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these walks are in the immediate vicinity of Ballater, but as confidence has grown they now occasionally spread their wings a little farther, for example to nearby Dinnet. The walks always end with a cup of tea and a chat; it’s a social as well as a physical experience. “There is huge value in the social network the groups create. The walks become a shared experience and so many of our walkers say that it is easier to both start off walking in a group and keep attending if they remain in a group. Often they feel that they make strong friendships this way and there is a sense of shared purpose and enjoyment. “We keep statistics on the numbers coming along to all of our walks and recently evaluated our programme. We ran over 1,000 health walks between April 2011 and March 2012 and each week we reckon we had an average of 230 walkers join in.


“One of the lasting benefits is that we have trained 60 Walk Leaders since 2006 and this has helped us greatly in expanding the reach of the project.” The project provides the formal training, support meetings and walk equipment to support the recruitment and development of the volunteer leaders. Patsy and Martin Reynolds are two of the volunteer walk leaders and they enthuse about the programme and want to see it thrive. “What I see is a group of people walking together in beautiful surroundings, enjoying their walk, the company, and their ability now to walk farther than when they joined,” said Patsy “… and all we have to do as leaders is make that possible.” Cairngorms Walking to Health project started life in 2004 as a community health and learning initiative. It is a low-cost scheme at just £30,000 to deliver annually, which equals a spend of approximately £140 per walker.


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“I joined the ‘Walking to Health’ group to get fit, and felt much better for it.”


The Nature of Scotland


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