Outdoor Discoveries

What originally was a news section for the rest of the website soon became a place for me to write about human-powered wanderings in the countryside. Photography inspires me to get out there, mostly on foot these days, though cycling got me started. Musings on the wider context of outdoor activity complete the picture, so I hope that there is something of interest in all that you find here. Thank you for coming!

Cheshire, Derbyshire & Staffordshire Webcams

This started with the collation of a few local webcams that show weather conditions among the hills that are found to the east of Macclesfield, and it was a period of wintry weather that put the idea into my head. Interest in travel conditions around hill country is not limited to outdoors enthusiasts either, as I discovered when a colleague at work was planning a weekend to be spent in a cottage near Miller’s Dale in Derbyshire with dumps of snow in the forecast. Falls of snow can close roads as well as draw lovers of winter walking, and reductions in visibility because of low cloud affects motorists as much as anyone. It is good to be aware of all this.

Buxton Weather

Cheshire, Derbyshire & Staffordshire Webcams

Though it can be overlooked with the hills surrounding the place, Buxton lies much higher than Macclesfield and this often affects the temperatures that are observed there. That also can make for different weather too, so this local weather website is both invaluable and worth visiting. Details of the webcam location are on there as well, and there also is the Buxton Webcam and one at the Winking Man pub.

Cat and Fiddle Inn

Cheshire, Derbyshire & Staffordshire Webcams

This pub, the second-highest in England, has been a starting or ending point for a few of my walks among the hills that lie between Macclesfield and Buxton. Since the A537 that passes its doors is susceptible to frost, snow and poor visibility, the webcam is invaluable for checking conditions before travelling around that way. There’s even a gallery that shows how tricky things can get up there, should you need any convincing. If you need to know where it is pointing, just go to the website.

Flash Bar Stores

Cheshire, Derbyshire & Staffordshire Webcams

Like its counterpart between Macclesfield and Buxton, the A53 between Buxton and Leek is not immune to visits of winter weather. Flash is a village located between the pair that I have yet to frequent; it claims to be the highest in England, too, so that places things in perspective. The webcam is maintained by Flash Bar Stores, and there’s a spot of history regarding the name of the place included on their website.

The Hanging Gate

Cheshire, Derbyshire & Staffordshire Webcams

This is a westward view over Macclesfield from beside the Hanging Gate in Higher Sutton. There may be more snow on higher ground (the foreground of the image) but this viewpoint has its merits when nearby areas at lower elevations get affected too.

More Webcams

Of course, there are more webcams out there than the ones you see above. In fact, I am encountering others to which I have linked from this page. These have become so numerous that a spot of reorganisation was in order.

On the global level, Windy has a collation of webcams that can be explored using a map interface. Another such listing is available from SkylineWebCams. Both of these should get you a look at many places while planning a getaway.

Turning to North America, there is a collection of Colorado webcams that could give a sense of what weather and climate conditions are like in various locations around the state. In the Pacific Northwest, there are some around Vancouver in Canada and, south of the border, Seattle has one in the Space Needle and another on its Waterfront.

Within California, the Yosemite Conservancy has ones showing Yosemite Falls, El Capitan and Half Dome that are active at the time of writing. There is another one showing the High Sierra, but that was not working, though this may change by the time that you are reading this. Time-lapse versions of these are available elsewhere as well.

In Ireland, ones like Derrynane and Killarney in Ireland’s County Kerry have been viewed in advance of a longer visit to the place and give an idea of how the weather looks over there. The same comments apply to Esja near Reykjavík in Iceland and Innsbruck in Austria. There are dedicated repositories of Bavarian and Norwegian webcams for anyone interested is those parts of the world.

Returning to Great Britain, webcams at Keswick in England’s Lake District and the Ogwen Valley in Wales in the past either encouraged or put paid to day trips to those places. Visit Cumbria has collated a selection of their own, and there are a few on the Isle of Man too.

The variability in snow cover at Scottish ski resorts means the collection on Winterhighland has its uses for winter activity enthusiasts, as the name suggests. However, the webcams also have their uses at other times of the year, and I found with those from Cairngorm Mountain for one trip during the month of May.