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Gleouraich – A window into the wild

Gleouraich – A window into the wild

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The two historic routes to the Isle Skye, through Glen Shiel and Glenfinnan demark a vast, remote mountain landscape penetrated by just two minor roads, both abruptly terminated by the fabled Rough Bounds of Knoydart. Amongst this wilderness are twenty-eight Munros with Sgurr na Ciche claiming first place in altitude and Gleouraich a close second. Whilst the former grips attention from every angle, Gleouraich is a benign presence above Loch Quoich, yet is of considerable interest to the discerning hillwalker….

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Snowdon – The Monarch of Eryri

Snowdon – The Monarch of Eryri

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Snowdon is majestic in its glacially sculpted profile, exuding undisputed dominance as the fundamental nucleus of the national park that bears its name. The mountain well deserves its plaudits and is all things to all people, a multifaceted giant, friendly in benign conditions to all abilities, yet with a ferocious reserve for those who stray from sound judgement. Snowdon is the most-climbed mountain in Britain with over 600,000 walkers and a further 140,000 attaining the summit by train every year….

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Brecon Beacons – The high life of South Wales

Brecon Beacons – The high life of South Wales

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Pen y Fan is the highest point in South Wales and a mecca for its denizens, with two million people living within an hour’s drive of the national park and seemingly born with the innate desire to stand on its top. The mountain also attracts walkers from far and wide, the National Trust now estimating that half a million people attempt to climb the mountain every year, visitor numbers having doubled in the last five years. The summit may be…

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The Great Ridge: Walking the boundaries of ancient and modern

The Great Ridge: Walking the boundaries of ancient and modern

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Mam Tor is a social media phenomenon, although most of the 700,000 visitors who stand upon the summit every year have no knowledge of the geologically complex and historically significant land beneath their feet. The hill may be the focal point of Derbyshire’s Great Ridge, although many do not progress beyond Mam Tor’s trig point, yet even the generally acknowledged span of the ridge for those that do sells it short. It has to be said that the overwhelming popularity…

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Triangulation Matters: Monuments of map making

Triangulation Matters: Monuments of map making

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Hill tops are fascinating places, often being adorned with fine cairns, monuments and, very frequently, trig pillars. Such structures can provide significant narratives in the chronicles of a mountain adding one of the many aspects of human interaction with the heights. In this feature we are going to explore trig points, or Triangulation Stations, which manifest in several forms, although it is the trig pillar that is such a familiar landmark to hillwalkers, marked as little blue triangles on OS…

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Kinder Scout – King of the Peak

Kinder Scout – King of the Peak

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Kinder Scout is a table top mountain, supporting a vast upland moorland plateau that forms the highest point in the Peak District at 2087ft (636m) from which, quite bizarrely, the skyscrapers of Manchester are clearly visible. Conversely, Kinder is three times taller than the city’s loftiest skyscraper and considerably more extensive, exerting an enticing presence to lure the two and a half million Mancunians away from their daily urban existence. The fascination of Kinder Scout for the denizens of the…

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Clwydian Range – The Welsh Frontier

Clwydian Range – The Welsh Frontier

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On the face of it the Clwydian Hills have a lot going for them. The range extends in an attractive, defined ridge for twenty miles from close to the North Wales coast, running south towards Llantysilio Mountain above Llangollen. The highest point reaches a respectable 1818 feet (554m) and the views possess pleasing variety. It forms part of an AONB, boasts six substantial Iron Age hillforts, colourful heather moorland and a rich diversity of wildlife. The crowning top, Moel Famau,…

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Minor Worthies – Recognising unique diversity

Minor Worthies – Recognising unique diversity

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There are plenty of hills that will be excluded from the prime list of Worthies, not because they do not deserve approbation but simply due to the wealth of local talent surrounding them. It is not the aim of the Worthies to list every single hill of merit and where an area abounds with quality only the best of the best will be chosen. This is particularly the case in places such as Torridon, where mountains that are undoubtedly magnificent…

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Bidean Nam Bian – Pinnacle of the Mountains

Bidean Nam Bian – Pinnacle of the Mountains

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This is the highest and most complex mountain in Glencoe standing at 3771 feet (1150m), with multiple ridges that sprout nine individual summits. The loftiest top is bashfully concealed behind the monumental spurs of three of these ridges, The Three Sisters, which themselves form the most celebrated view in Scotland’s most revered glen. In fact, Bidean nam Bian comprises the whole southern side of the glen, from the curve of the A82 at Achnacon rising to the Glencoe Waterfalls at…

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Black Mountain – Beacons for the connoisseur

Black Mountain – Beacons for the connoisseur

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Y Mynydd Du is a landscape to inspire folklore, legends and myths. There is the tragic tale of the Lady of Llyn y Fan Fach and temperature inversions forming swirling valley mists are locally purported to be dragon’s breath. You may take this frivolous lore with a pinch of fairy dust, but you will nonetheless be arrested by an undeniably magical atmosphere amidst the sculpted skyline, whose rugged apron plunges precipitously into glacial cirques. Glossing over the fact that a…

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