TikTok: Scottish campsite pensioner becomes a TikTok hit at age 74

Scottish pensioner Pat McErlean has been posting videos about his camping trips on YouTube for two years without much success.

But the 74-year-old's “Wander with Mac” channel went viral overnight after it caught the attention of an influential TikTok account.

In his whimsical films, he takes viewers on a tour of the countryside near his home in Dumfries and Galloway.

One TikTok promoting his video received 12 million views.

“I received a message from one of the people who has a holiday home in my village saying, 'Pat, please visit your YouTube channel, there's something going on,'” he said.

“I think they like the way I do it. Instead of being called old Git or whatever, they say, 'That's my grandfather.'

Pat's lifelong passion for camping was inspired by an Ordnance Survey map given to him when he was 10 years old.

He created the channel two years ago to document his camping trips with his dog, Morag, in a storytelling style inspired by Scottish filmmaker John Grierson and presenter Tom Weir.

“I have been attending camps off and on since I was a woman,” he said.

“When I was 10 years old, I lived near Edinburgh and would disappear into the Pentlands at night for long walks.”

Now retired and living in Garleyston, he said: “I wanted to do something. Something different, something I would enjoy, something a little adventurous. So I thought I'd give camping a try, and I'm enjoying every minute of it.” ”

His channel achieved even greater success after it was promoted on TikTok by musician Christian Keenan.

Keenan wanted to promote a channel on YouTube that had “very few views.” His video about Pat currently has over 12 million views.

As a result of this support, Pat's YouTube channel has skyrocketed to over 400,000 subscribers.

Pat has now set up his own TikTok account, also called Wander with Mac. He already has more subscribers than the creators who promoted him.

Since then, Pat has been in touch with Christian Keenan, who was equally surprised by the video's success.

“I'm not that tech-savvy, but I was able to go on TikTok and find out who the guy was,” he said.

“I contacted him and we exchanged messages and he was equally appalled.

“He was thinking, ‘Maybe I can get this old guy 500 or 2 or 3,000 extra subscriptions and monetize his channel.’ He couldn’t believe it either.”

Pat recently had to put her camping hobby on hold due to health issues, so Keenan helped raise more than £1,000 to help run the campervan.