Bounding across a heather-clad Highland Perthshire hillside or running the gauntlet of white water kayaking runs at Grandtully, you’ll find Beth Wallis, a vivacious young outdoor instructor whose love for nature matches the bright blue sky.
With a cascade of curls perpetually tangled by the wind, her freckles point to a life spent outdoors, her eyes twinkling with a zest for adventure.
Beth has been an outdoor instructor since she was 15 – and there’s nothing else the now 30-year-old has ever wanted to do.
Growing up amid the hills, crags and reservoirs of the Pennines, Beth’s childhood gave her lots of time to “roam around with pals”.
By becoming an outdoor instructor, she realised she could roam around in the outdoors and visit “cool places” for a living.
Beth’s first job, aged 15, was as a boathouse hand at a water activity centre.
Taking a hands-on ‘apprenticeship’ type route to outdoor education, her first job in Scotland after Cumbria was at the now closed Ardeonaig activity centre on the south side of Loch Tay.
Now based in Aberfeldy, it’s as a founding director of the Mental Health North West Community Interest Company that she supports people with mental or physical health issues – and anyone under-represented or marginalised – to be able to get out into nature.
What’s the aim of Aberfeldy-based Wellness Walks?
Originally started in Cumbria by Kelvyn James, Beth has been running free weekly Wellness Walks for nearly a year in Aberfeldy and now hopes to expand this to other Highland Perthshire communities.
She’s also launching Wellness on the Water with canoes and paddle boards at Loch Faskally, by Pitlochry.
“Mental Health North West Community Interest Company was set up by Kelvyn in response to some of the work that he was doing in 2020/21,” explains Beth.
“Obviously Covid-19 dominates that couple of years. It was set up effectively because the things we all know that are good for us – going for a walk, spending time with people, having some chance to chat – didn’t seem to be super accessible to lots of people, especially during that Covid time.
“We wanted to create opportunities for people to do that and make sure it was free for folks but also make sure it was high quality.
“With our outdoor backgrounds, we kind of went ‘we can do this really well and we can make sure we are looking after people physically with the walking side of things, and make sure we are looking after people emotionally with the mental health side of things too’.”
Volunteers receive leadership and first aid training
Beth says the operation has “snowballed” and they now have operations all over the UK. As well as four directors, they currently have 42 active volunteers, including 22 trained this year.
Four more are being trained up in Perthshire thanks to £3,000 recently received from the Enchanted Forest Community Fund.
Volunteers benefit from professional qualifications including lowland leader, outdoor first aid, mental health first aid and safeguarding that have value outside of Wellness Walks.
Beth explains that “bread and butter stuff” sees most of the volunteers running free local, relatively low key, walks. Participants don’t necessarily have to have a mental health diagnosis.
Once a month, on top of that, more qualified leaders like her or Kelvyn will arrange a bus and take people from more isolated rural communities out to a bigger hill. Kelvyn also does some “one-to-one” trips that look more like counselling, while Beth works with families.
They’ve worked hard to collect data that highlights the wellbeing benefits of being outdoors.
Aberfeldy is the ‘perfect’ base for Wellness Walks and for Beth to live
Beth also gets immense satisfaction from seeing people “walking taller and feeling better”.
“Aberfeldy has everything for me as a base,” she adds. “If I’m really on it, I loves how I can be up a Munro and then down on high quality white water in my kayak on the same day.
“I love the fact the area’s got so much space – I can go up to Rannoch and not see anybody,” she smiles.
“But equally the community aspect is huge. The strength in the community of Highland Perthshire is amazing.
“I’ve never been somewhere where communities are so tight. I think that’s quite unique to be honest. It just makes it a wonderful place to live as well as visit.”
For more on the Wellness Walks go to wellnesswalks.org.uk/
Conversation