ROBERT Marshall has walked the West Highland Way 99 times. For his 100th hike up the famed Scottish route, he’s doing something he hasn’t since his very first: raising money for charity.
This isn’t a charity you’re likely to know – it hasn’t even been properly launched yet – but it will fulfil a much-needed purpose: looking after the West Highland Way itself.
As it stands, the path is jointly managed by the numerous authorities through which it passes: East Dunbartonshire, Stirling, Highland, Argyll and Bute, as well as the Loch Lomond National Park. The shared responsibility means it’s “always hard to get things done”, Marshall says.
The new West Highland Way Trust is “aimed at providing a place where the whole walk can be dealt with in one place”, he adds. “Anybody walking the West Highland Way, if they could give £1 or £2, that'd be a lot of money each year.”
CONTRIBUTE TO THE FUNDRAISER HERE
Around 45,000 people are estimated to complete the 96-mile route annually, walking from Milngavie in the south to Fort William in the north.
When Marshall completes his 100th West Highland Way journey on September 11, he’ll have covered more than 9600 miles walking that route alone.
“It's quite embarrassing that I'm doing 100 because people just think you're mental sometimes,” Marshall says. “It took me 28-and-a-half years to do the first 50. If I do next month, which I'm sure I will, that'll be 50 times in four years and five months.
“This is the next embarrassing part. I'm doing it with my children, all six of them.”
Two of his kids, Marshall says, have never done the walk before. Asked what advice he’d have for other first-timers, he says: “There's the one thing I always tell people – you have to look after your feet.
“There's lots of methods to prevent blisters. If you get to know your feet, then you can prepare before you start your walk.”
It was back in September 1993 that Marshall completed the West Highland Way for the first time. Back then, it was in aid of the Dystonia Society – a neurological condition where faulty brain signals cause involuntary muscle contractions, twisting, or abnormal postures.
But he had started hiking decades earlier.
“My first hill walk was Ben Nevis. I was 16, 1972,” he recalls. “It was a perfect day, like today, only there were big white puffy clouds.
“I can remember it so well because it was the first time – I'd never been in an aeroplane when I was 16, and this was the first time I'd been up above clouds, which was quite amazing.”
However, he adds: “But I always think the best part of the walk is up Loch Lomond-side.”
Marshall, who has been named a National Park Hero by the authority for his volunteering work, explains: “It's just stunning all the time, although it's the hardest part of the walk.
“OK, it’s really tough, but the views are just amazing and there are so many nice places to stop, so many nice beaches that only walkers will get to.”
What about the best time of year to do the West Highland Way? Marshall is, unsurprisingly, well prepared to answer.
“Last year I did every calendar month,” he says. “January to December. One each month. Except for March. March I did two.”
The verdict? “I would say spring and autumn, March, April, even May, and then September, October, because you've got less chance of midges.
“Now, normally, if you're walking, you don't really get that bothered with midges because they can't move as fast as you. It's only if you stop or if you're camping. It's a terrible thing if you're camping.”
The West Highland Way Trust will be formally launched in October, marking the route’s 45th anniversary since it was officially created in 1980.
“People get lost every year,” he says. “They don't get lost forever – only for a short bit – but it's most annoying when you have to do extra miles."
So, will the 100th hike be his last?
“No,” Marshall says. “My last will be when I can't walk.”
In fact, it won’t even be a month before his tally rises again. “My next one's actually on September 30,” he says. “That's number 101.”
Visit www.justgiving.com/page/roberts100thwalk to contribute to the fundraiser.
