Going for a summer stroll in the hot sunshine and with greenery all around is a great joy, but the pleasures of a winter walk are just as good, although not in the same way.For one thing, there are fewer people out and about in the winter as the colder weather is discouraging, and the draw of warm homes and closed curtains too great for many people to resist.

However, once you have donned your Musto outdoor clothes you are ready to enjoy the pleasures of a long walk in the winter time. The bare branches of the trees give a different picture of the countryside from summer and crunching over hard frosty earth has its own specific satisfaction and enjoyment.

With the sun lower in the sky, the light is quite different from the harsher glare of summer and with Gill sailing sunglasses the dazzle won’t bother you. You can enjoy the long shadows cast by the trees and bushes and see the skeleton shapes of the woods and undergrowth that are hidden by leaves in summer. There is no irritating heat haze.

As the day draws on and the shadows lengthen and take over, it becomes spooky to be walking along an ancient path such as the Ridgeway, which has been trodden by people for thousands of years.If imaginative, you might almost see ancient travellers plodding along beside you, and could feel sorry for all those people in past ages who not only had to contend with wild boar in the thickets, but also had nothing like the cosy protection of your Musto fleece jacket and warm trousers.

Modern technical clothing such as what we have at Scotts of Langholm turns what was a chilly trudge for our ancestors into a leisure activity that we can enjoy no matter how cold the weather is.