A MUM’S EYE VIEW
Lucy Hunter so enjoyed her family outings as a child, this mother decided to start buggy walks to bring nature to city kids
Igrew up in a large family outside Dundee and my father regularly took us out for huge walks on a Sunday afternoon as children. One day, after a long summer stroll through the golden wheat fields near our home, my dad announced that we had walked ten miles. I was five years old and still remember how proud I felt of myself.
Later, as a mother in Edinburgh, I encouraged my children to enjoy the outdoors at every opportunity. They were always climbing trees or splashing in puddles. In the city we loved to hike up Blackford Hill and ramble in the woods above the Hermitage of Braid. Arthur’s Seat and Seacliff, near Tantallon Castle, in East Lothian were favourites too.
We’d see how the seasons changed and look out for birds and wee animals. Once, when my daughter was around seven, she spotted a water vole which was a big delight for us both. We would collect seasonal things and make little nature tables of conkers or shells or whatever.
After my children grew up and left home, I missed our walks, but it was more than that. I recognised what being outdoors had meant to them and I wanted other children to have that too. So it was from there that Buggy Walks grew. The group was given a boost last year when we won backing from Edinburgh City Council’s Smarter Choices, Smarter Places programme. The scheme aims to spread the word about opportunities for walking in Edinburgh.
Our focus is about encouraging and supporting new parents to come out walking locally, as a way to exercise and make friends in a relaxed, inclusive and friendly environment. But it’s also a chance to introduce the children to being outdoors. Now we get about 20 or 30 people coming along on every single walk. It’s such a friendly group and everyone is welcome. People have started making proper friends with each other. It’s a bit of a community.
We usually have around seven walks running each week around different parts of town including the Meadows, Fountainbridge, Cramond, Gilmerton, Cameron Toll, and Corstorphine. They are all free.
The walking routes have been carefully chosen to be manageable, gentle and inclusive of all new parents. They last around an hour,
and all can be done with a buggy, although some mums choose to use a sling. We always make sure there’s a baby-friendly cafe or community centre at the end.
Our walk leaders are carefully chosen. We have trainee midwives on our team who are keen to promote the benefits of regular fresh air and exercise, while being aware of new parents’ needs. But we’re always looking for walk leaders to train up. We have lots of mums involved, though the group tends to run itself in many ways.
One of my favourite slightly longer buggy walks is the Esk Valley, which starts in Musselburgh. We walk up the River Esk and it’s
absolutely lovely. We do a circle through the park and end up near the bus terminus so people can get the number 30 home if they need to. We like to make our walks accessible by public transport as we don’t assume everyone has a car. We don’t want anyone to be excluded. Young families often don’t have huge budgets and we don’t want people left out. Often we find those coming on the walks are new to Edinburgh. One day we counted five different nationalities.
I’m involved with Ramblers Scotland and through them I’ve set up a Family Walks group, doing longer one-off journeys for those with slightly older children. We managed five miles from Gilmerton to Roslin the other day.
We try not to make them too long, however,
‘We often find that those coming on the walks are new to Edinburgh... one day we counted five different nationalities’
‘The sudden sweeping views of the city and the Firth of Forth beyond take your breath away’
because people are busy and often can’t devote their whole day. Three- to five-mile walks seem to offer a good balance. Some of the children from Buggy Walks have been graduating to the Family Walks group recently, which has been lovely to see.
One of my favourite walks to do in Edinburgh with children is up in the hills and woods of Bonaly, above Torduff Reservoir. The sudden sweeping views of the city and the Firth of Forth beyond take your breath away. You need to look where you’re going while taking in the scenery, though, as the up-and-down paths through the woods can be steep.
The aim is to get off the beaten track and into nature. The kids experience trees and their roots, running up hills and going down again. We try to make it interesting terrain.
All our walks can be reached by public transport, but that doesn’t stop us from going further afield. In the past we’ve got the train to Longniddry and taken a hike along grassy and wooded paths through Gosford Estate. There’s an old ruined tower which makes a great spot for a picnic.
A vivid reminder of the erosion of our children’s connection with the natural world came in 2007 when words such as ‘bluebell’, ‘acorn’ and ‘conker’ were shunted out of the Oxford Children’s First Dictionary to make room for ‘blog’, ‘chatroom’ and ‘celebrity’. The defence given was that today’s children have no experience of the countryside.
Sadly, we have other words creeping into our vocabulary in relation to our children. Words such as obesity, depression, self-harm, disconnection. How related might this be to the fact that only ten per cent of youngsters have access to regular play in natural settings compared to more than 40 per cent a generation back?
However, I’m an optimist. There’s the invention of fun nature apps encouraging a child into the natural world to find things they see on their screen. Then there’s the smartphone camera where close-up shots can be taken of a beetle or bug discovered under a stone or in the woods, posted on social media, and maybe even blogged about. Children can be encouraged to use their GPS tracking to find good routes up hills and down dales.
There’s something beautiful about watching children experience nature. I’ve just become a granny for the first time and I’m looking forward to introducing the next generation to walking.