Having found the house in the hollow and the lone house, I’ve been on the hunt for the rich man’s house. If you don’t know what I’m talking about it means you haven’t been reading the book. (We’re on Chapter 15, text for 2nd July).

By the end of 1st July, David has reached the top of the loch at Pennyghael and at that point is taken out of his way to change some money. Looking at the map there are two main candidates for the house he went to – one going over the hill I walked yesterday into Lochbuie, and the other going back along the north shore of the loch.

Lochbuie is a tempting solution, chiefly because it offers a shorter walk for tomorrow. But the other option fits better for two reasons.

Firstly, I like the idea that the conman in the lone house took David the wrong way simply so he could lig in on a night’s drinking at another person’s expense and then lead the boy back on a path straight past his own house.

(I’ve made a very rushed and sketchy map for you, which I’ll fill out a bit more when I have time; indeed the main Kidnapped Trail map already needs substantial revision! Feel free to edit it yourself btw).

Second, when you go down this second route, you not only come to a grand house, but there’s also a beautiful old kirk by the shore. The romantic in me likes to think of the young Stevenson boating it from Earraid with his dad and his uncle and mooring here for a sermon and a prayer.

It’s the first time I felt that I might be getting into the writer’s head and standing in locations that actually germinated the story. It just *felt* right. I could start to imagine too how Stevenson might fit these locations, these real-life experiences of his childhood, into a made-up adventure story full of the action, suspense, peril and excitement that an ordinary day to day existence tends to lack.

This is why I am here: to work out where a story comes from, and to show how a good book always ends up being a manual for action; something portable that fills your head with thoughts and feelings, and then takes you out into the world, off on your travels.

*Please note all the Kidnapped posts have been transferred here from the original blog at https://timwright.typepad.com/kidmapper which no longer exists.

I have archived the comments from the original site but have not included them here. If you have any queries about this project, do get in touch.