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Sunday, February 23, 2020

Minor Walk Manifesto

This is an ongoing manifesto project that I began in 2019, as part of an Art Walk Projects commission for Portobello. 

It was extended as part of a Historic Environment Scotland symposium held at Duff House where the participants shared a minor walk. 

The minor walk is a very short or gentle walk. 

This painted version was first exhibited in the Travelling Gallery in 2019. The text is extended below.






a minor walk measures up for the chronically ill: it is also known as a VSW (Very Short Walk)


minor walks are the domain of the walking constrained


a walk is never minor because of distance alone


remember, we begin and end our lives as minor walkers


the minor walk lacks purpose compared to the standard walk and yet, for some, it is both comfort and necessity


the minor walk is typically made in relationship to a single place, it rarely traverse multiple locations


the minor walk tos-and-fros are as far apart as the lines of high and low tide


it is almost unheard of for a minor walk to encompass a summit – even a slope is considered extreme


most school runs are minor walks done in a car


many minor walks feature a bench or seat as their highpoint


many minor walks include a single tree observed through the changing seasons


weeds are woods in the microtonal ecology of a minor walk


a minor walk is ideal for those few eccentrics who make pets of lobsters


such as their limits are, such are their walks


a minor walk is always made at    our    own    pace


in theory a mountain could be conquered by a succession of minor walks –
in practice the lack of bothies makes this unlikely



a minor walk may be a great adventure


a minor walk is a wander in which distance never gets out of hand


love affairs have begun on minor walks


minor walks enhance city streets


a traditional minor walk; going to the well to fetch water


the distance between bus stops should never be greater than a minor walk


the minor walker’s motto: one block at a time


a minor walk is a back of the envelope affair


in winter the sun goes for a minor walk across the horizon


most minor walks take place at the same time every day


you shouldn’t require special footwear to do a minor walk


a charity minor walk, how does that work?


some small dogs are minor walkers, all cats are


Christ made a minor walk carrying a cross


cricket is a game that involves a series of rapid minor walks


a minor walk is a wee wee dauner


the Ur-minor walk led from the high tide line to the low tide line
and back again


on a minor walk we do not flow, we seep


a minor walk in a wildflower garden, following bees


a minor walk counting all the wind-turbines that can be seen


pavement cracks and kerbs are the scree and crags of minor walks


on a minor walk each footprint leaves a momentary shadow


many minor walkers return with a pint of milk in their hand


doing the recycling added a new task to menu of minor walks


what scale should a map be made at to best represent a minor walk?


minor walks are portrait format, not landscape


a minor walk can open great passages of air and sky


minor walks will never feature in the Olympics


the ant makes a minor walk across page 42 and onto page 43


in the House of Commons members of parliament take a minor walk
through the lobbies of power


the minor walk is a small step in the evolution of cultural walking
paradoxically it extends the art of walking


a minor walk estimating the number of windflower turbines that can be seen on the horizon


a minor walk scattering wildflower seeds across the rough of a golf course


a minor walk going to and from on a bridge until a problem is solved


a minor walk through a garden that was imagined but has never existed


a minor walk through a landed estate imagining it rewilded


a minor walk in which the rills of a burn are imaged as waterfalls


a minor walk changing the hand in which hand you hold a walking stick each time your thoughts change


a minor walk noting the changing seasons


a minor walk confirming a decision taken with reluctance


a minor walk on a still day holding a lit candle


a minor walk coming as close to oyster catchers as they will allow


a minor walk humming a bothy ballad


a minor walk watching the dew slowly soak your shoes


a minor walk with your eyes closed


a minor walk recalling the names and tastes of all of the whisky’s you have drunk


a minor walk from conifer to evergreen, and repeat


minor walks are less desire lines, more concessions to reality


flaneurs produce novels
minor walkers jot down occasional aphorisms


minor walkers are humble walkers


the solemnity of a minor walk round and round a cloister


in the ideal city the grocer is never more than a minor walk away from one’s front door


many minor walks revolve around small tasks


‘how did it all begin? she took me on a minor walk, and we lay together beneath a birch…’

people who have to carefully calculate which bus stop to descend at in order to manage their energy are experts in minor walks


in this painting of a minor walk done in the manner of Caspar David Friedrich, the traffic bollard plays the role of the mountaintop


the parables of minor walking feature many heroic snails and tortoises


the origins of the minor walk are agrarian, while hikes can be traced back to hunter-gathering


my walk home from where the school bus dropped me at the foot of the track to my front door is a minor walk that I can recall in terms of every step


to the end of the beach and back is a typical long minor walk across the sand to the sea is a typical short minor walk 


GF Dutton’s wilding garden was composed as a series of minor paths


for the chronically ill every walk is deliberate and planned around a network of minor paths and available forms of transport


distance can be measured by knowledge and awareness as much as by feet and miles


we all exist in bubble worlds – it isn’t walking fast that pops them


a minor walker is more likely to stop off for a cup of tea then carry a thermos


minor walks change the horizon a chimney pot at a time


you can notice as much on a minor walk as a hike, but the field notes will differ


the political demands of the minor walk are radically minor: more benches, more street flora, more public transport, more parks


‘a minor path is made by walking’ (Alan Macpherson)
a minor walk is made by pausing 


each minor walk salutes the day




These posts are published as part of a year-long artist in residence, funded by Paths for All.




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