Weir's Way: Complete Series

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In January 1970, the famous Scottish mountaineer and broadcaster Tom Weir wrote an introduction to his latest book. While previous publications featured far away places such as Katmandu and Arctic Norway, he wrote about wonders found closer to home - the Scottish Lochs. Weir became a pioneering campaigner for the protection of the Scottish environment, and wrote a column for The Scots Magazine for over 50 years. From 1976–1987, he hosted the Scottish Television series Weir's Way, meeting the people of Scotland, exploring the landscape and its natural history. When STV repeated the series during the late night slot from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s it managed to achieve 30% audience share. [3] The series is now available on DVD in the UK. He was born in Glasgow's Springburn in 1914 and grew up without his father who was killed in the First World War. After his own war time service, he was employed as a surveyor for Ordinance Survey but soon established a full time career as a writer, climber and and photographer. These programmes seemed to be ' gentle ' in that you could sit and enjoy and dream of the places and times , that the presenters were portraying - almost magical.

Born in Glasgow, and raised poor but happy in a Springburn tenement, Tom Weir finally settled in Gartocharn, West Dunbartonshire. He died in the Sunningdale Retirement Home at Balloch (West Dunbartonshire), where he spent the last three years of his life. His sister, stage actress and writer Molly Weir (b.1910), passed away in 2004.I discovered and bought these books in a second-hand book shop on Great Western Road in Glasgow in January 2020, exactly 50 years after being first published. His regular Scots Magazine contribution was entitled My month, and appeared for 43 years until he announced his final article under the title in the December, 1999 issue, quoting his forthcoming 85th birthday on December 29, and his thought that it was better to leave on a "high" and to leave while the going was good. Recalling his first writing for the magazine in 1949, he reflected on the way the hills seem to be getting higher every year, and described himself as becoming more of a naturalist than a mountaineer.

In 1950 he was a member of the first post-war Himalayan expedition and, in 1952, was one of the first to explore the previously closed mountain ranges of Nepal, east of Kathmandu. [1] Media career and later life [ edit ] A statue of Tom Weir was unveiled on the eastern shore of Loch Lomond in 2014. [2] Another view of the statue We'll add any links to new episodes that we discover in the STV archive, including an interview with the great man which we uploaded just last week, Tom Weir at 70.Weir won the Scottish Television 'Personality of the Year Award' in 1976. He was appointed MBE in 1976. He lived in Gartocharn and in 2000 he was awarded the inaugural John Muir Lifetime Achievement Award by the John Muir Trust in recognition of his environmental work. [4] He is also celebrated in the song "Tom Weir" written by Edinburgh musician Sandy Wright and performed by the band Aberfeldy. [5] And in 2007, L. Pierre wrote an ambient instrumental song, "Weir's Way", featured on his album, "Dip". [ citation needed] That's so true about current TV content - that's why I don't have one - definitely not worth the licence fee! I wonder just how many people of a certain age were influenced into enjoying our surrounding countryside by the likes of Tom - I certainly was and I'm sure many others were too.