Before the walk across Scotland take seventy-five minutes watching my movie in a comfortable chair.
In May 2027 a small group will cross Scotland on foot, from the Firth of Clyde to the North Sea, following segments of the John Muir Way to the house in Dunbar where John Muir was born. Over the next twelve posts I will walk through the trip day by day — where we go, what we will see, and why each stop belongs on a route that is really a biography laid out across a country.
But the walk starts before any of that, and it starts with a question.
The question
What is it about Scotland that made John Muir a mystic?
That is what The Unruly Mystic: John Muir sets out to answer. It follows him from a strict Calvinist childhood on the Dunbar coast, through the thousand-mile walk, into the Yosemite years and the long fight for the wild places he loved. It is not a nature documentary with Muir narrating over scenery. It is an attempt to work out where a particular way of seeing came from — and the answer keeps pointing back to a stretch of Scottish coastline he left as a boy and never lived on again.
Everyone who walks with us will have seen it. That matters more than it sounds. It means that when we are standing on the shore at Dunbar, nobody needs the backstory explained; we can get on with the harder and better business of looking at the place itself.
The Unruly Mystic: John Muir — 75 minutes. Watch on YouTube →
What comes next
Twelve posts, one for each day of the trip. Day 1 is the flight out. Day 12 is the flight home. In between: Loch Lomond, Helensburgh, Stirling, the Falkirk Wheel, the Forth, Edinburgh, the East Lothian coast, and two days in Dunbar.
Watch the film first. Then come and walk it.
Further reading: The Sierra Club’s John Muir Exhibit · Historic Environment Scotland on Muir’s Dunbar
Twelve Days of the Walk — Next: Day 1: Leaving for the Country John Muir Left →
Related: The Scotland Cut · About the Movie · Crazy Wisdom Films · Travels
Walk in the Footsteps of John Muir: Scottish Beginnings runs May 14–25, 2027. Sign-up closes Monday, February 15, 2027, and the group is capped at 34. Full details · Questions answered