Inspired by the 1968 protests and Cathy Come Home, pupils took to the Ochill Hills

Almost 50 years since they led their school in a sponsored walk to raise funds for a fledging homelessness charity, a group of former pupils from Dollar Academy have headed back to their old stomping ground for another fundraising mission.

The group, now in their 60s, returned to raise more funds for Shelter Scotland on its 50th anniversary. The sponsored walk they inaugurated continues to this day raising funds for a variety of charities; last time it was held it raised more than £54,000.

This year, members of the original organising committee and their family and friends led around 1,000 pupils on a 12-mile walk through the Ochil Hills. One of the co-founders who organised the first walk in 1969, Stuart Twaddell, said there was a time when they thought they’d be ‘walking out the door’ rather than into the school’s history books.

“We were greatly inspired by all the student demonstrations we’d seen on television throughout 1968 and as we were cooped up in a boarding school we were frustrated that we couldn’t be part of it,” he said.

“Then we watched the documentary play Cathy Come Home and became even angrier at the social injustice of slum housing. We were getting into a fair bit of trouble and to divert our frustration our young housemaster suggested we ask permission to hold a sponsored walk to raise money for Shelter, which was just getting set-up in Scotland at the time.

“To our great surprise the rector agreed, and we spent a few months organising a route and raising money. In the summer term of 1969, we led the whole school of about four hundred pupils 20 miles along public roads and raised £2,200 - which was a very significant sum in those days.”

This year, Dollar Academy is marking its bicentennial - making it the UK’s oldest co-educational day and boarding school. The walk set-up by the pupils in 1969 ran every year for a while and then every two years raising funds for six charities on each occasion.

This year Shelter Scotland will benefit once again, as well as six other beneficiaries chosen by the school’s charities’ committee; the Uphill Trust, Mary’s Meals, Alzheimer Scotland, My Name’5 Doddie, CHAS, and Seamab School.

“As Dollar Academy made the walk into a tradition we decided to come back with some friends and family and take part once again,” said Stuart. “It was a real honour to help lead the event and to help the school celebrate its 200th anniversary.”

Graeme Brown, director of Shelter Scotland, said: “Thousands of people went on sponsored walks to raise funds to get Shelter Scotland up and running and we are grateful to each and every one of them. I’m not aware of any other walks that kept people out of trouble with their headteacher nor any that became a tradition, so Dollar Academy’s walk was certainly a special event.”