Day off work today and glorious weather, so I got out and bagged the latest County Top: this one lying in the vast expanse of Swinley Forest, south of Bracknell in Berkshire. The ‘Ladies’ Mile’ was this seemingly endless, dead straight path; this view epitomising the day, both for the trees and also the large number of dogs running free, their owners largely oblivious.
After not finding much of interest in Southampton, I headed for the next city to the east, Portsmouth — a more agreeable spot. At least, to look at from across its Harbour, one of the greatest natural harbours in the world, and the explanation for why this has always been a naval base. The Spinnaker Tower, seen here, is 560 feet tall. I passed this point on my latest County Top walk, so feel free to look at that other blog for more photos and so on.
Darrach Hill lies a short (but not easy) way north of the town of Kilsyth, in central Scotland. Ot becomes the fifty-ninth County Top that I have surmounted — and if you’re interested in that parallel project please do follow my other blog. The summit of this hill is only 1,171 feet/357m above sea level — sounds easy, right? Don’t you believe it. The crap that one has to negotiate to reach the summit fully justifies my use of the anatomical reference in the title of this post.
Like this gentleman, I felt that a ramble in the Chiltern hills was a fine way of spending a warm, sunny Sunday morning (and I got another County Top out of my efforts, if you want to read more). Unlike this gentleman, however, I did it in clothing: this bloke really was stark bollock naked other thank his pack and shoes. This shot is a rear view only but I can assure you he was letting it all hang out. I hope he had sunscreen. He looked rather grumpy about it, all things considered.
Spectacular View of the Last Two Days, number 1. This is the view from Carn Glas-choire, historic Top of Nairnshire, my 52nd County Top (see my other blog). In the background to the left, Braeriach, which is the third-highest mountain in the whole of the UK, at 1,296 m (4,252 ft). A magnificent panorama, and total vindication of my CT project: giving me an excuse to visit parts of my country that I have never before seen. This one was well worth the effort.
Another County Top walk, this time up to Brimmond Hill, the summit of Aberdeen City — not very high but a good view. The woods below it show evidence of much damage from the storms that hit in November last year; the trail marker here seems to be expressing its opinion about this fact.
Culter Fell becomes my 50th County Top bagged. Not all that exciting a walk but a fine way to break the latest journey north into Scotland. I keep finding new corners of the country to explore and that seems a reasonable approach to take to the rest of my life.
Having done Craig Airie Fell the day before, today I continued walking and bagged two more County Tops. This cairn marked the second one of the day, Kirriereoch Hill, high point of Ayrshire. Apparently its name translates as ‘Hill of the Brindled Quarter’, which to me is no translation at all. When I came up over the final slope and saw the cairn sitting next to the vast granitic lump of Ailsa Craig out there in the Irish Sea, the photo was immediately assured. A mild shame about the wind turbine poking up to the right but one can’t have everything.
After coming up the M6 yesterday, we turned left as soon as we hit Scotland, and headed for Galloway, the south-west corner of that country. There were various motivations for doing this, but getting some walking in was certainly one of them. This is the view from 1,050 feet above sea level, on top of Craig Airie Fell — not a substantial eminence in its own right, but it has a great panorama of the surrounding area, as a proper County Top should. Read all about it on the other blog, if interested.
This trip down to London also offered the chance to pick up a County Top (see the other blog); specifically Bushey Heath, the highest point in the historic county of Middlesex, swallowed up by London in 1965 although at least it still retains a county cricket team. It wasn’t major mountaineering, though. Clare here strolls through the woods near Bentley Priory (an ecclesiastical relic? no, a premium housing estate) in one of those shots that chews up the bandwidth thanks to all the foliage.
Being 42 