Walking The Highland Chieftain

I’m walking the entire route of the famous LNER Highland Chieftain service, London Kings Cross Station to Inverness, calling at Every Last Station along the way!

This will be my fourth event in five years to raise money for Samaritans.

First event was in 2022 when I visited all 99 Manchester Metrolink stations in one day. After completing that and raising over £2,000 I decided the following year I was going to go bigger, and more ambitious!

Bigger and more ambitious it indeed was! In 2023 I decided to walk the Great Western Mainline from London Paddington to Penzance calling at Every Last Station on the way! This was a near 400 mile walk that raised over £10,000.

In 2024 I wanted to again go bigger, and as it turned out, higher! In choosing to walk the scenic railways of Wales I was choosing a walk with a lot of elevation involved. It was still similar milage to the previous years walk. But it was substantially hillier. This year also went on to raise over £10,000!

At the start of 2025 whilst having a short hike on the North Yorkshire Moors, I sustained a knee injury which sadly meant having to skip doing a charity event in 2025. But I am happy to say my knee is now fully recovered and is ready to face my biggest walk yet!

The Highland Chieftain is a journey that for many of us is the ultimate journey across England & Scotland. One of Britain's longest train journeys, it takes you through some of the best countryside & cities that Britain's rail network has to offer.

The walk will be between 650 - 700 miles long; it will see me calling at every station on the route. When I say every station, I really mean it: Potters Bar, Biggleswade, Grantham, Doncaster, Northallerton, Manors, Reston, Camelon, Dunkeld & Birnam, Dalwhinnie and every other station that is between London Kings Cross and Inverness.

In October 2018 I was visiting stations in Devon when at St James Park there was a gentleman that was on the opposite platform to me. While waiting for my train he crossed the tracks to the platform where I was. After a brief exchange where he asked if I had a lighter, I boarded my train and went on my way. Later in the day I noticed several cancellations and it was only when looking through social media I discovered a person had been hit by a train at the station where the gentleman asked me for a lighter. Something inside me just knew I had to go back to St James Park.

I headed back to the station to see if it was the person I’d spoken to briefly. It was, it transpired I was one of the last people to speak to the gentleman before he was hit by a train. Samaritans was there to offer me help with what had happened. I spent a lot of time asking myself, “Should I have spotted something?”, “Could I have done something?”.

Life can be tough. Sometimes it feels like nobody else understands. If it’s all getting too much to handle you can talk to Samaritans. They won’t  judge or tell you what to do. They’re there to listen so no-one has to face tough times alone. Every 10 seconds, Samaritans answers a call for help. Samaritans can be contacted round the clock, for free, on 116 123, day or night, 365 days a year. It’s only your donations and 23,000 listening volunteers that make sure Samaritans can be there for someone today, so they can believe in tomorrow.