Month: June 2016
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Strawberry Moon
Today is the longest day of the year. The summer solstice. And it’s a full moon. The last time we had a full moon on the summer solstice was in 1967. The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was top of the pops and Barclays bank was just days away from installing the first hole…
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Start of Triathlon in Kielder Water
Kielder in the North Tyne valley is not the my most favourite place. Great if you like water sports of all sorts or fishing but too manicured and sanitized for me. And so so commercial. Superlatives abound. With 44 billion gallons Keider Water is the largest reservoir in the UK, has the largest hydro electric…
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Lanty's Tarn
Lanty’s Tarn sits at the end of the ridge between the Grisedale and Glenridding valleys. It’s a natural tarn that has been enlarged with a concrete dam wall to provide a water supply to Patterdale Hall. There is some debate as to how the tarn was formed. One opinion is that the hollow which it…
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Swart Beck
In the Lakes for the week. This is Swart Beck, flowing through the ruins of Greenside Mine into Glenridding.
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Carrock Fell
The Northern Fells of the Lake District are composed mainly of Skiddaw Slates but one exception is Carrock Fell where the bedrock is a hard and  grainy igneous rock called gabbro. I have encountered gabbro before. Just a few days ago on Mull whilst walking through the extinct volcano there. But at between 23 and 66…
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Carsaig Arches
A day of travelling. Heading back south. Ferries, buses and cars. So a photo from Wednesday last of the Carsaig Arches on Mull’s dramatic sea coast. Woke up to a sea fret which was finally burning off.
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Traigh Gheal
Checked in at the Lochaline Hotel overlooking the Sound of Mull. A bit basic but much appreciated after two days wild camping and last night in a bothie. But that at least was a midge free zone. I have walked with two mates, Andy and Bob, from Fionnphort on the western tip of the island…
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I Nam Ban Boidhehch
Island of the beautiful women, or Iona as it is more commonly called.
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The final straw …
Finally Roseberry Topping appeared after a week with its head in the clouds. But I climbed up there this morning to find the summit crags defaced by a giant Vote Leave banner. I am incandescent. I do not want to see my beloved Roseberry turned into a political billboard. What irks me more is that it carries a…
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Rhododendron ponticum
It is generally accepted that Rhododendrons are native to the shores around the Black Sea and were introduced to Britain in the mid 18th century for its a blaze of colour during early summer but the shrub was actually part of the British flora before the last ice year. In my posting a few days ago about…