He saved up every spare penny to fund his epic journey and he set off with little more than a blanket and a couple of warm jumpers. Fifty years later, a rather eccentric deaf Scotsman's bicycle ride to the Arctic Circle is to be made into a film.

James Duthie became something of a local celebrity in the northeast of Scotland when he returned home to Cairnbulg, near Fraserburgh, after his marathon trip through Britain and Europe to the far north of Scandinavia.

But despite publishing a journal on his travels to the wildernesses of the north, outside his local area he remained largely unknown. When he was knocked down on his bicycle and killed on his way home from a less ambitious European tour 15 years later, his death was marked simply by friends and family.

That obscurity could now all change after a young film- maker became fascinated with Duthie's story when he came across his journal, I Cycled Into The Arctic Circle, by chance.

Matt Hulse, whose film Wee Three was joint winner of the Best British Short Film award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 1998, plans to repeat some of Duthie's remarkable journey this summer when he starts to make the film.

He has already received financial backing for the film from the Scottish Arts Council's Creative Scotland awards and hopes to raise further money from Film Four, Scottish Screen and European initiatives.

Hulse, who lives in Edinburgh, got the idea for the project after reading Duthie's journal, which had been sent to him by his mother who came across it in a second-hand book shop on Iona.

"The title had instant appeal. I've always loved tales of endeavour, but above all I'm particularly impressed when extreme effort has been made not for profit, nor love, nor to win, but for no particular reason at all - simply because it could be done," said Hulse.

"James came across as such a determined and charming character who seemed to make lots of friends along the way. He would recount his experiences really quite of matter-of-factly, but there were also quite a number of quirky moments in the book.

"At one point he notes, in a slightly puzzled way, how people seem to be smiling at him as he cycles along carrying a reindeer bust on his bicycle. The whole thing really captured my imagination."

Duthie, who worked in a fish canning factory, set out on his remarkable journey in May 1951. He cycled down the east coast of Britain and took the ferry from Dover to Calais, originally hoping to head south to Morocco. But in Paris he changed his mind, though he did not say why, and instead began to head north, travelling through Holland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Duthie crossed into the Arctic Circle at Jokkmokk in Sweden, crossing back into Norway and visiting Narvik before heading home, taking more of a western route through Scandinavia and Britain.

The film has been welcomed by Duthie's surviving family, who live in Aberdeenshire, and they believe it will be a fitting tribute to him.

His cousin Joy Buchan, 81, who lives in Fraserburgh, remembers the sense of disbelief in Cairnbulg when Duthie set out on his journey.

"We thought it was great, somebody who was deaf and dumb doing such a thing. A lot of people believed he would never manage it and be back in a few days. But he did and sent postcards along the way. Anything he tried to do, he would make a success of. He was very determined and resourceful," she said.

"He set out with few possessions - just a haversack, a pair of shorts and a couple of jumpers. I don't think he even had a sleeping bag."

Her cousin had a large network of deaf penpals throughout Europe whom he called upon for shelter along the way, she added.

"I was amazed that somebody had decided to make a film about him, but I'm very glad. James really was a marvellous person."

Hulse recognised he had an artistically challenging task ahead of him, not least because he wants to represent the experience of a deaf person through the aural medium of film.

"There are a lot of issues I will have to grapple with. For instance, of what, and in what form, does James Duthie dream? Would he be able to hear his own inner voice and, if so, where does the technique of voice-over stand in relation to film?" he said, adding that the film would also draw out the light-hearted aspect of Duthie's adventure.

A Role Model

A spokesperson for the British Deaf Association said Duthie would be a good role model for deaf children and added that the communication problems he faced would probably have been no harder than for anybody with perfect hearing.