Just one day into a 225-mile hike across the width of Scotland last August, Dan Warren was feeling the burn, his old trail shoes wearing painfully thin. But neither sore feet nor swarms of midges would stop the librarian and his scientist wife, Dee Johnson, from reaching their goal: the promise of pastries at the Bakehouse in the west coast fishing town of Mallaig, a 14-day trek plus two ferry hops away from their home near Montrose.

The pair are so-called “bakery pilgrims”, travelling significant distances in the pursuit of a fine loaf or bun. “Some of the time we were pushing through overgrown tracks, and there were lots of bogs,” Warren says of their journey. But their eventual reward was a soft brioche bun, filled with crème pâtissière and finished with crumble and berries.

I can relate. The siren call of the honey buns at Popty’r Dref bakery in Dolgellau, Wales, drew my wife and me from Oxfordshire, nearly four hours away. We tagged on a hike up Mount Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa), but it was really just a scenic spot to enjoy our bakery haul.

A couple o...
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