Month: April 2020
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Sir Guy the Seeker
This legend reminded me of Freebrough Hill when I first read it. A supposedly hollow hill in which King Arthur, sleeps surrounded by his knights. Sir Walter Scott told a similar tale of Thomas the Rhymer in Eildon Hill, not a million miles away from Dunstanburgh Castle on the Northumbrian Coast. But the hero of…
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Honister Pass
Looking back on a long slog up to Littledale Edge from Gatesgarth on a glisky autumnal morning. 24 hours earlier the Lakes had been inundated by a tumultuous downpour with 75 mph winds forcing the abandonment of the 2008 Original Mountain Marathon (OMM) that “could have ‘turned mountains into a morgue’” according to one sensationalist…
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The Giant’s Boot
Northern Ireland’s most visited attraction is the iconic Giant’s Causeway, polygonal columns of basaltic rock formed sixty million years ago when molten lava spread across the land and created clouds of steam on meeting the sea. The lava cooled and began to solidify into basalt. While most tourists only get as far as the Causeway…
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Rydal Water
Today would have been the 250th birthday of William Wordsworth, arguably one of the greatest poets of the English language. Born in Cockermouth in 1770, both his own parents had died by the time he was 13. He was educated at the grammar school in Hawkshead and went to St. John’s College, Cambridge University in…
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Milecastle 39 and the Sycamore Gap
Day 14; 2 weeks now into this lockdown and the morning routine has developed into my daily exercise during which I look for inspiration for a photo to post that evening. This morning I had read that it was on this day in 1199 that King Richard I, perhaps better known as Richard the Lionheart,…
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Brotherswater
Originally called Broad Water (and before that Broader Water) it is generally accepted that Brotherswater was renamed after two brothers were unfortunately drowned in there on New Year’s Day around 1812 whilst skating on the frozen lake. Apparently underground springs flowing up from the lake bed caused patches of thin ice. I found this information…
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Loch nam Ban Mòra
I read this morning that it was on this day in 1997 that the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust finally succeeded in buying the small island off the west coast of Scotland from the laird after an eight-month ownership battle. The community buyout was a forerunner of land reform in Scotland under the Community Land…
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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…