AFOOT IN SCOTLAND
By WILLIAM POWER
"Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven !" THESE hackneyed lines take on fresh meaning when applied to tramping conditions in Scotland today. Walking-tours used to be costly and arduous, except for hardy young folk who could make their bed in the heather. In the deer-forest areas of the Highlands, hotels were expensive and far apart, cottages were few, and in many cases their tenants, mostly gamekeepers or foresters, were forbidden to give accommodation to travellers. Where the rule was disregarded, the stranger lived among the people like a hunted prince with a price on his head.
All that is being changed by the institution of Youth Hostels. In some of the finest tramping districts of Scotland, ordinarily robust visitors are able to explore the whole countryside without undue fatigue, and to sleep comfortably every night in a different hostel, at a total cost of a few shillings a day. All they need to do is to become members beforehand of the Scottish Youth Hostels Association, Colinton Road, Edinburgh, acquaint themselves with the exact position of the hostels, and obey the not very exacting rules laid down for guests.
Motor-cars and coaches have done the tramper a service by pushing him off main roads, where walking is tiresome, and taking him quickly to his real objectives. It was very satisfying, in the old days, to accomplish a circular journey from Glasgow or Effinburgh entirely on foot. The thing is still worth doing, if one makes a careful selection of side roads and- hill tracks. But it was apt to be too much in the nature of a " reliability trial." Nowadays one is compelled to cut out the bread and come at once to'-the cake. The cake is repre- sented largely by the Youth Hostel areas. Within and beyond these there is added scope for trampers who can face up to hotels or rey on the roadside accommodation that is gradually extending in response to the hiking and cycling movements.
In Galloway, which is outside the hostel chain, the hotels are fairly moderate and there are many farm- houses and shepherds' cottages. The fine mountain country extending twenty-five miles between the two Cairnsmores can be explored from Dalry or New Galloway, from Carsphairn, and from the hotel at the foot of Glen Trool : between the last two points 4 traverse can be Made Over the Men.ie'14.'nearly 8,000. feet high, through Crockett's Raiderland, a region wildly Highland in character, with Loch Enoch and the Dungeon among its chief features. The Edinburgh and Border hostels form a complete chain throughout the Scott country, the Moorfoots, Upper Tweeddale, and the dales around Ettrick. It is all good walking ground, rich in associative interest, and the western hostels give easy access to the wild mountainland above Tweedsmuir and the Grey Mare's Tale. Railway and 'bus connexions at two points make a complete chain of the hostels from Loch Lomond, Loch Katrine, and Balquhidder through Perthshire and the Braes of Angus to 'Deeside, Donside and Speyside.
Allowing_for_ rest days and occasional climbs, this would mean a three-weeks journey amid magnificently varied scenery, with Ben Lomond, Ben More, Ben Lamers, Lochnagar' and the Cairngorms along the route. The Caimgorms, however, cannot be taken in one's stride ; they , have to be approached at leisure and with cir- cumspection.
The next chain of hostels begins at Loch Ossian, be- tween Ben Nevis and Ben Alder, and extends up the Great Glen to Glen Urquhart. Thence hardy walkers might traverse up Strath Affric and over to Glen Shiel, whence there is a practicable chain as far as Ullapool.
This whole north-west region, right up to: Cape Wrath and Kyle of Tongue, along with the neighbouring island of Skye (in which there is a hostel chain), has an extra- ordinary geology which manifests itself in scenery of almost fantastic grandeur. Nature, here, is the sheer Celtic rhapsodist.
What remains is the region comprising wonderful Morar, Argyll, with its islands, and Arran. Here one has to depend on hotels and lodgings. From Salen, in Mull, there is grand tramping to the shores of Loch na Keal and • Loch Scridain, to Ben More and the Iona ferry. The scenery of these western lochs and islands and of the Land of Lorn has a Cubist character which intrigues artists, and the blues and purples are incredible. Glencoe, the Black Mount, Appin of the Stewarts, and Deirdre's Benderloch form a paradise for the robust tramper. Around Loch Eck and Loch Goil there is another choice little district. Arran is an exquisite resume of all. the finest features of West Highland scenery ; but it is crowded in July and August.
Information as to hotels and so forth will be given by the Scottish Travel Association, 2 North Charlotte Street, Edinburgh. Contingencies include driving rain and rough or soggy ground.. Clothing. should be substantial ;. a complete change should be carried. Boots should be strong and nailed. A compass and a good map are essential: In thick mist on precipitOus hills, stay where you are till it lifts ; on heather slopes, follow cautiously down, a watereourse flowing in thc right direction. To venture on a bigcliinb alone, or without some reserve of food and clothing, is foolhardy. A spirit-lamp is a good friend. -- Pocket guide-books for trampers, dealing with different districts, can be got from booksellers in Edinburgh or Glasgow. A book for the rucksack is Mr. Seton Gordon's Highways. and Byways in the West Highlands, with Sir D. Y. Cameron's drawings and Professor Watson's glos- sary. of place-names, Among books to read beforehand are E. A. Baker's On Foot in the Highlands, Dick's Galloway, Geikie's The Scenery of Scotland, MacColla's The Albannach, Neil Gunn's Butcher's Broom, and, above all, I. F. Grant's The Lordship of the Isles, a storehouse of information about Highland origins, history, . polity, literature, monuments, and so forth. Miss Grant begins her itinerary at Ddnadd, in Crinan, an original: seat of the Dahiadie kings from whom King George is-descended. Near by is the curiously beautiful Loch Sween: It is an ideal starting-point for a northward journey by Oban into the scenic wonderland of the West.
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