A Rooted Interest

Rab Anderson shares the same passion for the Pentlands as his great-great-uncle William once did

- by FIONA RUSSELL

IT was Scottish author R.L. Stevenson who first inspired Rab Anderson to take a closer look at his local hills. But it was only when Rab published a guidebook to walking in the Pentland Hills that he discovered that his passion for the outdoors and writing might descend from another source nearer to home.

In a remarkable twist of fate, Rab, of Edinburgh, learned that his great-great-uncle, William Anderson, was also a keen walker and wrote a book called The Pentland Hills, which was published 85 years before his own and with the same title.

The historic link was unearthed when Rab's sister-in-law, Paula, a keen genealogist, was researching the Anderson family lineage.

“When I was planning to write my walking guide to the Pentland Hills, I spent time looking at a few books of interest on the same topic,” Rab, who is an accomplished climber and mountaineer, explains. “These included The Pentland Hills: Their Paths And Passes by W.A. Smith, The Hills Of Home by Lauchlan Maclean Watt, and the four Pentland Essays by R.L. Stevenson.

“Stevenson believed that the hills of home are as important as any other hills, and learning this many years ago was one reason why I decided to explore the Pentlands and then to write a definitive guidebook to 60 walking routes,” Rab continues. “I did notice another book by William Anderson, but I confess I paid it little attention. Anderson is not an uncommon name and, in any case, I was much more interested in Stevenson.

“So it came as a surprise, years after my own guidebook had been published, that William was actually a relative of mine and that he was born in Selkirk, in the Scottish Borders, where my father was from and where I still have relatives.”

The news prompted Rab to buy a copy of William’s book, which is now sitting on his bookshelf at home – and this is where he thought the story ended.