Category: Outdoor Activities
Weekends away
5th May 2011 This evening finds Macclesfield a damper place than it has been for a good while. In fact, it could be said that 2011 has been largely dry until now. Of course, that can change and an unsettled summer could be all that many remember yet. In fact, some are asking if we are getting a taste of summer weather too early. However, it's best to try to enjoy good weather whenever it comes so long as life allows you to do just that.
In the U.K., we also gained two four day weekends back to back. That very unusual situation came our way thanks to Easter, a royal wedding and the Mayday bank holiday. With a short working week between them, many made a longer break from working life out of those public holidays. While I wasn't one of those, the long weekends did allow me get out into hill country in parts away from where I live and work.
After last year's Easter Sunday trot from Baslow to Bamford that left me wondering why I didn't book somewhere to stay on what was a pleasant evening. That wasn't something that I repeated this year with an overnight stay sorted for Llangollen. Previous trips to the hills around there have been day trips so this was a departure from that and its proximity to Cheshire meant that a later than planned departure on Sunday did nothing to jeopardise my plans. As it happened, I arrived sufficiently early that I could enjoy an evening stroll that retraced steps that took me by Castell Dinas Bran and Valle Crucis Abbey as well as along the Llangollen Canal towpath. That allowed me to leave a busy Llangollen for a little while before retiring to bed on my return. The next day saw me head in the hills to south of the Dee valley while exploring part of the North Berwyn Way and other trails. That walk took me onto the tops of Mynydd Vivod and Y Foel before returning to Llangollen to start my journey home again. The weather had been kind to me and the countryside alluring so I left for home pleased if tired.
Last weekend saw me head to Scotland after a busy few days at work. My destination was Cowal and my base Dunoon. While I am not sure what Glaswegians do when they go "doon the watter", there are plenty of hills around the town for exploration. Saturday saw me hike from Ardentinny to Carrick Castle and, following a bus ride, from Lettermay near Lochgoilhead to Clachan Strachur by way of the Cowal Way. The day was stunning though a stiff wind took the edge off the temperatures, a useful thing for walking though sunbathing is ruled out for those of that persuasion. The those hills in Wales the previous weekend, they were quiet around Cowal too and there was no sign of the wildfires that blighted other parts. A later start on Sunday had me settling on a walk from Hunter's Quay to Glenkin and back again. There were designs on using the Coffin Trail to reach Bealach na Srèine in order gain views over Loch Striven and beyond but I saw sense because of the time that I had. Still, it has left me with a brainwave of walking from Toward to Dunoon by way of Inverchaolain Glen and Glenkin and there's a forestry track alternative to this too. My first weekend in Cowal was kind to me and I have left with ideas for future trips to this overlooked part of Scotland too.
As is usual for me, I have every plan to write fuller accounts of those two trips on here. The destinations may have been lesser known but there was plenty of pleasure in my exploring them. Legs may have been left fatigued and there was soothing replenishment for the soul and spirit too. Hopefully, that thought will continue to draw me into hill country for the rest of the year, particularly with this blog having reached its fifth birthday over the past weekend.
Glorious fresh green growth
20th April 2011 After a little break, I am back cycling to and from work again. In the mornings, it is possible to revel in the way that everything has come to life over the last few weeks. That we have what feels like summer weather only can have helped. This year, it seems that the display of cherry tree blossom is better than ever. Whether this is because I wasn't looking in previous years or this is a bumper year is hard for me to say. Regardless of that little triviality, there certainly are plenty of trees in bloom for many of us to enjoy. Regardless of whether flowering trees are putting their display for a while, it is the freshness of the green foliage at this time of year that always delights me, especially in golden morning light.
These are sights that soothe the soul and induce a certain reverie. They also draw thoughts of walking and cycling trips into the mind and the fact that there are a series of long weekends coming our way offers opportunities for doing just that. So far, no firm decisions have been made though Cowal and the Isle of Man have come to mind when I left my mind wander earlier today. Not being a royal watcher of any sort of fervency should help me to get away when many eyes are focussed on televisions. Trains and buses may even be quieter away from London but the day itself will tell its own story.
While it sounds simple to say that it's just a matter of making plans and then making them happen, it's been something of a weakness for me in recent months due to one very big distraction in my life. For instance, I had designs on heading to Caernarfon and Beaumaris in Wales last weekend but it never came to pass. In the event, I contented myself with an hour or two on my bike wandering around Sutton and Langley. Sights of surrounding hills were taken in and the low level of Bottoms Reservoir noted, a consequence of a largely dry March and April this year. With good things on your local patch, it's easy to feel consoled.
Saying that, going away somewhere is good too. Last year's Easter Sunday walk from Baslow to Bamford had me wishing that I'd booked somewhere to stay so I didn't need to leave for home that evening. With the prospect of savouring the countryside between Buxton and Ashbourne that is something that applies to such a venture too. While on the subject of past Easter escapes, there was a stay in Leeds that allowed me to fan out into the Yorkshire Dales. While I am sure that you wouldn't have chosen that base for those purposes, it did what I asked of it. Both of these trains of thought are revealing possibilities for getaways that aren't so far away from home and they have their place too. Then, there still is that aborted trip to Caernarfon and Beaumaris too. Ideas are queueing up for anything, not a bad state of affairs at all. Time needs to made for planning so that something can happen.
A little tinkering and a little toddling
10th April 2011 If you have been here at this part of cyberspace before, you may have noticed a navigation bar at the top with an indication of where you are on the website. In spite of the glorious weather that has been with us over the last few days, I didn't have the opportunity of celebrating its arrival with a trip away somewhere. In fact, I more needed a rest at home after the hectic demands of work over the last few weeks. It was during my little recuperation that I made the little modification that now appears at the top of every page on the website. Hopefully, it will help to make getting around here that little bit easier.
That isn't to say that I never got out at all. As it happened, I stole out of the house for a few hours to stroll from Bollington back to my abode again. What that granted me was the chance to look over familiar hills whose sight I haven't been able to enjoy for longer than really should be the case. My course took me from the top of Bollington into Ingersley Vale and from there to the White Nancy by way of the Gritstone Trail. Surprisingly perhaps for terrain that I have trodden a good few times already, the route had plenty of new twists and turns for me to explore. Given the vantage point that it is and the glory of today, it came as no shock to me to find folk lounging around the White Nancy, but that is never to say that the place was overrun. As it turned out, there was plenty of time for undisturbed stopping and staring.
That sense of space for relaxation was very much a feature of the afternoon escape. It meant that details such as my camera batteries running out of charge before they should have done or there being quarries to my right on Kerridge Hill made no inroads into my sense of enjoyment. Again, neither the haze over the Cheshire plain nor the drifting sound of a horse show PA system from below me had no impact on how I felt either. The familiar hills to my left were what was holding my attention as I wandered along the Saddle of Kerridge. The sights may have been seen before they also were a little different in the glorious sunshine and with fresh green foliage in the process of emerging.
Being drawn along the ridge of Kerridge Hill was the cause of changing my intended route. By now, my camera batteries had completely run out of power but I stuck to recharging my own internal batteries instead of getting grumpy. It seems that having to commit scenes to the photographic plates of the mind was a help too. Any sights of freshly emerged greenery or cherry blossom against a bright blue sky were treated much in the same way as scenes savoured of a glorious late July evening on my first trip to Skye. One upshot of that was that an evening cycle from Dunvegan to Portree from quite a few years ago still remains in my memory now.
It didn't take long for me to be dropped on the side of the B5470 Macclesfield-Whaley Bridge road at a saddle between Rainow and Higher Hurdsfield. From there, I followed that road down into Macclesfield with a deviation onto the Middlewood Way and a short section of public footpath on the way home. This had been a walk that never was far from civilisation, but there was plenty of time and space during which to relax too. The peacefulness of the evening must have had something to do with it and has put me thinking that I need to get back to sampling experiences like this again. It's just no good feeling as if you are being kept away from enticing areas of hill country while watching BBC programmes on the iPlayer like Country Tracks (the recent one on south Cumbria, for instance) so a spot of re-balancing looks to be well needed.
Travel arrangements:
Bus service 10A from Macclesfield to Bollington.
More pondering than wandering
29th March 2011 The last few months have been hectic at work and that has impeded any incursions into the outdoors during what has been a lengthy spell of settled weather. That isn't to say that I haven't been out at all. After all, I got away to Ireland over the weekend. In a change for me, I swapped my usual air destination of Dublin for the quieter one at Shannon near Limerick.
That was the cause of allowing me to revisit the city of Limerick after having not been there for quite a few years. It has its landmarks of medieval antiquity too with thoughts of seeing King John's Castle on the banks of the Shannon in good if hazy sunshine being the cause of drawing me out on a trot between connecting bus services. For a place that was my county town for much of my life, it could come as a surprise to you that I had never gone and explored the walkways and parks that Limerick City Council has set in place along the banks of what is Ireland's longest river before. Last weekend saw that set to rights but seeing the likes of Bunratty Castle and the village of Adare were reminders not of the unexplored but of places that I wouldn't mind seeing again. The fact that they caught the sun really well as I passed nearly made me want to stop and stay a while but for the need to keep going.
It wasn't all about enjoying delightful sights of man-made constructions because a trip into Limerick's tourist information centre revealed some long-distance walking options too. In there, I spotted a guide to the Lough Derg Way along with those for the Mid-Clare Way and the East Clare Way. While I was in the heart of a city, these discoveries were reminders that wanderings in greener surroundings weren't all that far away. It's all very well savouring the more delightful parts of places like Limerick or, as I did at the start of February, Oxford, but losing yourself in empty open countryside, even for a short while, is unbeatable.
Turning those thoughts of more natural spaces a little wilder, I also recently happened on a leaflet extolling the virtues of Sleat as a base from which to explore Skye. Though it's seen more of my attention than the hinterland of Limerick city, a few years have passed since I last ventured up there as part of a Hebridean adventure a few years back. With the frenetic pace of my working life nowadays, being able to find in a short amount of time a convenient base from which to fan out to sample more views like those of Skye's Cuillin Hills sounds good to me. While I may have been cycling through the Cheshire countryside to and from work a lot over the last few weeks, it is starting to look as if planning a longer stretch away from the madness of modern life is opportune.
Now, why didn’t I bring my head torch?
21st February 2011 The arctic conditions that came our way before the Christmas were the cause of my having a one-way ferry ticket from Holyhead to Dublin as a backup plan should a closure of Dublin Airport due to snow put paid to my crossing the Irish Sea by air. In the end, I did manage that air journey though I was to spend a frustrating few hours on the tarmac at Shannon before returning to Dublin and coming south again! Once on that side of the Irish Sea, I decided to rearrange my crossing for another time to decide whether to use it or cancel it. It did get used in the end and I ended up paying a visit to Howth and walking right around its peninsula too.
My journey did gain me a stop at Llandudno Junction that allowed me another look at Conwy's castle as well as glimpses around Holyhead's port in the sunshine and nearby Holyhead Mountain (a hill, really, but a lot of this type of naming goes on in Ireland too so I cannot complain). As I was travelling west from home, skies grew ever more hazy until it was a cloudy Dublin that I found myself approaching on the ferry. Though that led me to give up being very hopeful of seeing any part of Ireland blessed by the sun, there was to be an interlude that replaced pessimism with satisfaction.
It was as I was approaching Howth station on a DART train that I was presented with a full-on view of a well pleasingly lit Ireland's Eye that made me get off the train without delay though without knocking anyone over either. The sense that this might have been a fleeting opportunity had me setting off earnestly searching out a suitable vantage point for making something of the photographic opportunity presented to me. In hindsight, lessening the haste might have been better but I got my photos before it was too light. In fact, the lighting was fading as I retraced my steps along one of Howth's harbour walls with a good deal of satisfaction for my pains. Not only had I glimpsed Ireland's Eye but also a partially lit Lambay Island too. All had come good.
If I had missed out, I would have been kicking myself as I rounded the Howth peninsula; the cloud took over to keep the sun prisoner for much of the rest of the day. There were National Loop Walks to explore and I set off to follow one after a fashion. First, it was a matter of following a road by Balscadden Bay towards the Nose of Howth. Beyond a car park, I left the tarmac after me to follow a well-made clifftop path that had its unnerving moments.
If solitude is what you seek, Howth's harbour is not the place to go of a sunny Saturday as many other folk were enjoying their stroll about its walls. The cliff path may have attracted less attention but it wasn't unused either. Still, it was far from being overrun either and trespass grew less regular the further along it, I went. In fact, there was a marked quietening after passing The Summit where there was a car park. The fact that it was getting late in the day probably made people less likely to start a walk too.
Views of the promontory that is the Great Bailey were opening out before with the Bailey Lighthouse issuing its warning to passing ships. Evening Irish Sea ferries going to and from Dublin started to come into sight. It was looking busy with ships operating by DFDS, P&O, Stena and Irish Ferries all passing the way. In the middle of all this, I needed to lose some height to cross over the road leading to the aforementioned lighthouse, a decision whose wisdom I was later to question in fading daylight.
Views across Dublin Bay towards the Dublin and Wicklow mountains were ample too and I could identify a slender break in the cloud that was liberating some weak sunlight a little later. While the sun was finding its way to that slit, I was picking out the distinctive low-sized humps of Great Sugarloaf and Little Sugarloaf. This was a reminder of a trot to the top of the former that I enjoyed a few years back. What drew my attention back to the present was the reddening of the Great Bailey by the last act of the sun on the Howth peninsula for the day. After that, I still could see it being busy showering shafts of light on the less distinct hills on the other side of the bay as I pondered how far I needed to go before I could depend on street lights taking over the duties of the sun.
Dog walkers and photographers seeking the last light of the day remained abroad to be encountered. Isn't it amazing how many folk walk their dogs in the dusk? And it isn't just a British thing either from what I saw across the Irish Sea. With Doldrum Bay and Drumleck Point passed, I was on the lookout for a Martello tower, one of several that are to be found around Dublin. They were constructed near the close of the eighteenth century to provide a means of defence against the French. Before I was to reach that now privately owned restored building, there were muddy sections of path to cross and I even dropped onto a beach at one point before shadowing a stone wall for the final approach to the tower.
Because of rapidly failing daylight that had me asking why I had no head torch and unwelcoming signs, I didn't dawdle near the tower but made my way to tarmac again. The way to Sutton train station was lit as I gazed across the bay towards the lights of Dublin city and its surroundings. Even without constant sunshine, the appeal of Howth's cliff cannot be overstated. There's a longer National Loop walk that would have got me back to Howth but, even with my own torch, I wouldn't have wanted to blunder around the Ben of Howth anyway. Some things are best left for another time since it's best to leave anywhere with a reason for a return, not that Howth mistreated me at all, of course.
Travel Arrangements:
Train from Macclesfield to Holyhead with changes at Manchester and Llandudno Junction; then Irish Ferries sailing to Dublin, bus into city centre and train to Howth. Returned by train from Sutton to Dublin city centre. DFDS overnight ferry crossing to Birkenhead (sadly now no longer a travel option), National Express from Birkenhead to Manchester with a change in Liverpool and train back to Macclesfield again.
