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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…
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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…
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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…
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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.…
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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…
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Dow Crag and Goats Water
The great buttresses of Dow Crag in the Coniston Fells down which the vindictive Geoffrey Westcott fell to his death after attempting to shoot Rowf who had been making his way along the foot of the crags. Perhaps not the best panegyric for a fellwalker but Mr. Westcott is a fictional character and Rowf is…
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Loch nan Uamh
On this day, 16 April in 1746 on a bleak desolate moor, about 6km east of Inverness, a battle took place which, although lasting only 40 minutes, remains an emotive event in Scottish memory, and changed the country forever by securing the Union with the United Kingdom. It could be said to have lead to…
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The Priest’s Hole
The view from the Priest’s Hole, a cave high on the side of Dove Crag and long-established bivouac but so especially since the BBC included it on their series “Secret Britain“. Access can be a little tricky and there has been at least one fatality as a result of the programme. When I was there,…
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The old schoolroom, Strathan
A tin hut stands at the confluence of Glen Pean and Glen Dessary at the head of the 12 mile Loch Arkaig. This is Strathan, the end of the public road from Spean Bridge and a parting of the old routes north to Loch Nevis and south to Glenfinnan. It is probable that the Glen…
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Derwentwater
I wanted to post a photo of Castle Crag today, the smallest Wainwright, but I couldn’t find a decent image, just a long-range shot from Swanesty How near Grange. Instead, I found this photo of Derwentwater taken, by coincidence, on the same day as my photo of Honister Pass posted four days ago. It actually…
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