We are meant to be searching for Mr Rankeillor’s house in South Queensferry, but instead we’ve settle for a jar at the Hawes Inn, sitting outside and watching the sun go down over the Forth.

I’ve made it! All the way from Earraid to South Queensferry, tracking pretty much exactly the locations and the dates as set down in the book.

That one sentence has so much to answer for:

“The brig was lost on June the 27th,” says he, looking in his book, “and we are now at August the 24th.”

Why did Stevenson feel the need to write that? Why be so specific about dates when he didn’t need to be?

I sense it might be because Stevenson really did walk that trail, day by day, in his head, dreaming of his childhood and the wild untamed Highlands whilst eking out a seemingly dull, sickly existence in ‘civilised’ Bournemouth. You see? This book is not just for and about the Scottish. It suits the imagination of softy Southerners too!

Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed taking this book out into the wilds with me and plotting it out. As others have already suggested, I am hoping to develop what I’ve done here into some kind of mobile application that *you* can take out onto the Trail, helping others to engage with the book in the landscape it describes, and allowing you to share your own thoughts online whilst still walking out on the wilds (subject to mobile/wireless net access).

I’m also interested in publishing our own version of ‘Kidnapped’ as a print-based ‘mashup’ and great big poster-sized map of the whole trail. Also, all thoughts you have about how to create a richer, more playful and more social trail for next year, please let me know.

Who knows? Perhaps we’ll bump into each other in a bothy, play blind man’s buff on Mull or hide-and-seek across Rannoch Moor, start a poker night in a cave by Loch Ericht, toast Rob Roy with a dram in Strathyre or share a bowl of white pudding in Limekilns. It all goes to prove that a book can take you to amazing places where you will meet amazing people.

So happy reading – and happy trails.

*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.