Tag Archives: walking

May 25 2022
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Daily Post, Landscape

The Cairngorms

Tuesday 24th May 2022, 2.45pm (day 3,925)

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.

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May 23 2022
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Daily Post, Portrait

Trail marker (lament for fallen trees)

Sunday 22nd May 2022, 2.15pm (day 3,923)

Trail marker, 22/5/22

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.

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May 21 2022
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Daily Post, Landscape

The view south from Culter Fell

Thursday 19th May 2022, 1.10pm (day 3,920)

View from Culter Fell, 19/5/22

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.

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May 08 2022
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Daily Post, Landscape

Walking on water

Saturday 7th May 2022, 11.05am (day 3,908)

Today I, and around 250 other people, walked from Arnside to Grange-over-Sands — an easy, flat walk of about 5.5 miles. The complication is that between these two places lies the northern reach of Morecambe Bay, the largest expanse of intertidal land in Great Britain. But in that also lay the fun of the day — the chance to (safely) get a couple of miles away from permanently dry land, into a space that is neither one thing nor the other, a limbo state between land and sea — with a healthy dose of sky, too.

I deliberately cranked up the contrast on this shot because I like the way that all the people look like dashes of paint descending from a horizon that is insubstantial but definitely there. As if we are trapped within a sheet of glass, aware of the heavens above us but unable to reach them.

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Apr 20 2022
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Daily Post, Landscape

April Skies

Wednesday 20th April 2022, 11.45am (day 3,891)

April skies, 20/4/22

A glorious day today, spent entirely outside, getting healthy exercise. Work, in a formal sense, was just something other people were doing, and the day was all the better for it. I do not apologise for the Jesus & Mary Chain reference either, as no one should for referring to such a seminal musical beat combo.

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Apr 17 2022
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Daily Post, Landscape

Gray Crag, above Hayeswater

Friday 15th April 2022, 11.05am (day 3,886)

Gray Crag, 15/4/22

Busied myself up enough to get to the Lake District once more: those who follow my other blog can read all about my day there. Gray Crag was the most dramatic object seen — but fortunately not climbed — today (I’ve done it before, and it’s proper work I can tell you). Below it to the left, just visible, Hayeswater, which supplies the taps of Penrith a dozen or so miles away, hence the need for the access road. But I don’t think that spoils the shot; instead, like a necklace, it seems to accentuate the graceful lines of this fell.

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Mar 28 2022
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna, Landscape

Formal cow portrait

Sunday 27th March 2022, 12 noon (day 3,867)

Formal cow portrait, 27/3/22

it’s taken Clare and I over a year to get round about four-fifths of the Calderdale Way’s 50 miles, after today. Still a couple of legs to go yet. Today introduced us to the side valley of Shibden Dale, a beautiful spot and, somewhere previously unknown (except as a brief glimpse now and again from the train, as the line crosses the dale not long after leaving Halifax) despite having lived here 21 years now. The cow looked happy to be there too.

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Mar 22 2022
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Daily Post, Landscape

Kirriereoch Hill summit (and Ailsa Craig)

Sunday 20th March 2022, 12 noon (day 3,860)

Kirriereoch Hill summit, 20/3/22

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.

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Mar 21 2022
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Daily Post, Landscape

View from Craig Airie Fell

Saturday 19th March 2022, 11.35am (day 3,859)

View from Craig Airie Fell, 19/3/22

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.

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Feb 27 2022
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna, Landscape

“Take me with you”

Saturday 26th February 2022, 12.10pm (day 3,838)

Dog at Scalderskew, 26/2/22

“Please. You’ve gotta get me out of here. I didn’t ask to make my life here, a day’s journey from the nearest grooming salon.”

I might think the same if, like this critter, I was living at Scalderskew in the Lake District — I do not know of a more isolated dwelling in the country. If you’re interested, the most prominent peak in the background is Seatallan.

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