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Sgùrr nan Carnach and Sgùrr Fhuaran from Sgùrr na Ciste Duibhe
The Five Sisters of Kintail, on the north side of Glen Shiel, is one of the classic ridge walks in Scotland. As you might have guessed, the Five Sisters refer to five peaks of which two are Munros: Sgùrr na Ciste Duibhe (The peak of the dark chest) 1027m Sgùrr na Càrnach (The rocky peak)…
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Gruinard Bay
Fuelled by President Trump in a blatant attempt to shift blame for the handling of the coronavirus epidemic from himself, the suggestion that the virus was manufactured in a Chinese laboratory has now hit the mainstream media rather than being confined to conspiracy theorists in the darker reaches of social media. But it would do…
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The Mourne Mountains
In September 2009, I paid a flying visit to the Mourne Mountains in County Down. I was taking a group of junior orienteers to the Junior Inter-Regional Championships at the Silent Valley Mountain Park. So I didn’t have the chance to explore the area as much as I would have liked. In fact, now it…
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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…
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Beadnell
I suppose I am drawn to the sea, perhaps I am a thalassophile at heart, but not quite ‘sjøvant‘ as the Scandawegians would say, not being entirely at ease. I remember a works outing in 2003, a sailing trip from Hartlepool to the Farne Islands for the weekend. I was so bad, even though the…
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Pike o’ Blisco
O the month of May, the merry month of May, So frolic, so gay, and so green, so green, so green! O, and then did I unto my true love say: “Sweet Peg, thou shalt be my summer’s queen! A poem by Thomas Dekker (c. 1572–1632) Descending out of the mist and heading for Pike…
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Finnhamn
It occurred to me that I haven’t posted any international photos. I’ve just stuck to the British Isles which of course includes Ireland. So to rectify that little oversight, here’s one from our visit in 2006 to the Stockholm archipelago, a myriad islands hugging the western edge of the Baltic Sea. In fact, there are…
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Simon Howe on Goathland Moor
It was on this day, 29th April 1770, that Great Ayton’s famous son, Captain James Cook landed at Botany Bay in Australia and “with the Consent of the Natives” claimed the whole continent “in the Name of the King of Great Britain“. Now whether Cook actually discussed the matter with the aboriginals is a moot…
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The Battle of Rannerdale
Nicholas Size, in his 1930’s novel ‘The Secret Valley’, tells the story of Norman attempts to quell the armed resistance of the Norse settlers of Lakeland. In the 1070’s Boethar the Younger chose Buttermere valley as his base to defend Lakeland and to carry out guerrilla attacks against the Normans. Before the modern road around…
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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…
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