Glasgow-based hillwalking club Boots & Beards are giving thousands of people from ethnically diverse backgrounds the chance to see the benefits of the outdoors for the first time.
Boots & Beards was formed in 2016 for like-minded people from communities across Glasgow. The group began predominantly for men to come together, explore the hills and improve their physical and mental health.
Continued growth has allowed the group to expand and give more people access to the outdoors. They provide activities for women, children and families with weekly boot camps and badminton sessions on offer. Fund-raising allowed Boots & Beards to buy their own minibus to provide participants transport to regular hikes across Scotland at hills at Loch Lomond, Callendar and Perth to name a few.
Recognition
Boot & Beards is a licensed partner of the highly respected Duke of Edinburgh awards. In June 2022 the group was awarded a special recognition award at the Pride of Scotland Awards.
Incredibly nearly 3,500 people have taken part in the group’s activities since it started. Co-founder Nav Bakhsh says work will continue to expand the group’s activities and he wants to use the knowledge acquired since 2016 to empower other groups and clubs to help their communities.
He said: “We are growing organically and are hoping to recruit some more staff. Since we started we have had nearly 3,500 participants which is amazing to think about. None of this was really planned initially, we didn’t have any aspirations of being a hillwalking club it’s just grown and grown.
“It gives people a bit more security to know there’s lots of different people from similar backgrounds going out as one group. There’s a massive social aspect to it.
"The backgrounds can range from Indian, Pakistani or Sri Lankan but they are all in essence immigrants, they all have very similar journeys that have led to them living in Scotland.
“The plan is to link up with more community groups and hopefully encourage more pockets of hillwalking clubs within those community groups. We’re probably in a position now where if clubs are starting up, we can offer advice and training based on what we’ve done. That’s the route I want to go down, to help set up more clubs across Scotland and help them reach people in their communities.”
Support
Boots & Beards was boosted last year with £24,000 from sportscotland’s Direct Club Investment (DCI), a National Lottery-funded club development fund. This allowed for the recruitment of a part-time project coordinator to help make the hills more accessible and inclusive, particularly among inactive under-represented groups.
The group’s work is being recognised in the outdoor sector. Zain Sehgal, who was recruited with DCI funding, now sits on Loch Lomond and Trossachs board of committees to share the group’s knowledge of making the park accessible for different communities
Nav added: “It’s a big game changer for us because it shows we are penetrating different levels of outdoor society.”
They’ve also been working hard to reach more female participants, taking on a new member of staff whose job is to look after the women’s walking groups and expand them.
Nav said: “The seed for all this was planted from the original DCI investment, that’s led us to expand and then have access to other pots of money.
"There’s definitely been an appetite from the women in the groups to do more. We’ve got a lot of mums who welcome the groups as something that gets them out the house to socialise and get active. They want to do more activities with their kids as well.”
One of those mums is a mother of four who moved to Scotland from London and Boots & Beards has helped to change her life.
Nav explained: “When she first started coming out, in the summer of 2021, she was often at the very back of the group, you could tell she was struggling. Her fitness wasn’t very good but she kept pushing herself. Her kids were there so she was trying to keep up with them.
“She was really determined to get fitter. I met her in May 2022 and she told me the group had changed her way of life. She now wants to become more involved in the outdoors and she’s much fitter.
"Coming from London she didn’t really have access to the outdoors. She’s really seen the benefit.
“It’s really benefitted them as a family as well to be out spending time together outside, instead of been inside maybe in their own rooms watching tv or on phones or iPads.”
Safety on the hills is paramount, particularly for inexperienced walkers. To help the group understand the basics of hillwalking they’ve had training support from Glenmore Lodge, sportscotland’s National Outdoor Training Centre.
Nav added: “The idea was to get the group used to being on the hills, instil more confidence and get them prepared if they want to go out on the hills without the main group. It was really beneficial. There were people who hadn’t used a compass before or looked at a map but are now able to do it.”
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