Scottish Rights of Way & Access Society

To celebrate our 175th Anniversary within the confines of the coronavirus pandemic, we are inviting you to join us on a virtual celebratory journey, following in the footsteps of some of our early members as they installed the first signposts along routes in the Cairngorms in July 1885. Not only did the trip confirm these routes as public rights of way, but it also lead to court action to assert the right of way through Glen Doll!

Join the Virtual Challenge

The original journey started on a Saturday in July and lasted seven days, but you have 86 days to complete the route, virtually! Along the way, you can find out what the deputation did on each of those days and also learn about the history and heritage of the countryside they travelled through.

Listen to James Naughtie as he introduces you to our Challenge

How it works

You sign up and begin recording the distances you achieve in your everyday travel (walking, cycling, swimming, etc) on your Challenge page. You can then follow your (virtual) progress on the map along the route taken by the signposting party in 1885 from Forfar to Blair Atholl!

If you want to get more out of your journey, you can …

Listen to an account of the original expedition. Between 18 and 24 July, we will be releasing daily accounts of the trip by one of the participants on the 1885 expedition on the ScotWays website.  You can listen to these first-hand accounts, read by broadcaster Jim Naughtie, over the course of the first seven days of the Challenge, or at any time after that. You may like to listen to the relevant day’s account when you reach certain points on your virtual journey!

Immerse yourself in history and interesting facts. Every day throughout the Challenge we will be posting information on Twitter and Facebook about the expedition, the route and the area. All these daily facts will also be stored right here on our website where you can look at them any time. 

Join the Virtual Challenge

 Keep up to date with all the happenings by following #ScotWaysStravaig on Facebook and Twitter. Why not help us raise funds and celebrate our anniversary by getting yourself sponsored to complete the challenge?  Will you raise £175 for our 175th?   

Don't fancy joining the Challenge, but still want to help ScotWays?  Share this page or our social media posts with your friends.  You can also donate to support our work or even take part in our raise £175 for our 175th campaign.  That's £1 for every year of our existence.