Forever Changing – Broad Majestic Duddon
A walk along the shifting sands of the Duddon estuary . . . Continue reading →
View ArticleSutton Bank, Witches and Featherless Geese
A walk along the Cleveland Way from Sutton Bank . . . Continue reading →
View ArticleThirty Years On – Cwmorthin Revisited
From one side of a Welsh mountain to another – underground and overground . . . Continue reading →
View ArticleManod and Mysteries, Earth and Environment
Underground bunkers in the Welsh mountains . . . Continue reading →
View ArticleMourne Mountains: Slieve Binnian and Second Impressions
Northern Ireland's best-kept secret – the mountains of Mourne . . . Continue reading →
View ArticleSlieve Muck, Moal Chobha’s Fort, Veering, Visibility Good
McEff is again let loose in the Mourne mountains . . . Continue reading →
View ArticleEast of Ullswater – An Inland Voyage
THE steamer Lady Wakefield chugs down the lake with its cargo of day-trippers. This is the way to embark on a walk. Throb-throb of engines; white light shimmering on water; the scent of fresh-cut hay...
View ArticleConiston Fells: Highways, Byways, Narrow Ways
A day tramping over the Coniston fells . . . Continue reading →
View ArticleA Pennine Trek, Part 1 – Moorland and Mustard Gas
The first stage of a three-day walk from Bowes to Hexham . . . Continue reading →
View ArticleA Pennine Trek, Part 2 – A Night Beneath Hangman Hill
McEff continues his backpacking trip to Hexham . . . Continue reading →
View ArticleIn the Footsteps of Offa
CALL me a romantic, but occasionally I have been known to throw a load of camping gear in the back of the car and head off – on the spur of the moment – towards unknown mountains, with neither care …...
View ArticleBlaenavon – How Serene is My Valley
TODAY unfolds back to front. It begins with ancient history, progresses to sausages, peas and chips with gravy, and terminates in a breezy walk in the mist. That isn’t how it was planned. The original...
View ArticleThe Glyders – And a Descent into Hell
THE Glyders are two of the highest and most spectacular mountains in Snowdonia, and a traverse of the ridge between the peaks should be high on any walker’s agenda. It’s been on mine for decades, I’ve...
View ArticleThe Long Surrender: Brandy Bottle Incline
THIS is an account of a short walk in the hills above Arkengarthdale – but it has a back story that begins in the early 1980s and involves a group of mine explorers and an elusive portal into the...
View ArticleThe Sierra Nevada: Two Peaks, Two Countries
SPAIN gets under your skin and fingernails. It dries your eyes and your mouth. You can feel it in your hair and on your brow when your boots kick the dust of its white mountain tracks. You smell its...
View ArticlePaths, Goats – and Huenes to Pico de la Carne
THE joy of paths. There are indistinct paths that fade and confound; paths choked with nettles and brambles; malevolent paths that lead through mud and bogland; and paths that twist in the wrong...
View ArticleOn the Tide Line – But Not Quite Washed Up
THERE’S a special place on the Furness peninsula where people live in huts for much of the year. Some of the huts are made from old boats, others from scraps of wood, door frames and bits of recycled...
View ArticleArkengarthdale and the Hungry Hushes
IT’S midday and a storm warning has been issued by the Met Office. I’ve just set off across the northern spur of Reeth High Moor and can expect gale-force winds and up to 40mm of rain. The valley...
View ArticleStamford Bridge: A Long Walk to the Last Battle
Walking from York to Stamford Bridge in search of Vikings . . . Continue reading →
View ArticleBlue Pie Thinking on Fremington Edge
THERE’S a village in the hills above Reeth that is an absolute pleasure to visit because the only people who go there are the postman, the coalman, and the villagers themselves. Forgive me for sounding...
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