covid wards on the West Highland Way (Image: Sue Butler)

Stories like this are not unusual.

With little to do but put one foot in front of the other immersed in glorious and every-changing landscapes, West Highland Way completers are evangelical about the impact the 96-mile walking route has had on their lives.

Many return to do it again and again like Tom Marshall, who arrived in Fort William on Thursday for the 84th time.

"My aim is to reach 100 before my 70th birthday next year as long as nothing stops me or gets in my way," he says.

Tom Marshall among West Highland Way bluebells (Image: Tom Marshall)

The West Highland Way opened in October 1980 and was Scotland's first officially designated Long Distance Route.

After the Second World War ex-RAF man Tom Hunter from Glasgow conceived of the idea of an official footpath, partly to protect the eastern shore of Loch Lomond from development.

Hunter and his wife Margaret gained a lot of support from fellow walking lovers for the trail, who joined forces to put together a proposed route.

His idea was  met with objections from landowners, local authorities, and the Countryside Commission. Despite the setbacks, the trail was approved in 1974.

The West Highland Way attracts around 100,000 walkers every year (Image: Freelancer)

Significant in its development was geographer Fiona Rose who surveyed the route over a year in the early 1970s, covering some 1,000 miles on foot.

Endurance runner Rob Sinclair is believed to hold the record for the fastest time, completing the route in 13 hours, 41 minutes and 8 seconds in June 2017.

For those taking it at a more leisurely pace, the average time taken is six to eight days.

Data from 2022 and 2023 shows that the number of walkers has now returned to an exceeded pre-Covid levels with more than 45,000 people completing the full route. 

At least the same number again complete part sections of the route, with some popular sections receiving significantly higher footfall from day trips such as Conic Hill and the Devil’s Staircase in Glencoe. 

Julie Walker arrived in Fort William on May 5 after her last 15-mile stretch from Kinlochleven that passes through the Lairigmor, a deserted and beautiful mountain pass below the Mamores.

With six days left of her holidays, she considered how best to spend it and after a night's respite pulled on her boots and walked back to Milngavie.

She has now completed the route five times in two years.

"People thought I was absolutely bat sh** crazy," she says.

"I'm a 56-year-old grandmother of 11, I live in the flat lands of Suffolk but I do keep myself fit with lots of walking and going to the gym."

Born in Edinburgh, she grew up near Largs before her parents "dragged me down kicking and screaming" as a teenager to Suffolk.

Julie Walker at the 'Man with Sore Feet' statue in Fort William, which marks the end of the West Highland Way (Image: Julie Walker)

"I heard about the Way from a friend and started researching it and it just sung to me," she says. "The fact I'd be back home in Scotland. I went off on my own and had a backpack that was about 18 kilos and I literally crawled over the finish line.

"After that I learned a lot about ultralight packing," she says. "

In her most recent trip she met Dan Wilson, from Billericay in Essex, who is thought to be the first person to complete the route in a manual wheelchair, assisted by a team of nine fundraisers lifting him over boulders and rocks at times.

Dan Wilson is thought to be the first person to complete the route in a manual wheelchair (Image: Daniel Wilson)

He said: "The hardest part was day three alongside Loch Lomond," he says of stretch from Rowardenan to Inversnaid that is considered by many to be the most challenging.

"It was raining and cold, and the terrain was very challenging.

"We cut out four miles of this section and got a boat as that particular part would have been impossible."

The team's efforts were rewarded with £2,500 raised for the BackUp Trust, which supports people who have suffered spinal injuries.

Charities benefit from the many fundraisers who take on the challenge of a route that is often under-estimated, and so does Scotland's economy.

The official end of the route was moved to the end of Fort William high street in 2010 to maximise tourism spend.

It is thought to bring in at least £12million each year but the figure was collated in 2016 and is probably far higher says Professor John Lennon, Director of the Moffat Centre for Travel and Tourism Business Development at Glasgow Caledonian University.

"Most people will only walk a portion of it so it's very hard to record their economic impact so I suspect it is under-represented," he says.

The West Highland Way follows Loch Lomond, a stretch that is considered one of the most challenging (Image: Getty)

"It's a huge treasure and the way we have to use it, is to use it as an introduction to the other, great range of things you can do in rural, coastal Scotland.

"It's interesting that the WHW continues to have the big pull factor. We've had other walks developed including the Southern Upland Way - but it still exerts a significant influence. 

A walker making their way through Rannoch Moor (Image: Freelancer)

"It's a very important and iconic route for Scotland, it displays the wonder of the natural heritage and we owe Tom Hunter a great debt."

Mark Moorer and his daughter Emily travelled from Bavaria to begin the trail on Thursday and will be wild camping because they were too late to apply for a permit for Loch Lomond's National Park.

"We would like to climb Ben Nevis at the end," said Mr Moorer, who says they were advised to go in May when the Scottish weather is generally fair and the midges are not at their worst.

Mark Moorer and his daughter Emily travelled from Germany to start the West Highland Way on Thursday (Image: Colin Mearns/Newsquest)

With around 100,000 walkers each year taking on stretches of the route including the popular Devil's Staircase at Glencoe, Jane McGeary is tasked with keeping a close eye on the paths.

She is the only person that works across the entire route as West Highland Way Business Development Manager at the Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park.

Around a third of the Way falls within the park and she says the designation in 2002 has been beneficial.

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It helped attract more than £1million to transform the path on Conic Hill, a project that involved helicopters taking stone up the 361-meter summit.

"I think it does make quite a big difference, particularly for the nature, biodiversity side of things," she says.

"People really don't think or know much about path maintenance and how much is involved.

"We sometimes get comments in saying 'they should do this and that' and there isn't really a 'they', she says.

"I work across the whole route but I'm the only one who does.

"[For] a project like Conic Hill, getting that sort of funding would have been a huge ask. It's difficult enough to get funding to replace bridges for example.

"There is wear and tear from the number of walkers, there is climate change, flooding, trees down. All of these things require resource."

She said the effects of climate change were inevitably being seen in some parts of the trail.

As well as flooding, high winds during storms are bringing down trees across the National Park including on the West Highland Way which can lead to the route being blocked and clear-up operations that can takes weeks or months.

"This is a situation that has been coming for a while so we've been looking at different ways to tackle this," she says.

The five local authorities that manage the trail are looking at ways to bring in additional income to help preserve it and there are plans to look at a dedicated West Highland Way charity.

"Overall there are gaps here and there and for some of the local authorities it can be challenging, with the financial pressures," she says.

"With the Scottish Access Laws, there would never be a time where people would be charged to walk the trail.

"One of the plans is to establish a charity to open up more sources of funding that could help to tackle some of this.

"It's something we've trialled various different approaches. We had some research done by the University of Strathclyde who did interviews with walkers and businesses and perceptions.

She added: "I think people would be prepared to donate, it's something that people love and feel so connected to."

Dutch couple Henk Drent and his wife Ingi Alof set off on from Milngavie on Thursday. It is their first time in Scotland and a trip that has been keenly awaited.

Henk Drent and Ingi Alof at the start of the West Highland Way in Milngavie (Image: Colin Mearns/Newsquest)

"I'm covered with goosebumps and almost getting emotional," said Ingi, minutes before they left for the first stretch to Drymen.

"It's something that we've been looking forward to for years but we just didn't have time, with the kids and everything and now finally it's here."