Tag Archives: hiking

Aug 04 2024
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Daily Post, Landscape

The Top of Yorkshire

Saturday 3rd August 2024, 10.35am (day 4,727)

Ruin on Mickle Fell, 3/8/24

By British standards, Yorkshire has always been a big county. Chopped around with a bit since 1974, nevertheless, in terms of its historic boundaries it was the largest in the country. And Mickle Fell, at 2,585 feet/788m above sea level, was its highest point. Truly, therefore, between about 10.30 and 11.00 am, I was Top Yorkshireman — geographically, at least.

Of course, since 1974 this territory was allocated to County Durham instead — but let’s gloss over that little detail. If you want to find out more about my walk today, please do have a look at my other blog.

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Jul 14 2024
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Above Grains Gill

Saturday 13th July 2024, 2.00pm (day 4,706)

This blog has been going long enough (we approach 13 years next month), but my regular walks in the Lake District predate it: it was 19th July 2009 when the LD blog recorded ‘walk 1‘. Fifteen years have since passed, and with walk 215 today — I haven’t published the page just yet but will do so soon — I completed my bagging of every one of the 330 Wainwright fells therein: twice. Well, it’s certainly given me something to do (and to spend money on) in that time: but I am not upset it is finished, quite relieved, in fact. No broken legs, you know?

These guys stand at the top of Grains Gill, which runs into the heart of the District south from Borrowdale. I have just come off Great End, which would, toponymically, made a good finishing point but it turned out to be my penultimate fell — from here there is still Seathwaite Fell to come, just to the left of this shot.

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May 27 2024
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Daily Post, Landscape

A walk up Dumgoyne (or not)

Saturday 25th May 2024, 11.10am (day 4,657)

Dumgoyne, 15/5/24

Dumgoyne is a steep little volcanic plug that rises on the edge of the Campsie Fells, north of Glasgow. On the map it looked like a nice little prologue to the actual destination of my hike, which was Earl’s Seaat, one of the County Tops, although less photogenic. But in fact, I never made it to the top of Dumgoyne: one of those climbs that the nearer I got to it in actuality, the less appeal it had. No matter: CT #81 was duly bagged about two hours later.

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Mar 31 2024
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Daily Post, Landscape

Let’s not go there

Sunday 31st March 2024, 11.45am (day 4,602)

Soggy parrot delusions, 31/3/24

I get the point of What Three Words, but should all combinations be permitted? If I were an emergency services operator and got told that my attention was required to Soggy Parrot Delusions I think the conversation would end there in gales of (my) laughter.

Wold Newton, where this path goes, was my 80th County Top, if you are interested in my other blog…

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Jan 14 2024
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Daily Post, Landscape

The Lion and the Lamb

Friday 12th January 2024, 11.40am (day 4,523)

Let’s have a lot less vehicle-related morbidity and much more healthy outdoor exercise, miles (well, OK, about a mile) from the nearest traffic. Alfred Wainwright, who does know what he’s talking about, describes the summit thus:

here, on the summit of little Helm Crag, a midget of a mountain, is a remarkable array of rocks, upstanding and fallen, of singular interest and fascinating appearance, that yield a quality of reward out of all proportion to the short and simple climb. The uppermost reaches of Scafell and Helvellyn and Skiddaw can show nothing like Helm Crag’s crown of shattered and petrified stone: indeed, its highest point, a pinnacle of rock thrust out above a dark abyss, is not to be attained by walking and is brought underfoot only by precarious manoeuvers of the body. This is one of the very few summits in Lakeland reached only by climbing rocks, and it is certainly (but not for that reason alone) one of the very best.

And he’s right. Even in the mist, this is a great spot. And those two rocks do look like a lion and a lamb, don’t you think? That’s their official name, anyway. (For more pictures from today see my other blog.)

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Jan 01 2024
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Daily Post, Landscape

Enjoying the local landscape

Sunday 31st December 2023, 12 noon (day 4,511)

NYE walk, 31/12/23

This picture was taken — at least, according to the time stamp allocated by my camera — at two seconds past noon, so here we are with exactly 12 hours, or 1/730th, of the year to go. As it was Sunday and we had a dinner date at a pub above Todmorden, there was no excuse not to get out, have some exercise and enjoy the scenery. (The sheep do this every day, of course.) This kind of thing is a significant contributor to the fact I’m still living here in Calderdale after 21.5 years.

And so ends 2023, not a bad year at a personal level I suppose but no particular changes were noted, for better or worse — what enthuses me and what vexes me today are all more or less the same as they were a year ago, or indeed two. The rest of the world, well, that seems able to screw itself up without my active intervention. This blog will continue — generative AI-free — as long as I still have something to document. My favourite picture of the year? Probably the gloriously camp duck captured on 20th September. Getting that salmon leaping the falls in Scotland on 11th July was quite a coup, and Clare, taken the following day (12th July) insists she get the award for ‘best human’. Happy New Year to you all.

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Nov 20 2023
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Daily Post, Landscape

On Garth Hill

Sunday 19th November 2023, 11.45am (day 4,469)

Garth Hill chair

I did get better pictures today but none which epitomised the day quite so well. Garth Hill became County Top #2 of the weekend, but the weather on its summit was, to coin a phrase, utter shite. What this chair was doing up there I have no idea but perhaps it had just been blown there from someone’s garden half a mile away. For the full tale of woe see my other blog.

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Nov 18 2023
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The old mine, above Blaenavon

Friday 17th November 2023, 2.50pm (day 4,467)

Old mine, 17/11/23

Sometimes you just stumble across places. This old, ruined mine sits above Blaenavon in the south Wales valleys; I found it while bagging my latest County Top. I would argue it was not only the most interesting but also the most attractive thing about the day. There have been points of time in the past where something like a quarter of the iron and steel production of the entire world was based around south Wales. Believable as that stat is, this is what’s left.

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Oct 16 2023
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Crummock Water

Sunday 15th October 2023, 10.25am (day 4,434)

Crummock Water, 15/10/23

No further comment to make. There are many worse places to be on a sunny (if cold) Sunday morning.

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Sep 10 2023
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Daily Post, Landscape

Scafell and Slight Side

Friday 8th September 2023, 9.00am (day 4,397)

Scafell and Slight Side, 9/9/23

Scafell, on the left, is the second-highest mountain in England at 3,162 feet (964m) and even Slight Side, the pimple below the sun, is 2,499 feet, so no dwarf. I decided that ascending both was a good idea on a day which reached the high 20s Celsius, and on which breezes were just a dream, happening elsewhere. This was, perhaps, the slowest walk I have done since I was a toddler. But they were bagged. (See the Wainwrights blog for the gory details if you like.)

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