I said at this point last year that 2023 had “passed in the blink of an eye”, well I’m not sure I even managed to get a blink in, and 2024 was gone. So here I am typing up what happened throughout last year. As with previous years I’ll start with the review and look later at what’s in store for 2025. This year we managed 56 walks, which was a bit less than 2023, but we moved house 2 months ago, which had us rarely walking in October and November. Plus a hiatus in late August/early September where we hardly walked at all after finishing my Wainwright 214. We started out however with plenty of Dartmoor visits, before hitting the coast for a couple of walks followed by a trip to South Wales. Lots of Dartmoor walking again in April before we headed up to the Lake District for 4 walks in May. June saw us mainly by the coast as we completed a gorgeous 3 day walk from Penzance to Lizard Point. Lots of rain throughout the summer saw us head to Dartmoor infrequently, but another visit to the Lakes had me finish my 14 year Wainwright quest on Haystacks. We finished the year with the odd coastal walk and more Dartmoor but mainly we were packing and unpacking boxes in our move to a new house, finishing the year with a walk from the house out into the countryside.

March saw us head to South Wales to visit Linda’s daughter and do some walking in the Brecon Beacons, Andy from SurfnSlide gave us some recommendations for walks and met up with us for a lovely circuit up to Waun Fach and around the Grwyne Valley.

In May we headed to the Lakes to pick off 8 more Wainwright’s to leave me with 3 more to complete the 214. This was a lovely trip, some good weather saw us walk the Deepdale Round and complete one of the best walks I’d done thus far.

With June, came trips to the coast and our 3 day walk. Last year we’d walked around Land’s End, and this year we wanted to keep the quality high and headed for the Lizard, Britain’s most southerly point. The weather was good and the Lizard itself is superb, although the middle day was the best day for us, with sunshine and superb scenery throughout. Plans are in place for this year’s coastal escapades, I’ll mention these lower down.

Summer months and three things happened, first we walked on Dartmoor a bit, we visited the Lakes again in August with the family and finished my Wainwright journey, and finally we started packing to move house (it wasn’t until the end of October that we finally moved). The Dartmoor highlight was a walk up to High Willhays, the high point in England south of Kinder Scout, before we headed for the Lakes and two walks to finish off my 214. This was a strange feeling, completing a list, not knowing what to do next, feeling relief at doing it but more thankful that I had lots of family around to do it with.

Lots of Dartmoor walking and moving house filled in the rest of the year, with some breaks from the outdoors replaced with filling and unfilling of boxes. We’ve spent a relaxed Christmas in out new home, and my mother commented on New Year’s Day that the place looked very homely, so that will do us, that’s a win! However one walk stood out for me, this was from Mevagissey to Pentewan. Both these places played a massive part in my life as a child, we used to drive from St Helens to Cornwall, twice a year to spend holidays at Pentewan Sands caravan park, normally with my grandparents. I had been back to Meva a few times, but never to Pentewan. Walking across the beach brought back lots of memories of the games played there and its a special place for me. Its far from the best walking spot on the coastal path, but for me it won’t be beaten.

So the yearly summary is 56 walks, with 29 on Dartmoor, 8 by the coast, 3 in South Wales, 12 in the Lakes and the rest from our new home, National Trust or Bodmin Moor. This year my main achievement has to be completing the Wainwrights, all 214 of them, 540 miles of walking and 24,000 miles of driving at least to complete these Lakeland fells. Increasing my distance on the South West Coastal path to 380 miles, so only 50 miles added on to last year but I’m at the stage of needing to stay over to add more distance now, or wait for the long summer days. Walking the Brecons again was another highlight, and great to meet up with Andy from SurfnSlide on his home patch. For Linda, she has 121 Dartmoor tors left to do from my 500 list and 136 Dartmoor 365 squares, so she’s made great progress on those lists this year.

Stats and stuff

132,000 views of my site this year, which is astonishing and the best yearly total I’ve had, with 71,000 visitors, so thank you to all of you for visiting and hopefully enjoying the views and walks I’ve been on this year. In total, over the last 9 years, I’ve had 688,000 views and may well hit 3/4s of a million this year. Which is a bit mind blowing to be honest.

My most viewed pages this year were the normal Dartmoor Tors pages, plus the Dartmoor 365 page, which is nice to see as it gives a great overall view of every square mile of the moor, not just the tors. Black Tor falls also was very popular for some reason, with Fur Tor (Queen of the moor) being the most popular tor page. Three walks seem to crop up as the favourites on my site, with Budleigh Salterton to Exmouth, Rough Tor and Brown Willy on Bodmin Moor and Steps Bridge, Dunsford and Clifford Bridge all being looked at very regularly.

Best Walks

Managed to get it down to just 8 walks this year

1. Pen y Gadair Fawr, Waun Fach and the Grwyne Valley | treksandtors – A walk with Andy from SurfnSlide and hitting the high point of the Black Mountains in the Brecons
2. Mawgan Porth to Porthcothan | treksandtors – Bedruthan Steps, stunning coastline, bottling seals and a stunning church to finish
3. Great Nodden, Great Links Tor and Sharp Tor | treksandtors – Fantastic walk with the boys, nice to get out with them both again and this side of the moor has some of the best long distance views
4. St Sunday Crag, Fairfield and Hartsop Above How – The Deepdale Round | treksandtors – Stunning walk around Deepdale, loved St Sunday Crag, Cofa Pike was a real challenge and the descent along Hartsop Above How was superb
5. Port Quin to Dannonchapel | treksandtors – Probably the hardest walk we did this year, almost 14 miles of tough coastal path
6. Blencathra and Mungrisdale Common | treksandtors – Probably my favourite walk of the year, Halls Fell Ridge was stunning and I loved Mungrisdale Common, which is the most Dartmoor type place outside of Dartmoor.
7. Haystacks – my final Wainwright fell | treksandtors – I guess no yearly list would be complete without my final Wainwright walk
8. South Hole to Hartland Quay | treksandtors – Stunning weather, views to Lundy Island, and a tor to finish. Awesome walking.

2025 plans

So this year, 2025. What is next? Well more of the coastal path for sure. I’ve changed focus away from the 214 Wainwrights now, and I’m aiming for 630 miles instead. Trips are booked to Weymouth, Bideford and Barnstaple to pick off parts that I can’t drive to easily in one day. I’m looking at the Land’s End area as well to take my boys and Linda that way in July. Both boys will have finished their A levels and GCSE’s in June so I figure a break is deserved for them. We will also look to push on Linda’s tors list and Dartmoor 365 squares list as she is getting close to the end of those now. I also have 7 tors left to do on my Round 2 of my Dartmoor tors and hills, so I have to finish those off surely this year!

We will be heading back to South Wales for more Brecon Beacons walking early in the year and then there is my birthday in September which has an 0 in it. So I’m looking for something to mark that. It could be Lake District, Peak District or Yorkshire Dales but not totally sure at this point. It could be that we also spend more time at home in our new house, the garden needs work, so maybe that will be a project to throw ourselves in to. But I can guarantee that we will walk mostly on Dartmoor, as that is the bedrock (granite) of what I do best. Happy 2025 to you all, and mostly, happy walking and stay safe.