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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…
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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…
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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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