For most of my life, I have been doggedly climbing Scottish hills and mountains. At age 50, I finished all of the Munros (including subsidiary tops); at 60, the Donalds ("lowland hills" over 2000 feet), including the tops; at 70 the Corbetts (2500 - 2499 feet); and now, just after my 75th birthday, am on the brink of completing the Grahams (2000 feet (now 600m) to 2499 feet). A total of 1386 summits.

It has not been a sprint. My last Graham will be the innocuous and retiring Creag Bhalg, near Braemar, in July this year, 68 years after my first Munro (Ben Lomond). It will, however be a suitable hill and location for a small family celebration.

The lengthy journey has increasingly been one to celebrate the glory of Scotland's wilderness and its vital contribution to combating climate change (by carbon storage) and maintaining biodiversity. It seems fitting to mark the end of this journey by raising money for the John Muir Trust, which believes that wild places and the experience of wildness are vital to our lives. They work with others to repair and rewild damaged ecosystems, looking after some of the most magnificent landscapes from the far north west of Scotland to the Lake District in England.