AN EX-NAVY seaman will reach Rosyth this week as he continues his quest to walk the British coastline.

Jim Morton was based in the town in 1977 when his first ship, the HMS Ghurka, was docked here.

At 61, Jim has spent almost 300 days walking the coast, which he said was "better than sitting at home".

Reminiscing on his time in the area, he said: "She (the HMS Ghurka) went into refit to be re-done at the end of 1977 so we moved into what was then Cochrane Barracks at the entrance to Rosyth, which I don't think is there now.

"We lived in the barracks until about June 1978.

"We used to go out in Dunfermline but I can't remember the name of the nightclub.

"I had my first tattoo done in Dunfermline, it cost me four pounds in 1977!

"It was two roses with mum and dad written in ink, it was four pound well spent.

"I didn't go home for weekends as it was such a long way.

"I remember one day I went to the train station in Inverkeithing and said, 'Can I have a day return to Kirk-cal-day?' He said, 'Do you want to try again? Do you mean Kirkcaldy?!

"When the firemen were on strike in 1977, I was sent to be a fireman – in October and November 1977, I was a firefighter in Dunfermline.

"When the fire strike ended I was disappointed, because I loved it.

"We were living in a territorial army barracks which was on quite a steep hill, if I remember.

"All the fire engines had names on them.

"They were old green goddesses which were so slow it was unbelievable, mine was called Brazen Bears."

Walking the coast was Jim's "lifelong ambition" and in the process he has already raised almost £9,000 for the Ghurka Welfare Trust.

He said: "I have had an affinity with Ghurkas since 1977 when I joined HMS Ghurka and we had some Ghurkas onboard."

"In 2015, the earthquake in Nepal wiped out everything they had.

"They came over here and they served in the British Army for 10, 15, 20 years and then they don't want to stay here, they want to go back to their own country and build a better life for their families, look after their mums and dads and brothers and sisters, get married.

"Since 2015, the Ghurka Welfare Trust has managed to build 1,500 houses already, It's brilliant."

Jim set off from his home in South Yorkshire on April 12 and made his way north, determined to avoid the Scottish winter.

However, it has not all been plain sailing, as he explained: "It took me seven months to walk up the west coast of Scotland, 13 days to walk across the top coast of Scotland, and I've been coming down the east side for about six weeks, that's just how brutal the west coast is.

"I had an accident so I got airlifted near the Isle of Skye to Inverness.

"I was on a cliff and the cliff collapsed underneath me, the next thing I knew I was waking up from being unconscious in a pool of blood and then the coastguard helicopter flew me from one side of Scotland to the other."

Fifers have been eager to welcome Jim back, with an offer of a driveway to park on in Burntisland and the promise of a free ice cream in Aberdour, if he has not frozen already by then.