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Craig Cerrig Gleisiad – a landscape of the lost world

Craig Cerrig Gleisiad – a landscape of the lost world

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Within sight of the bustling caterpillar assault of the masses on Pen-y-Fan, the serenity of Craig Cerrig Gleisiad is emphatic. Aptly described as an ‘atmospheric amphitheatre’, this National Nature Reserve is a delectable discovery in the heart of the Brecon Beacons National Park. Here, trees, shrubs, rare arctic-alpine plants, wildflowers and peregrine falcons have colonised the vertiginous slopes creating an extraordinary environment. It’s a fine little hill to climb too. The full title is Craig Cerrig Gleisiad a Fan Frynych,…

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Hartland Peninsula – a coast for connoisseurs

Hartland Peninsula – a coast for connoisseurs

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The Hartland Peninsula is a special slice of coastline, where North Devon passes the baton to North Cornwall. For our purposes, the whole route from Clovelly to Bude could be considered an excellent walk, although we trim the ends by commencing at Blackchurch Rock and terminating at Duckpool Beach. According to the Hartland Peninsula Association, the section from Hartland Point to Bude is generally regarded as the toughest on the whole 630-mile South West Coast Path. I’m not sure I…

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The Compelling Case For The Coast

The Compelling Case For The Coast

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Hillwalking isn’t just about climbing hills. Those who solely climb hills are missing out on an equally enjoyable means of ascent and descent – the coastline. There are coastal mountains of course but the summits rarely consist of a trig point directly suspended above a sea cliff, making their coastal status dubious. On the other hand, coastal walks seldom attain the lofty altitudes of mountains, although height alone is not a classification for Worthiness. Quality is the key. It is…

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Judging the Worthies – Part Two

Judging the Worthies – Part Two

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I certainly suspected that introducing objectivity into the selection process for the Worthies would be tricky and it has indeed proved to be exceptionally complex, because subjectivity inevitably interferes with every appraisal. I reached out to various groups for perspective on what qualities attracted them to climb a particular hill and the answers were rather unexpected. A large proportion of people don’t really give it that much thought. For many it’s simply a matter of ‘because it’s there’. It isn’t…

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Worthy Criteria – Judging the best (part one)

Worthy Criteria – Judging the best (part one)

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Compiling a list of the finest hills in Britain and Ireland is necessarily subjective, even if strict criteria is adhered to. Most lists are qualified by height and relative prominence, with no weight given to what we might define as quality. There are many books in the ‘Greatest Walks’ category, although all have precepts, limitations to content or curiosities in their selection process to some degree. Similarly, if you Google ‘Best Hills’ you will find numerous offerings from many sources,…

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Ben More Coigach – a gateway to heaven

Ben More Coigach – a gateway to heaven

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Ben Mor Coigach forms the entrée to Coigach and Assynt, a land of mystical pointy mountains. Driving north from Ullapool to Ardmair Bay the imposing wall of Garbh Coireachan thrusts into view, an awe-inspiring sight, with the dynamic interplay of light and sea constantly reflecting the capricious atmospheric conditions. What most observers will not comprehend is the crest of the vertiginous precipice actually forms a sharp arete that is merely the front man to a complex of tops beyond, crowned…

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Tinto – Hill of Fire

Tinto – Hill of Fire

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Tinto is the prized mountain of South Lanarkshire, the Sunday afternoon ascent for thousands of local families, with its imposing bulk providing a background view to their daily grind. Tinto is certainly a distinctive presence, a vast, solitary dome rising above a loop in the River Clyde to a height of 2,334 feet (711m). Having said that various heights are recorded because the summit is made artificially taller by one of the largest round cairns in Scotland, created by countless…

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Buachaille Etive Mor – Glencoe’s Shop Window

Buachaille Etive Mor – Glencoe’s Shop Window

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The impact generated when sighting Buachaille Etive Mor is profound and permanent. It never wanes, however many times the traveller witnesses its rearing prow surging from the fringe of Rannoch Moor’s barren expanse. Nature has fashioned a mountain from a child’s sketchbook, whose accessibility to the passing motorist has bestowed upon it a Hollywood presence, and one that is wholly deserved as the ‘Buachaille’, to use its familiar stage name, warrants every inch of its celebrity. The mountain was well-known…

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Black Combe – Lakeland by the Sea

Black Combe – Lakeland by the Sea

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Black Combe is an outlier, the elephant in the room of the Lake District Wainwrights. It is an isolated sentinel occupying the south west tip of the National Park, yet linked by continuous high ground to the Coniston range, whose mountains jostle for attention amidst the celebrated heights of the national park. Black Combe shrugs off stardom, you take it or leave it, nonetheless, the hill presents a bulky presence that cannot be ignored. And of course, it is hill,…

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A Quest For The Worthies

A Quest For The Worthies

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Welcome to the first of potentially thousands of blog posts detailing my project to list, photograph and eulogise the finest hills in Britain and Ireland. There are already numerous lists of hills, categorised generally by statistical classifications and mostly based around relative elevation rather than the perception of quality. For an exhaustive directory see the splendid website: www.hill-bagging.co.uk where you will find a multitude of wonderfully nerdy information, for which I am deeply indebted as I will be researching it…

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