On 18 October 2007 Peter Willimott spoke to the club on the subject of the John Muir Trust, emphasising that he spoke on his own behalf and not on behalf of the Trust.

He told us that how John Muir was born in Dunbar but emigrated to the United States of America where he earned his reputation as one of the founders of the conservation movement. John Muir is one of only two people, the other is Martin Luther King, after whom a national day has been named in the United States of America.

Peter then described the development of the John Muir Trust in Scotland. A threat of the Army taking over the old Knoydart estate led to the formation of the JMT in 1983 and its first purchase of land. It subsequently acquired properties in Skye, Sandwood Bay, Schiehallion and Ben Nevis.

A major project was on Schiehallion where over £800,000 has been spent on footpath development by replacing a badly eroded path by an engineered path. This was well demonstrated by a video of the path before and after improvement. BP helped to finance this project on the mountain with the same name as one of its oilfields and lottery funding was also obtained.

Peter advised that continuing management of land was important to the John Muir Trust and referred to rubbish removal from Sandwood Bay, removal of cairns from Ben Nevis and various research projects.

Stella Lowder gave the vote of thanks for an informative and entertaining illustrated talk from Peter on the work of the Trust.

Alan Stevens