Falkirk youngster on the march to match sisters' charity efforts

Gregor, Ben and Abbie start their adventure on Saturday

Just like her sisters Sophie (17) and Kara (16), the youngster from Comely Park Terrace in Falkirk has the ‘walking bug’, and on Saturday she and her dad, Gregor, will set off from Grantown on Spey to Fort William to raise money for the Brightest Star charity.

The route covering 96 miles includes part of the Spey Way and the entire East Highland Way and they expect to take seven days to complete it.

And, in the true traditions of a typical Ewing ‘expedition’, the pair will be carrying their own food, tent and equipment every step of the way - as will their companion, the family’s year-old Border Collie, Ben.

Falkirk businessman Gregor (45) is a veteran walker.

In 2012, accompanied by the family’s senior Collie, Meg who is now ten and ‘retired’, he became the first Scot to retrace the steps Bonnie Prince Charlie took to escape the Duke of Cumberland after his defeat at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, a 530-mile trek through the northwest Highlands and Outer Hebrides to Lochaber.

And in 2014 they completed a 1000-mile hike following the epic journey the King of Scotland Robert the Bruce took between 1307 and 1314 through Northern Ireland to Kintyre on the west coast of Scotland, Arran and Ardrossan, north to Ayr, through Glasgow to Fort William and Elgin, south to Inverurie, Aberdeen and Dundee, over the Forth to Edinburgh and Berwick upon Tweed then east through Roxburghshire to Bannockburn and the famous and decisive battle fought there 703 years ago.

Both adventures led to two successful books, but this latest challenge is all about young Abbie achieving her goal of completing the journey and raising as much as she can for her selected charity Brightest Star which helps mums and dads and siblings who lose a member of the family at a young age.

Gregor said: “Abbie found out more about Brightest Star after she lost a classmate while she was at primary school a few years ago and determined to raise as much as she can.

“Sophie and Kara undertook walks for charity along the West Highland Way when they were Abbie’s age and now she wants to at least walk the same distance and match their charity efforts.”

Abbie has set up a Just Giving page. Google Abbie’s Highland Walk for details on how to make a donation.