Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2020 i The Great Outdoors

We love to hear what you’ve been up to in the hills. You can share your photographs with us on our Facebook page and on Twitter using @TGOMagazine. We’re also on Instagram – so tag your shots with #TGO #TheGreatOutdoors and we’ll share them! Sadly, with the ‘reopening’ of the countryside, scenes of garbage carnage have flooded social media. We rounded up some of these examples into a web article and asked you to get in touch if you had noticed littering like this on your local rambles. Here are just a few of your many responses… Paul Spear: “This is just a small amount of the litter that I picked out of the River Severn on a short paddle shortly after lockdown was relaxed [pictured above right]. The amount of…

LOCKDOWN HAS GIVEN me time to re-read some of the books that have had a particular influence on me. In a moment of serendipity I came across my slightly battered copy of Highland Tours by James Hogg, known as the Ettrick Shepherd. Hogg was an unlettered farmworker who wrote both prose and poetry. He formed an unlikely but lasting friendship with the novelist Sir Walter Scott, and this eased his way into the intellectual society of the day, where he more than held his own. Hogg made several trips from his home in the Borders to the Highlands between 1802 and 1804 and sent regular letters to Scott. Happily, these have survived and form the basis for the little book I have before me. What a travelling companion Hogg would…

THE FIRST REAL HILL-WALK I ever did in Wales was the moorland ridge of Y Berwyn. For me, there’a kind of magic about its name. I’d first encountered it in the library of my school’s outdoor section, which had a few mountain books that I devoured time and again: Charles Evans’s On Climbing, Colin Kirkus’s Let’s Go Climbing. Both of them recounted outdoor odysseys that began on Y Berwyn. The latter had, between pages 40 and 41, a Bartholomew’s 1:63,360 map of the Berwyn high tops, contour-shaded in fawns, umbers and russets at strangely irregular intervals, its summits white in unconscious cartographic homage to the meaning of the name (Ifor Williams, in Enwau Lleoedd – the bible to anyone interested in Welsh toponymy – explains Berwyn as deriving from bargwyn…

This feature was produced with the help of Miscellaneous Adventures, a multifaceted outdoors focused business run by Andrew and Emma Groves. Based in a small woodland on the south coast of the UK, they run a design and photography studio, teach and host outdoor skills workshops, carry out practical conservation work, and run an online store. Central to everything they do is a desire to promote a reconnection with nature, hoping to inspire social and environmental action and change. Find out more at www.miscellaneousadventures.co.uk, or follow them on Twitter at @misc_ adventures. Andrew and Emma Groves As outdoors people running an outdoors company, it was essential for us that once we had our son Benji he would come along for the ride. When he was born in July 2016, we…

11km/6.8 miles/4-5 hours Ascent 750m/2460ft Start/Finish 1 Cow Bridge car park on A592 near Brothers Water, Hartsop GR: NY402134 Go through gate at far end of car park, as if to follow broad path beside Goldrill Beck but, instead, immediately climb narrow path on R. 2 After crossing ladder stile on Hartsop above How ridge, continue with wall on L. 3 Having walked ridge for 2.7km, you stand at base of final climb on to Hart Crag. Take less obvious path (R) climbing directly up rocky NE ridge. Beyond cairn, gradient eases. Head SW to summit cairn. 4 Drop roughly S, swinging SSE, and then follow line of old wall on to Dove Crag. Cairn marking highest point is to L of ridge path. 5 Retrace steps into dip between…

14km/8.7 miles/4-5 hours Ascent 530m/1725ft Start/Finish 1 Carn Galver Mine car park GR: SW421364 A path at the north corner of the CP heads downhill to join the South West Coast Path, which you follow NE for 5km to a T-junction above Pendour Cove, turning R to Zennor. 2 Turn R past the church, then L at the fork, taking Church Road out to the B3306. Turn R, leaving the main road almost immediately to the L to follow the footpath. 3 Opposite the entrance to Rosemorran, turn R to use stepping stones to cross the stream, turning L on the far bank to follow a meandering and braided path along the valley and then up across the fields beyond (there are stiles at each field boundary). 4 Turn L…

Chris Townsend TGO’s equipment editor and all-round backpacking guru Chris Townsend has been spending lockdown exploring his local woods, fields and moors and appreciating the privilege of living in the Cairngorms. He has seen few people during these walks but many birds, animals and flowers. Nature has gone from winter to summer since lockdown began. Gear testing has continued too, with some garden camps. Indoors Chris has been looking through old photos and reminiscing about his long walks – and planning for ones to come when lockdown ends. Patrick Baker Patrick is passionate about retelling narratives associated with wild histories. He spends the majority of his time in the outdoors looking for unacknowledged and often forgotten ruins and relics located in Scotland’s more remote landscapes – check out his feature…

The ‘full’ return to the hills and mountains is still some way off at the time of writing, but the easing of lockdown has allowed us to enjoy the outdoors again in ways that were previously off-limits. Here are a couple of walks our readers have enjoyed; please keep them coming! @mazymixer (Twitter): “Normally when I go up onto Kinder Scout it’s freezing cold and with little or no visibility. Today’s seven mile hike with the kids was just glorious.” @jennyd198 (Twitter): “Social distancing isn’t hard. You just need to avoid the hotspots. First hike in 10 weeks [in the Mourne Mountains].”…

Sharing our love of hillwalking with children can feel a bit of a gamble. Chances are they’ll either love it or hate it, and the fear of hearing “Are we there yet?” as you reach another false summit is sometimes enough to make you go it alone. However, we’ve put together ten hills that should ignite a love of high places in kids with a variety of fitness levels whilst giving you a decent walk too. An abundance of chocolate with each packed lunch is recommended in all cases! 1. MAM TOR, DERBYSHIRE Known as ‘mother hill’ due to the small hills surrounding it, this is a nice, short, easy climb with plenty of interest for children and enough of a challenge for adults. Start from the Mam Nick car…

12km/7.5 miles/3-4 hours Ascent 480m/1580ft Start/Finish 1 A924 bridge over Brerachan Water at Dalnavaid GR: NO009637 Cross Brerachan Water and walk 640m SW up A924 to Dalnacarn. 2 Go L over locked gate and ascend track to hut. 3 Progress SE along ATV track and, where it ends, continue ahead to edge of Kindrogan Wood. 4 Turn R and ascend by high fence then low fence to summit of Blath Bhalg. 5 Follow path by fence on to W top. 6 Descend path W by fence to meet ATV track and follow this NW down over Dalnacarn Craig to A924. 7 Cross A924 and continue ahead, past mast and through high gate on track into Brerachan Wood. 8 Enter clearing at high gate, turn R and descend to cross footbridge…

10km/6.2 miles/4-5 hours Ascent 735m/2410ft Start/Finish 1 Car park at Nantgwynant GR: SH627506 Cross road from car park and join Watkin Path. This broad track twists above the farm at Hafod-y-llan and swings west to cross an old incline above a series of fine cascades. Continue until path begins to level out on the approach to Cwm Llan. 2 Fork L at the small hydro dam and walk uphill for 300m on path, which crosses the route of the incline. Continue uphill on a fainter path, past old workings and one or two ruins, to reach a grassy plateau on the north side of a stone wall. 3 Turn R for 500m, with the wall on L, to foot of the rocky spur below Yr Aran. A gap in the…

Postal address The Editor, The Great Outdoors, Kelsey Publishing Ltd, The Granary, Downs Court, Yalding Hill, Yalding, Kent ME18 6AL Please include a phone number and postal address. Letters may be edited for clarity or to fit the space available. Mapping apps: part of the solution to outdoor overcrowding? During this current crisis there has been much talk of how much exercise we can take, how far we can travel to get there, and whether to visit particular beauty spots and National Parks. In the UK we are blessed and privileged to have probably the best footpath/bridleway system in the world. We also have the best mapping in the world: Ordnance Survey (OS). Couple this with the numerous navigation apps available (as featured in the June issue of TGO). How…

Book OF THE MONTH Outpost: A Journey to the Wild Ends of the Earth by Dan Richards pb Canongate Books, £9.99 From a Scottish bothy to an experimental Mars base, the author explores “the romantic, exploratory appeal of cabins and isolated stations” What was your overall impression of Outpost? STEPH: When I first read about the book, I was expecting it to be more about the author and his experiences in the places he writes about. But it’s more than that – for example, the chapter on Scottish bothies had lots in it about history, art and more. I also thought it was really funny. When he talks about himself in the US as being like Hugh Grant stumbling onto the set of No Country For Old Men; and when he…

Supported by Ultralight Outdoor Gear BY MARCH IT WAS CLEAR – for the first time in its 40 year history, the TGO Challenge would not take place. It seemed inevitable that we would miss out on the great inspiration this collective crossing of Scotland provides. Or would we? Challengers feet couldn’t take them across Scotland, but maybe memories and imagination could. And so the idea for the Virtual TGO Challenge was hatched – a nostalgic, imaginative and inventive crossing played out on social media. On May 7 we started travelling virtually to the West Coast with some trepidation - would anyone come with us? Then a photo arrived with a message from David Wishart “all packed and ready to go” on his imagined 2020 route taking in the Moray Coast,…

13km/8 miles/4-5 hours Ascent 476m/1560ft Start/Finish 1 Car park S side of A82, half mile west of Altnafeadh GR: NN212559 From a green signpost, the good path heads SW up the valley to the head of Lairig Gartain. 2 The path descends for 300m, rather rough, then slants out down the steep slope above the stream, to reach the southern spur of Stob Dubh. A gate through a deer fence is just below, but continue contouring above the fence, on a rough path, to cross Allt Lairig Eilde. (Note that both streams from Lairig Eilde, southwards and northwards, have this same name.) 3 Beyond the stream a good path runs uphill, to head N through the saddle above. It drops to cross the N-flowing Allt Lairig Eilde, and runs beside…

28km/17.4 miles/9-10 hours Ascent 885m/2900ft Start/Finish 1 Poppit Sands (car park and bus stop) GR: SN153486 From car park, follow Pembrokeshire Coast Path (CP) signs uphill and along lane past YH to farm & campsite at end, Allt-y-Coed. Path continues to Cemaes Head (fine views across bay to Cardigan Island). Continue southwards along CP for 4.5km, eventually descending to Ceibwr Bay. 2 Cross stone footbridge over river (old lime kiln on other side), then a short stretch along road. Cliffs at Ceibwr Bay are also impressive for their folding and faulting. About 1km further on is the impressive Witches’ Cauldron, a sea cave where the roof has collapsed, which you cross by a natural bridge. In a further 8km, round headland N of Newport Sands – a splendid beach –…