Category: Cumbria
Why go elsewhere when there are good things nearby?
9th October 2012 The past few weekends have seen me enjoy walks through some local countryside. For instance, Sunday saw me drop from the Cat and Fiddle Inn into the Goyt Valley before walking along its length as far as Whaley Bridge. Skies may have filled with cloud as I went and much mud may have been encountered, but that reminder from last January while on another walk from the same starting point that landed me in Buxton at its end was set to prove its worth and I wouldn't mind having another hike around there either.
The Saturday of the previous weekend came up sunny too, and I used the afternoon for a walk from Bollington back to my house that took in the Saddle of Kerridge and Tegg's Nose Country Park as I revisited parts that I should frequent more often than I do. In fact, that was a thought that occupied my thoughts as I took in my surroundings. Given that there is so much on my doorstep, I have been wondering about the reason why I am not out there more often.
That may get corrected on the evidence of the Saturday before that again when I followed part of Macclesfield Canal while en route to Lyme Green Retail Park on a shopping errand. A short snippet like that neatly fits into a life with other things that need doing. Little outings often have their uses in getting outside to build up to bigger ones, and that certainly has been happening over the last few weeks.
During that time, thoughts of wandering around Teesdale from Middleton-in-Teesdale has surfaced more than once, only for working week fatigue to put paid to the scheme. The same thing has defeated a trip to Abergavenny to go up and down Sgyrryd Fawr. Another is playing more of a part now as well: local attractions. That's quite a change, given how delights that were further away once blinded me to what lay nearby.
For instance, Sunday offered choices that I struggled to decide between them. One possibility was a walk that took me from the Cat and Fiddle Inn, over Shutlingsloe and then onto home. It was one that would have been my choice but for the sight of cloud advancing from the south. Reprising the Gritstone Trail between Bollington and Disley was another, and there's walking along the Macclesfield Canal between Macclesfield and Congleton in mind too. Then the sun shone and decision needed overcoming to get out the door. The Goyt Valley may have got my vote on the day, but the others remain tempting though and would make ideal walks for shorter days too.
However, that is not to imply that walks have been discounted because the list of trip reports that need writing include a range of destinations: Loch Ericht and Glen Tilt in Scotland, Cumbria's Howgill Fells, the Gower in south Wales and Pembrokeshire in west Wales. Of these, I scarcely have made any mention of those August visits to Wales. The Gower saw me walk from Rhossili to Port Eynon, and it is a hike that I can recommend. On a long deserved return to Pembrokeshire, I sampled part of the coastal path between Strumble Head and Fishguard. Cloud may have filled the skies on both of these - is that becoming something of a feature for me, I wonder? - but the walking was good and that's all that I ever ask.
So, I have some sharing to do and more ideas on places to explore and revisit. The shortness of some of my designs should mean that the shorter days of winter should not be an excuse for hibernation. Getting in (at least) one longer walk every month has become my target, and it seems to be happening so far. It's a habit that I wish to continue.
Coincidences or mind-reading?
20th August 2012 Last week, I picked up a copy of the latest edition of Country Walking and it features ideas with which I have been toying for a while. High Cup Nick and Teesdale on the Pennine Way are among these as is a circular walk from Ingleton that takes in Twisleton Scars and Ingleborough, yet another route that I'd like to reprise. Even, nearby Shutlingsloe and Tegg's Nose get a look in too so Cheshire's hill country does not get neglected either.
The week before, the current edition of TGO arrived on my doormat and it features two places that I have visited recently: the Howgill Fells and Gower. The latter of these only saw me again last week and I enjoyed a circular walk taking in Rhosili Down and a pleasant stretch of the Welsh Coastal Path between Rhosili and Port-Eynon. The TGO route differed from these coastal ambles but going inland and uphill for much of the way. Gower is not big but it attracts a lot of folk of a sunny day and the roads cannot take the traffic so that's worth bearing in mind. That also has the effect of severely delaying buses as I discovered. Sensibly, I decided to overnight in the area rather than trying a day trip so the delay caused no mishap and I was indoors before a weather drama featuring lightning, thunder and heavy rain unfolded. Looking along that coastline again is causing me to conjure up yet more walking ideas.
TGO's Howgill Fells route is an overnighting affair too and explores hills that I only glimpsed from atop The Calf. While a day walk would be more what I am after, it has made me think about approaching these hills using somewhere other than Sedbergh, again using the 564 bus service between Kendal and Kirkby Stephen. The Llyn in Wales is another walking possibility of which this month's TGO has reminded me and there's the prospect of a circular hike into hills from Achnashellach train station on the Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh line too for pondering, especially as I have played with using an out and back train journey along that railway to occupy a day when the weather isn't as favourable for going out of doors.
While the overlap between my thinking and what's to be found in walking magazines may seem uncanny but it could also be that I am just ranging over so much of Britain when playing with possibilities that overlap with what others are thinking is inevitable. Then again, they may be reading my words on here too...
Collecting ideas…
2nd August 2012 The weekend before last saw me head to the Howgill Fells for an out and back trot from Sedbergh to The Calf. While the sky clouded over during my walk and there was an unintended deviation towards the end of the return leg, it remained an enjoyable affair, with my having traversed no fewer than five hilltops along the way. The first was Arant Haw with Calders, The Calf, Bram Rigg Top and Winders all following one after another and Calders being crossed twice. Much of it was on access land too, so it didn't matter much if I veered away from rights of way and, in fact, much of my course deliberately took advantage of this.
After getting in at least an outing a month since May, I would like to continue the pattern. Over the last few weeks, I have been dredging a few from previous outings that I made in the last few years. In its own, that visit to the Howgills was born of this strand of thinking, but there are others. A return to Ingleton for a circular hike featuring Twisleton Scars and Ingleborough with some sunshine and blue skies is but one of these others. Revisiting Teesdale is another, and it took the world of Twitter to remind me of that part of England. My sole visit to the dale so far also happened on an overcast day, so getting a day with better lighting and more interesting skies would be good too; that would make photographic endeavour all the more appealing. After all, someone has a very appealing image on their Pinterest site and I wouldn't mind having my own photos of Low Force (and High Force too) in similar conditions as well. The passage of the Pennine Way along there brings to mind the idea of exploring High Cup Nick near Dufton on the western side of the North Pennines. Again, there only has been a single outing in the Eden Valley so far, and I'd like to complement it with another. The weather was good that day, though travel issues curtailed the time that I had available, hence why I'd like to go back again.
There should be enough to be pondering from the above by catching up with a few issues of TGO while on a trip to Ireland added to them. They brought to my attention possible crossings of Lingmoor Fell in the Lake District and Beinn a' Chrùlaiste near Glencoe, both of which made use of roaming rights that we now have. The latter traverse reminds me that having a few Scottish trip ideas would be handy, and I was reminded of my pondering ascents either of Bynack More in the Cairngorms or a tempting Munro near Blair Atholl. Re-walking the West Highland Way between Bridge of Orchy and Kinlochleven was yet another. One new inspiration had caused me to recall older ones.
Maybe, I need to collate the various brainwaves in a permanent if ever-changing list somewhere so that I can inspect them in moments when nothing particularly can be extricated from my imagination, like during the latter half of 2010. Long-standing Welsh ideas like walking Ysgyryd Fawr near Abergavenny or returning to Pembrokeshire (featured in the current issue of Discover Britain, as it happens) would belong on there too. Maybe I need to re-read these prospective pieces more often than I do.
As it has turned out for me, the ideas that I have been using so far this year have treated me well, and all the inconvenient weather that has come our way doesn't seem to have stalled my hill wandering greatly at all. Now, I need to sit down and write about a few of them in place of thinking about possible new excursions, good though that is. The coming weekend looks not too promising for an outdoors excursion, so that may be a chance. That's not to say that other matters may not intrude, though...
Stiffness
17th January 2012 In weather terms, 2012 started like a lion in some parts, with Scotland getting a particular battering. Before that, the second day of the year saw me crossing hills to pop over to Buxton. That act planted in my mind the prospect of exploring more of Macclesfield's hills this year. However, the following weekend was a quiet one for me.
The weather may have been offering in other places, but a prior commitment was the cause of my staying close to home and not getting out among hills in parts like Shropshire or even wandering along the streets of somewhere pleasing to the eye like Edinburgh or even Shrewsbury. That's not to say that I wasn't doing some more playing with ideas for outdoors outings, though.
While adjusting albums in the photo gallery, thoughts were drawn to revisiting places where I haven't been for a while. The online photo albums that attracted my attention were that for the Pennine Way and the Scottish Southern Uplands and Borders. The refresh involved adding photos were added, removing an old one rewriting a few descriptions. The trip ideas that came to mind while adjusting those photos included a stay in Peebles to explore the surrounding hills, as well as getting to walk more of the Pennine Way or even the Southern Upland Way. Old and not so old photos act as reminders for me of past glories and lure me back to where I found them before.
Last weekend's cold, frosty sunny weather was enough to draw out among more hills on Saturday. It was a day when any part of Britain's hill country would have delighted, and I did play with a walk around Sedbergh that involved an out and back yomp into and onto the Howgill Fells. Looking a bus timetables caused me to leave it for later in the year. Remembering how stiff I felt after a trot about Church Stretton's hills before Christmas was a factor too in not deciding to not set my sights too high. Thus, I opted for a hike from the Cat and Fiddle Inn to Buxton that mainly followed the Dane Valley Way with a deliberate diversion or two. After all, the prospect of seeing the Three Shire Heads bridge in full winter lighting was too good to miss; it may have added to the distance covered but proved to be well worth that. If all goes to plan, more will be said about the walk sooner instead of later.
Though our settled spell of weather is leaving us at the time of writing, there are promising signs for the coming weekend too. While my limbs were stiff on Sunday and Monday, I took that as a cue for trying to get out a little more often than last year, and January 2012 isn't over yet. What I am not planning is anything as frenetic as this month last year when I walked successively in Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Pacing oneself is no bad thing either, and quiet moments are essential for collating more ideas too. A recent catch-up with an article from one of last year's issues of TGO has me wanting to sit with it and pore over maps while ogling the contained photos of splendid Lake District hill country. Wandering needs forethought at times.
And so to 2012
1st January 2012 Having had a few days to catch up with a few recent issues of TGO, a realisation has popped into my mind: maybe basing myself somewhere on a trip away might allow me to get more from it, especially for those places that take a little longer to get to them. Using Dunoon as a base for exploring Cowal worked very well in 2011, so I need to spend a little time pre-assembling some designs so that they have some hope of becoming reality. Along with the wilder parts of Scotland, Northumberland also comes to mind with the longer travel times needed for getting there and because of my whetting my appetite for its hill country during the summer of 2011. Parts of Wales, such as the countryside round about Brecon or the Heart of Wales railway line also come to mind, as do the eastern fells of the Lake District in Cumbria and the Cairngorms in Scotland. Methinks that setting aside a little time to think these over might be no bad idea, and there are others that I could list here too, but there are enough mentioned for now.
The end of one year and the beginning of another is as good a time as any to take stock of things. One of these that comes to mind pertains to numerous loose ends outstanding in my hill wandering from the last few years. The biggest of these is the Pennine Way, along which I haven't walked for a while, and it now looks like multi-day trips are need to add to the mileage already completed. The mention of the Pennine Way also reminds that unused plans exist for walking Derbyshire countryside too, both new and already frequented. Then, there's the prospect of extending what I have walked of the Rob Roy Way and the perennial desire to savour more of what my home country, Ireland, has to offer the hill wanderer. Those should mean no shortage of trip ideas like what I felt to be the case at the end of 2010, at least until I started to catch up with then unread issues of TGO anyway.
2011 has been a busy year for me and I hope that 2012 lets me outside more often, though the future will decide that when it first becomes the present and then the past. After all, there's hill country near Macclesfield that needs to be revisited and other possibilities may come my way. Unlike the end of 2010 when I felt that I had run out of ideas, a year later sees me pondering a fair few options as the blog goes into its seventh calendar year, although its actual birthday is at the start of May; 2012 will see the sixth one being reached. Any designs that I concoct may not be as grand as those of other folk, but having a few of them manage to come to pass will more than do me. Hopefully, 2012 will turn out to be a good outdoors year for you, dear reader, too.
