Monday, July 17, 2006
TOM WEIR, PLUS FOURS AND A WEE WOOLY HAT
On the way back up the road on Thursday we detoured out from Glasgow along the back roads of Milngavie and Carbrae – via the legendary “Whangie Brae” – towards Balloch so that we could head up the lochside. No real reason other than that, for a change, we weren’t in a rush to get up to Strontian. It was lovely to pass along near the Endrick Water where I used to go on day trips as a youngster and as we skirted Drymen (turning left just before the village) our thoughts turned to a resident of the parish, one Tom Weir. Tom’s a bit of a Scottish folk legend, a former broadcaster and hillwalker he presented his superb show “Weir’s Way” touring Scotland on foot for what seemed like the entirety of my childhood and it’s been with some delight I’ve recently discovered that it is repeated at unholy hours of the night on Scottish TV.
Already a legend, Tom was immortalised in song a year or so back by Edinburgh based folk-popsters Aberfeldy (kind of Belle&Sebastian-y) in a tribute to his hill-walking based exploits. The track (“Tom Weir”) featured the wonderfully parochial line – for Tom was not averse to a snifter or two during the programme – “his red nose manifested, many years had been invested in the bevvy; from Eigg to Rum and Coll, he’d down a single malt and a wee heavy…”
I mention all this in passing by way of a small and sad farewell to the man who, I learned on Friday, passed away on Thursday afternoon in a retirement home in, of all places, Balloch. I’d like to think we were thinking of him just as we drove through. Who knows if he was still with us at that point. I doubt – as a man of the canvas – he’d have approved of a campervan but I hope he’d have approved of our wanderlust and desire to see even half as much of our beautiful country as he did.
On the way back up the road on Thursday we detoured out from Glasgow along the back roads of Milngavie and Carbrae – via the legendary “Whangie Brae” – towards Balloch so that we could head up the lochside. No real reason other than that, for a change, we weren’t in a rush to get up to Strontian. It was lovely to pass along near the Endrick Water where I used to go on day trips as a youngster and as we skirted Drymen (turning left just before the village) our thoughts turned to a resident of the parish, one Tom Weir. Tom’s a bit of a Scottish folk legend, a former broadcaster and hillwalker he presented his superb show “Weir’s Way” touring Scotland on foot for what seemed like the entirety of my childhood and it’s been with some delight I’ve recently discovered that it is repeated at unholy hours of the night on Scottish TV.
Already a legend, Tom was immortalised in song a year or so back by Edinburgh based folk-popsters Aberfeldy (kind of Belle&Sebastian-y) in a tribute to his hill-walking based exploits. The track (“Tom Weir”) featured the wonderfully parochial line – for Tom was not averse to a snifter or two during the programme – “his red nose manifested, many years had been invested in the bevvy; from Eigg to Rum and Coll, he’d down a single malt and a wee heavy…”
I mention all this in passing by way of a small and sad farewell to the man who, I learned on Friday, passed away on Thursday afternoon in a retirement home in, of all places, Balloch. I’d like to think we were thinking of him just as we drove through. Who knows if he was still with us at that point. I doubt – as a man of the canvas – he’d have approved of a campervan but I hope he’d have approved of our wanderlust and desire to see even half as much of our beautiful country as he did.
