The Summer Walkers

Sometimes when you journey

Through the pages of a book

You're taken places beyond words

You let them speak their truths

Today I've opened treasures

That my eyes could scarce believe

They're the words of confirmation

Everything that makes me sing

Summer comes to Sutherland

And you bend the hazel bow

You harness up the ponies

And you head out on the road

By Kilbreck and Altnaharra

You journey to your rest

With the guiding might of Suilven

For the campsites of the West

And it's up by the Shin

And up by the Naver

And the long winding shores

Of Loch Maree

By Ben Hope and Ben Loyal

By Stack and by Arkle

The road reaches long

Now the summer is here

No, your words are not of sentiment

Shallow or untrue

But wells of living water

From their clear deep sides we drew

The songs, the tin, the horses

This country's great and ancient wilds

Your faith in God and man and nature

And the keenness of your guile

And it's up by the Shin

And up by the Naver

And the long winding shores

Of Loch Maree

By Ben Hope and Ben Loyal

By Stack and by Arkle

The road reaches long

Now the summer is here

So have you stood out on Coldbackie

At the time the sun goes down

Or up on the king of campsites

In the hills about Brae Tongue

That's when music filled your evenings

It's all so different now, this world

For you were the summer walkers

And the fishers of the pearl

So as we close another chapter

That we label Archive Gold

Still the Conon flows each morning

And the dew falls on the sloe

But today you took me walking

Through a land that we have lost

While our children sit at websites

With no access to the cost

And it's up by the Shin

And up by the Naver

And the long winding shores

Of Loch Maree

By Ben Hope and Ben Loyal

By Stack and by Arkle

The road reaches long

Now the summer is here

And it's up by the Shin

And up by the Naver

And the long winding shores

Of Loch Maree

By Ben Hope and Ben Loyal

By Stack and by Arkle

The road reaches long

Now the summer is here