Out & About …

… on the North York Moors, or wherever I happen to be.

Author: Fhithich

  • Carrauntoohil from Cnoc na Toinne

    Carrauntoohil from Cnoc na Toinne

    Have we really been in lockdown for 35 days? That’s 5 weeks! Now, where can I go today? Haven’t been to Ireland for a while. At 3,407 ft. high, Carrauntoohil is the highest mountain in Ireland and the centrepiece of that wonderfully named mountain range, the MacGillycuddy’s Reeks. The name, Carrauntoohil,  is an Anglicisation of…

  • North Ridge of Tryfan

    North Ridge of Tryfan

    I have not done much in Wales. Just a handful of visits really. I’ll always remember my Dad declaring that it always rains in Wales. Besides the Lakes are much nearer. Tryfan is in the Glyderau mountain range, the Glyders. Many consider it to be the finest mountain in Wales, one which requires scrambling to…

  • Calgary Bay

    Calgary Bay

    The Gaelic name for this idyllic beach of white sands is Cala ghearraidh, the ‘beach of the meadow’, which has been anglicised to Calgary. Like many other Scottish Highland communities, those at Cala ghearraidh were evicted, the land cleared and given over to sheep. This would probably have been in around 1817 when the Mornish estate…

  • The Mass Trespass, the Pennine Way, and some new Corona Restrictions

    The Mass Trespass, the Pennine Way, and some new Corona Restrictions

    The Kinder Scout Plateau is dotted with Gritstone boulders and rocks of all sizes that, over the ages, have been sculpted by the wind and the rain, many taking on animalistic shapes. This day marks the anniversaries of two important events in the history of access to the hills and mountains that we take for…

  • Blakethwaite Smelt Mill

    Blakethwaite Smelt Mill

    The name Gunnerside, in the Yorkshire Dales, derives from two elements: ‘Gunnarr‘ a Norse personal name and ‘saetr‘ meaning a summer pasture. Through the village flows Gunnerside Gill which was once a hive of industrial activity with several leads mines operating along the narrow dale. The Blakethwaite Mine began in 1806 operated by Thomas Chippindale…

  • Remains of old forest, Gleann Sithidh

    Remains of old forest, Gleann Sithidh

    Today is Earth Day 2020, an event which I fear will go largely unheeded. Without doubt Corvid 19 is a global crisis yet we are in another global crisis which is not happening so fast, but it is happening all the same. Climate change. The theme for this 50th anniversary of Earth Day is climate…

  • Loft Crag from Pike o’ Stickle

    Loft Crag from Pike o’ Stickle

    The Langdale Pikes is perhaps the best-known skyline in the Lake District. From Great Langdale, the towering pikes of Harrison Stickle, Loft Crag and Pike o’ Stickle are dramatic and majestic and were an early attraction for the first tourists. One such tourist was Joseph Budworth, a soldier and writer who travelled to the Lake…

  • Isthmus between Port an-t Slaoichain and Port Bheathain

    Isthmus between Port an-t Slaoichain and Port Bheathain

    In Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Kidnapped‘ the hero, David Balfour is kidnapped and is shipwrecked landing up at Erraid on the Ross of Mull. The story then follows his journey back to Edinburgh to confront his wicked uncle. In June 2016 two mates, Bob and Andy, and I followed in the footsteps of Balfour, from Erraid…

  • Exercising

    Exercising

    Day 26 of the Lockdown. Or is it? Life has settled into a routine. Get up, exercise, eat, doze, an odd job or two around the house, eat again, then start thinking about tomorrow’s posting. This crisis has made me realise just how fortunate I am in having easy access to woods and open land.…

  • Overnight camp Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon 1997

    Overnight camp Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon 1997

    This is a scanned image and to be quite honest, I am not 100% sure that it’s actually one of mine. I did do the 1997 Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon with my eldest son, who would then have been 17. However neither he or I are in the photo and I can’t think why anyone…