Insect Eden

With 134 miles of paths through drifts of wildflowers abuzz with bees and butterflies, the John Muir Pollinator Way is both a beautiful walking route and a way to help revive Britain's insect population, reports Sheila Sim

- Sheila Sim

It's a warm summer day and I've stopped to eat my lunch on the Union Canal towpath near Falkirk. A bough of dog rose is nodding above my head and I'm surrounded by a cloud of cow parsley and violet-blue cranesbill, with speedwell and buttercups at my feet. Small moths flit through the grasses, the air is thrumming with the sound of bees, and a thrush is providing musical entertainment.

Yet I'm in an urban setting: 70% of Scotland's population lives within 30 miles of where I'm sitting. Not 100 yards in front of me, invisible beyond the tall hedgerow on the opposite side of the canal, is a new-build housing estate, and lying a mile or so behind my back is the smoking, sprawling industrial site of Grangemouth Refinery.

My journey started on a damp morning in June, when I set out from Helensburgh to walk the John Muir Way. Inaugurated in 2014, this long-distance walking and cycling route stretches 134 miles across Scotland's central belt. Running from Helensburgh in the west through to Dunbar on the east coast, it's named in honour of the pioneer conservationist who was born in Dunbar in 1838 but emigrated to North America as a boy.