Out & About …

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

Tag: Mountain

  • Scafell from Eskdale Moor

    Scafell from Eskdale Moor

    One family name that keeps cropping up time and time again is the Percys, earls of Northumberland. Think Alnwick Castle. One branch of the family owned much of Kildale in the North York Moors and were involved in the re-establishment of Whitby Abbey, and I now find their fingerprints in Eskdale, on the westernmost side…

  • Ben Arthur/The Cobbler

    Ben Arthur/The Cobbler

    At 884m high, Ben Arthur, familiarly known as The Cobbler, is only a Corbett but is a cracking hill. It is one of a group of hills known as the Arrochar Alps: The Cobbler, and the Munros Beinn Narnaim and Beinn Ime. I believe technically The Cobbler refers to the central peak and Ben Arthur…

  • Red Tarn

    Red Tarn

    It’s good to be back in the Lakes even if only for a day trip. I could have packed my tent, camped high and not really increased the risk of spreading Covid-19. But the rule is no overnight stays and rules are rules. Filling the cirque below Helvellyn, Red Tarn is perhaps one of the…

  • Cùl Mòr

    Cùl Mòr

    At 849m, Cùl Mòr is the highest of the Assynt Corbetts, a towering and majestic beast of a mountain. This view is from Stac Pollaidh. Cùl means ‘the back of’ so cùlag, for instance, is your back tooth. And mòr is the adjective ‘big’. So the name translates as ‘big back’. Which raises the question…

  • 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…

  • The Cuillin Ridge

    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…

  • An ascent of Na Gruagaichean

    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…

  • Slioch from Loch Maree

    Slioch from Loch Maree

    An early morning wander with the dog along the shore of Loch Maree, the mighty Torridonian sandstone massif of Slioch, 980m high, dominating the view to the south. Its sides from this view is entirely defended by buttresses, crags and scree.

  • Suilven

    Suilven

    A wander up to Fionn Loch, the location for a classic photo of Suilven but the top was in cloud. On the way down I looked back and it had cleared. Ah well, that’s the way it goes. It is thought the name Suilven comes from a contraction of the Norse sulur meaning a pillar…

  • Foinaven from Inshegra

    Foinaven from Inshegra

    An overcast, rather dull evening but late on the clouds broke over Foinaven shining white with its covering of quartzite rock and boulders. Shame about the ubiquitous graveyard for redundant motor vehicles in the foreground. Foinaven is, of course, with its neighbour Arkle, famous after the pair of eponymous racehorses from the stable of the…