Home » Book Reviews » Alfred Wainwright » Wainwright in Scotland by Alfred Wainwright
Possible spoilers ahead
I rehomed this book from a family member who sadly died, as his books were going to go to a charity shop so I felt I had to choose some to keep myself (and when I say ‘some’, I obviously mean ‘many’!), particularly the books which I imagined were his favourite books, and I knew his favourite place to holiday was Scotland so I imagine he read this book often and had probably visited some of the places that Wainwright mentions. And seeing as I’m sitting at home with no prospect of a holiday in the near future, I thought I would ‘holiday’ for free via this book!
Wainwright is exploring Scotland by car, journeying from north to south, and doing short walks from the car. He starts at John O’Groats and goes all along the coast to Durness and Cape Wrath, then down to Laxford Bridge and Scourie overlooking Handa Island, then to Kylesku with Eas Coul Aulin waterfall, then to Lochinyer and along the Mad Little Road of Sutherland between Inverkirkaig and Achilibuie and Stac Polly and the Summer Isles, then to Ullapool and Loch Broom with Corrieshalloch Gorge, then past Dundonnell and all the Munros in The Fannichs and along Destitution Road, then down to Torridon and Coulin Forest and Shieldaig, then around the Applecross Peninsula looking across to Skye, and then to the mountain pass of Bealach na Ba.
Omg, this book is absolute bliss! I had presumed it was just a guide book, or at most a coffee table book for flicking through, but it is so much more than that as it felt (to me) like Wainwright was actually talking to me because he uses such a conversational and descriptive style and shares his memories and grievances (and there are a few!) of his trip, and explains his thoughts about what he sees and visits as well the reasons why some roads and mountains and paths are his favourites, so it feels very personal and almost like a diary really. I love his writing style, as it is passionate and humorous and sometimes even quite curt (!) and is just very very honest and quite raw and he just says it how it is (!) which is quite refreshing and amusing! He certainly seems quite a character!
I also Iove his passion for Scotland, and he has very much inspired me to go there and see the places he saw, in fact he brought his trip so alive for me that I’d like to follow in his actual route and drive/walk in his tyre tracks/footsteps, particularly on the Mad Little Road of Sutherland (which he says is his favourite road, and what a wonderful name for a road!) and Destitution Road (also another fabulous name!). And everywhere just looks stunning as the accompanying photos are also beautiful, Scotland looks like heaven on earth! I do have a fear though that as this book was written in the 1980s then those beautiful roads and villages and views he loved and described (and particularly what he calls ‘the last great wilderness’ between Little Loch Broom and Loch Maree) are probably not as isolated and untouched and uninhabited and tourist-free as when he wrote his book, and ironically this wonderful book probably encouraged lots of visitors to all these places which then has perhaps altered them. But I will hope not, and I’m sure that even if they are not quite so untouched as in his day then they are surely still going to be beautiful and stunning.
As well as being a great book to entice someone to visit Scotland, it would also be a treasure for someone who has already visited some of the places he describes as I can imagine that his vivid words and pictures would be able to just whisk them straight back there. I will read this book again and again (particularly when I want to feel good and need cheering and want to escape), in fact I wanted to begin it again the moment I finished it and I can’t stop recommending it to people! I am now very keen to read the other books he has written, and have already gone ahead and bought A Pennine Journey, Wainwright’s Coast to Coast Walk, and Memoirs of a Fellwanderer (I didn’t hang around once I finished reading Wainwright in Scotland, tee hee, I’m now a dedicated fan!).
