Weir's Way

by Tom Weir

Book by Tom Weir

256 pages, Paperback

First published May 12, 1983

About the author

Tom Weir was a Scottish climber, author and broadcaster. He was a pioneering campaigner for the protection of Scotland's environment and wrote a column for The Scots Magazine for over 50 years. From 1976–1987, he hosted the Scottish Television series Weir's Way, meeting local people and exploring the landscape and its natural history. When STV repeated the series on a late night slot from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s it achieved a 30% audience share.

Tom was the younger brother of the actress, Molly Weir.

Reviews

[Robbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tom Weir had an unrivalled knowledge of Scotland. A true Scottish outdoor king

[David Mcdowell]

A series of short stories and anecdotes from the life of Tom Weir of Weir's Walks fame (forget Wainwright's boring walks!). A lot of them don't contain anything dramatic; sometimes just a sunny day on a mountainside with only some moorland birds for company. Others deal with the decline of the Highlands or Scottish industry. The longer final section is a fascinating recreation of Bonny Prince Charlie's fugitive wanderings after Culloden.

I should have read this with a map really, it totally exposed my lack of knowledge of the Geography of my own country. This was written in the early 80's I think with stories going back to the 30s so it got me wondering how things may have changed since then and whether the people eking out a living in harsh conditions, restoring old buildings or doing great conservation work fared and whether those lifestyles are still possible.