There is a solution whereby you can break the journey at a suitable juncture, sleep in a comfortable bed and drink as much as is reasonable without the fear of the breathalyser. Travel by train. Alight at station A, walk to station B, then take the return train home to your base. The next day, travel to B and walk to C, and so on. If the commuting becomes too arduous, you can move camp further up the line and continue the process. There may be no need to do this too often; a gentle locomotion in the morning can help the digestive system and after the conviviality of your evening stop, the return journey should pass quickly enough…

If there is to be the train walk it has to be in Scotland and if what is wanted is a really Long Distance Walk, what better than a journey through the Highlands, starting outside Glasgow at Helensburgh and ending at Thurso? For via Fort William, Mallaig, Kyle of Lochalsh and Dingwall, if a boat is taken down the Sound of Sleat, there is a continuous train journey of 330 miles, punctuated by fifty-four stations. Of course, the gaps aren’t equidistant. Some are close enough to be leapfrogged and others will force a day’s journey of more than the stipulated ten miles, but all are within the compass of a reasonably strong walker who is prepared, when occasion demands, to put in a stint of seven to eight hours. The train timetables accommodate this need as, in general, there is a service first thing in the morning and a return early to mid evening. The exception to this is Sunday, when there are either no trains or inconvenient timings. Not that this is a bad thing. Medical study has shown that after six days of strenuous walking there is a danger of stress fractures to the feet if no rest is taken. You probably thought that the landed gentry were being benevolent in allowing the peasants a weekly day of rest. Far from it. In addition to a bit of brainwashing, courtesy of the local padre, its main concern was to get the work force up and running for Monday morning. As any schoolteacher knows, holidays are not a rest from labours past but a preparation for the task to come.