Scottish watershed


The Scottish Mainland watershed is the drainage divide in Scotland that separates river systems that flow to the east into the North Sea from those that flow to the west and north into the Atlantic Ocean. At a point on the summit of Ben Lomond for example, looking west all water flows to the Firth of Clyde, and looking east all water flows into the Firth of Forth.
Similarly Cumbernauld is a point on this line and arguably its Gaelic name has, for hundreds of years, reflected this fact. There is some dispute however about interpretation of the Gaelic phrase. The line joining all such points in Scotland is the Scottish Mainland watershed.
Although the concept of a geographical watershed is common, the first unequivocal reference to the Scottish watershed is to be found in Francis Groome's Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland of 1884. H.A. Webster contributed an article to the General Survey section of Volume VI in which he states "The watershed or water-parting, which may be said to begin at Duncansbay , follows an extremely tortuous course through Caithness and Sutherland...". This was followed in 1895 with John Bartholomew's Survey Atlas of Scotland which shows the entire geographic feature, from the border with England to Duncansby Head. The first popular delineation of the Scottish watershed took place as recently as 1986. It was mapped out in that year by Dave Hewitt, who in 1987 then walked the line of the watershed from south to north. The Royal Scottish Geographical Society reviewed Wright`s 'Ribbon of Wildness' in 2011, and in acknowledging the significance of the route, stated that "Ribbon of Wildness gives a vivid introduction to this hitherto largely unknown geographic feature". Eight people have now done versions of this route:
  • Hewitt walked from the Anglo-Scottish border to Cape Wrath in a single push, April–June 1987
  • the late Mike Allen walked from Land's End to Cape Wrath in numerous mainly short sections, April 1988 – October 1994
  • Martin Prouse walked from Rowardennan to Ben Hope in one go, July–August 1994
  • Peter Wright walked from the Anglo-Scottish border to Duncansby Head in eight sections, Jan–Oct 2005
  • Malcolm Wylie completed a 131-day traverse of the UK, in 14 sections - Scottish sections 1996 and 2,000 - Peel Fell to Duncansby Head.
  • Colin Meek completed a watershed run in 27 days in summer 2012 - Peel Fell to Duncansby Head.
  • Chris Townsend completed a traverse from Peel Fell to Duncansby Head in 2013, 28 May – 25 July
  • Elspeth Luke ran the entire watershed in a continuous 34-day epic from 13 July to 15 August 2015. She is the first woman to complete this journey.
  • With some minor detours, Kamil Trzebiatowski, completed most of the first stage of the walk, The Reivers March, from Peel Fell to Annandale near Moffat so far in two stages. He records his treks on video and makes films of them for his channel.