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Roseberry Topping, December 2005
Lockdown Log Day 10 ….. I thought I would post this, my most favourite photo of Odin’s hill, as a reminder that it will still be there when this is all over. I have deliberately avoided mentioning the word ‘Coronavirus’ in recent posts. This now dominates our lives and is inevitably jeopardising our access to…
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Hilda and the petrified snakes
I’ve been two days now in a virtual Scotland. Long enough, time to head south. This is the classic view of Whitby Abbey, founded by St. Hilda in the 7th-century. Of course, she wasn’t a saint when she first stood on this cliff overlooking the small settlement of Streanæshealh at the mouth of the Esk…
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The Cuillin Ridge
The Black Cuillin Ridge is one of the classic mountain ridges in the United Kingdom, some say the only true mountain ridge. 14 km of rough igneous rocks, gabbro and basalt, with 11 Munros many requiring rocking climbs and abseiling. This image and the one below are scans of proper photographs taken on a traverse…
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An ascent of Na Gruagaichean
Na Gruagaichean, a Monro of the Mamores, translates as The Maidens (or The Damsels or the Virgins). There is an interesting folktale associated with the hill about two maidens, each represented by the twin tops of the summit. It was originally in Gaelic so I’ll cut and paste the translation directly from Wikipedia: “There once…
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The wreck of the Admiral Von Tromp
When I took this photo in February 2008 I was not convinced that this was indeed the wreck of the Scarborough trawler, the Admiral Von Tromp. The Yorkshire coast is notorious for shipwrecks, there have been so many that identification can prove difficult. However, there are now plenty of photos on the internet saying that…
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Grinton Lead Smelting Mill
Arguably the best-preserved and most visited lead ore smelting mill in the Yorkshire Dales. Located by Cogden Beck, south of Grinton village, it probably dates from about 1820 and was saved from becoming a derelict ruin by being reused as an agricultural barn soon after smelting ceased. The two ranges remaining are the mill itself…
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Fossilised Tree
MacCulloch’s Fossil Tree is a fairly popular tourist destination on the Isle of Mull although the trek in is not an easy stroll, certainly not for the faint-hearted. It is located at the western tip of the Ardmeanach peninsula. Parking is at Tioran and in our case a 6km cycle to the township of Burgh…
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Overnight camp, LAMM 2006
Today I take a trip back to June 2006 and early finishers on Day 1 of the Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon are arriving at the overnight camp at Glencoul, a remote bothy at the head of the sea loch of the same name. The photo belies the thick, low cloud with rain and drizzle that…
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Loch na Leitreach
Perfect reflections on a summer morning. One thing I love about Scottish place names is their meaning. Leitreach means slope, so Loch na Leitreach is slope loch. A strange meaning until I imagine the inhabitants of Carnach at its head naming their loch from this view. Dominating the scene is Carnan Cruithneachd, a mere Graham…
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Bamburgh Castle
Or should I say Bebbanburg, the ancestral home of Bernard Cornwell’s Uhtred in the book and film ‘The Last Kingdom‘? An Uhtred the Bold did exist, he was made Earl of Northumbria in 1006. But Cornwell’s Uhtred lived 140 years earlier. A long, long time ago, maybe the time of Uhtred, maybe before or maybe…
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