Memorial Bridge

Thomas Wilson contacted us with this story of a WHW bridge, created in memory of one of his fellow Strathaven Striders who sadly passed away in 2003. John McQueen, now Land Operations Manager at Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park, also remembers working on the bridge, which is located in between Milarrochy Bay and Cashel Forest.

Here is Thomas’s story

Our first introduction to the West Highland Way was during a car journey from Aberdeen to our home in Strathaven when a certain Jimmie Macgregor came on the radio recounting his experiences while walking on the said way. He was promoting his book “On the West Highland Way” and rounding off the piece he happened to say there was a race organised to run the full length and it would be in June on the weekend nearest the shortest night. Unfortunately we would be on holiday then and, as my wife was discovering her ultra distance talent at that time, we determined to walk the Way sometime that summer to reconnoitre the path. Despite the usual rain and washed out camps en famille we determined to embark on a project of being in the next year’s race.

Suffice it to say this was the beginning of a long association with the West Highland Way and we have seen it develop and grow into a well groomed way through some of the most amazing places. … The actual race itself has grown to mighty proportions with the rapid growth of ultra running and an all embracing WHW family has developed on the Way.

Sadly one of our number died in early 2003 and the Strathaven Striders decided to raise money to erect some sort of tribute. John Lucas was a marathon and Ultra runner. His favourite race was his annual pilgrimage from London to the West Highland Way race which saw him complete eight with his times improving as he got older, his fastest being 20hrs.18mins. 32secs.

And so his club The Strathaven Striders launched an appeal to see what sort of tribute to John could be achieved. John was a steely fellow with a kindly marshmallow centre. The steel he kept for racing and the marshmallow he gave to his friends. We were astounded by the response with thousands of pounds raised in very short order.

In early 2004…we offered to undertake within our budget some sort of improvement or addition to the WHW in tribute to John. He was always giving in his life and those who donated remembered him for that so it was only right to look for something that would benefit users of the Way.  A meeting with a Mr John McQueen … resulted in us undertaking to build a wooden bridge fit for all from wheelchair users to horses.

The Bridge was completed in September 2005 after the Ranger Service completed the footings, East Kilbride College produced the kit and Strathaven Striders erected it. Strathaven Striders have crossed the Bridge countless times in training and in the many races since. I can’t imagine how many horses have used the bridge though.

John McQueen takes up at the story (John at the time, headed up the Access & Rural Skills Maintenance Team at the Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park)

This particular memorial got off the ground after Tom Wilson contacted me with a request for a memorial on behalf of the Strathaven Striders. As with all requests, I would meet the party to chat with them and find out some more detail, we would usually visit a site or two to determine suitability and agree what we could do or not do.

I would always emphasise the benefit of making memorials relevant to the individual being memorialised and try to convince the party to agree on something that truly reflects on who that individual was and what about life he/she valued - by doing so I could then try to make the memorial functional and try to give a legacy feature that would benefit others who shared that or a similar passion in life or perhaps merely encourage others who were still to discover that interest but a bit daunted by perceived scale of the challenge

Each year I would be contacted by the late Dario Melaragni (WHW race manager) and he would ask for information on the route condition.  Dario would have known the runners on a very personal level and each year I would liaise with him to get feedback on the race and where problems may be overcome for the following year.  It just so happened that I knew I had an old logpole bridge that I had been planning on replacing and when Tom made the approach the two needs appeared to be a perfect match.

We agreed the running club members would fabricate the bridge components in their college workshop, a simple "kit bridge" design, they would then assemble it on site with support from my team.  The Access & Rural Skills team dismantled the old bridge and created a temporary crossing so no impact to WHW users whilst they got on with building the new bridge abutments - some of those staff are still with us today in the Land Operations Team. 

The Club members assembled the new bridge on the new abutments to give them "a sense of ownership" and a perpetual connection to the memorial and the route.

If you would like to discuss a WHW memorial, please contact us at: whw@lochlomond-trossachs.org