Staying in Coniston means that the Old Man is an ever present sight every day. Both myself and my boys had climbed The Old Man of Coniston before back in 2014. I wanted to keep my run of Wainwrights ticking along and wasn’t keen on going up fells that I’ve done before. However the Old…
Since I had started walking in The Lakes I had in mind a number of routes, paths and edges that have to be tried or at least looked at. The names of these places will be familiar to a lot of people, places like Striding Edge, Sharp Edge and the Corridor Route are all very…
Our annual family Lake District week was here and true to form coincided with a change in weather in this area. Talk in the run up weeks was of hot temperatures and hosepipe bans, on arrival we could see lots of lakes and tarns with very low levels of water. We had, had one previous…
After last weeks walk around Ducks Pool and the Erme pits I was back in the walking spirit, the warm weather wasn’t going to put me off, plus I was trying to get some miles in my legs ready for the Lakeland fells in a week or so. Make no mistake this is a tough walking…
The day after the walk with the boys to Berra Tor I decided that enough was enough. Yes it was humid and warm. Flies were everywhere and they would eat me, but the hills needed to be walked. It was World Cup final day and despite the big plans being shelved after the semi final…
I’ve been quiet on the walking front lately. Its been the weather, climbing hills in 25 plus degrees in baking hot sun with no breeze, isn’t for me. Not a lot of it for sure. However after a while you need to get out before you go mad, as it was I had lost my…
The hot weather continues and the sunsets keep on coming. When the weather is this good its an easy decision to throw the tent in the car and head out with the boys. Now I had two spots in mind, Bellever Bridge (near to Postbridge) and Cator Bridge about half a mile down the road.…
I’ve said it before and I will keep saying it, I love the sunsets from Whitchurch Common. Whether you sit on Pew Tor, Feather Tor, Barn Hill or Cox Tor at this time of year the sun sets right next to Brent Tor, making for a stunning picture. There’s very little point me talking about…
Good weather means a chance to camp on Dartmoor, I’d promised the boys a camp at Harford gate which they’d spied last year when we walked through here. The Dartmoor national park allows camping in lots of spots within the park boundary, here, and this is a good one. We setup quite quickly and my…
This was my first walk after returning from the Lake District, to be honest I’m never in much of a mood for any walking once I come back from there, and normally I need to go somewhere different like Cornwall or a coastal walk to get me back into it. This walk is mainly woodland,…
After the Tuesday walk up around High Street I was pretty drained. The heat was tough to walk in and to make matters worse the breeze that was present in the Lake District had completely disappeared on the Wednesday. Thursday arrived and the haze was pretty thick, I had planned on a route that took…
Three days into the holiday and no proper walk for me so far, but the hot weather up here in The Lakes had held me back. Tuesday looked good, the temperature said it would drop a few degrees but the sun would still be out. It was off to Hartsop to do a walk that…
Road closures due to the Plymouth half marathon meant I was cut off from the north and west of the city. This meant a drive around the back roads to Ivybridge where I figured that I might as well continue along the A38 and go to the area around Haytor. This also meant a chance…
It was ten tors weekend and as such I tend to stay away from Princetown, Postbridge and anywhere north of that on Dartmoor. I could have gone to Bodmin Moor but I fancied something around Dartmeet which is not an area I walk very often. I made up a walk that would take me down…
Bank holiday weekend and walk number two and the weather continues to be scorchio!! Now don’t get me wrong I like a bit of sunshine however the warm weather does have its downsides. Firstly the midge and horsefly bites, I’m a magnet for these little things and they love the taste of Steve. I end…
Bank holiday weekend and the weather is set for sun, sun and more sun. The mercury is set to rise as well, so I chose a walk that would be through trees for quite a lot of the time so we could stay in the shade. I didn’t fancy driving too far either so I…
Well the week before this walk had been pretty good and the warmest it had been since August last year. If you want to walk in this area then pick a dry spell. Some of the hills around here might be over 500m up but they are pretty flat and as a result can hold…
Lets start with a positives, the weather was glorious on this walk. I started out with a baselayer, a t shirt and a fleece and finished in just the baselayer as the temperature rose during the day. The sun was out, hardly any wind and I got a bit of a tan, it was great…
Time for something different as it is the Easter weekend. I had to be home for lunch at 1.30pm so decided to remove any driving on to Dartmoor from the equation which would only shorten any walk. I hadn’t walked the South West Coastal path for quite a while now and it doesn’t take long…
Looking at the weather forecast for this weekend I was downbeat. I sit here typing this looking at nice blue skies and sunshine out of my window. I’d watched the weather all week, knowing that I could only get out on the Saturday, hoping that it would be the better of the two weather days.…
So “The Beast” came again from the east and this time I went up to have a look, the snow certainly came and the winds whipped up plenty of drifts. Both GPS and maps were out to help with the navigation plus I picked an area where I was very comfortable and knew it well.…
Now I know the cold weather is here again but today in south west England it was still pretty warm. Well at least I thought it was as I walked up the lane towards the turning for Brent Hill, when I reached the summit it started to hail, quite a lot as well. I guess…
A few days off work and with a good forecast I was out. The weather was almost spring like today, the sun was warm and it felt like the snow of a couple of weeks ago was long gone. I haven’t been down to Blackaton Cross for a number of years now, but it was…
They say bad things come in threes, well I can vouch for that on this walk. Before I get to that however I’ll talk about the great thaw after the storm. The snow has started to melt and with it, it has been replaced by rivers of water running everywhere, on top of that the…
The weather had been good for most of the week and on into the weekend, the mercury on the thermometer was dropping. The icy winds from Russia were certainly blowing as I headed out from above Widecombe In the Moor and it was certainly hard underfoot as I stepped on to Hameldown. It was Baltic to…
I’d taken a day off work and planned a good walk that would take me from Fernworthy reservoir up to Scorhill, round to Gidleigh and back via Kes Tor. I set off in poor low cloud hoping that the eastern side would clear a bit, the forecast said it would. Well I arrived as I…
Another weekend and another walk. The weather was set to be good with passing showers, however on arriving at Postbridge the clouds were leaden and full of snow. As a got out of the car it started, within minutes it was white, minutes later it was sunny again. These passing snow showers would continue for…
Don’t be fooled by the title, this isn’t the Welsh Snowdon. No this is the Dartmoor version, sat near to Ryders Hill on the southern moor. Its been over two years since I have been to Snowdon, that time I came from Ryders Hill and this time I chose to come from Avon Dam and…
I’ve been banging on about the weather down in these parts a fair bit recently, with all the rain the ground underfoot has been boggy to say the least. Well this time I decided to change things. I chose a walk that was fairly low (nothing over 350 metres high) and involved plenty of tracks…
The weather in the south west continues to disappoint. Day after day of rain driven in by strong winds have been the pattern since November and especially since the New Year. To be fair Dartmoor resembles more of a water park than a National park with the amount of puddles and running streams everywhere. Saturday,…
Time to head out east. I’ve had a fair few walks recently on the western side of Dartmoor so to balance things out a bit I went around to Moretonhampstead to visit Mardon Down and the many rocks that spring up in this area. You can walk the Dartmoor tors and hills for the rest…
Finally a sunny day in Plymouth, the forecast looked great for Dartmoor so off I went. However on the drive north along the western edge of Dartmoor, cloud loomed in my preferred walking area. My heart sank a bit and I walked for 4 hours in cloud before it cleared for the remainder to a…
Firstly may I wish everyone a Happy New Year, I hope 2018 brings you all some great walking weather. 2017 has been a pretty good year for me and my boys on the hills, tors and fells of Dartmoor, Bodmin Moor and the Lake District. There have been 67 walks over some 375 miles in…
This is my last walk of 2017 and being New Years Eve I decided on a walk that includes lots and lots of things to see, the tors come thick and fast as do the bridges, churches and leats in between, the only downside was the cows, of which there can be a lot of…
I’ve said before this is my favourite walk, anywhere. On days like this it becomes a very special place to be. The sky was blue (at last) and the chance was taken to burn off some of that Christmas pud, although the amount of cake we packed probably balanced out what was burned off!! This…
This isn’t a long walk, but looking back this is one I’ve done a few times with the boys. Its very easy (apart from the steps at the start!!) and the boys love the old swimming pool part down by the sea, overlooking The Mewstone. This was just a quick walk, with bad weather forecast…
Now some of you will look at the title and see the photos below and wonder why I haven’t gone way into Dartmoor on a longer walk. Well there was a reason. My eldest had asked me if I would like to go with his class, for a walk on Dartmoor. “You know what you…
It was the weekend and again possible snow was forecast on Dartmoor. So again me and the boys decided to go looking for it. On reaching Princetown there was a fair bit, not loads but enough. However I wanted somewhere different for them, so we headed onwards to Postbridge, here we found less snow so…
This was a walk I’d been looking forward to doing again and despite the shortening days I was confident I would get around ok. The weatherman had set the day fair, no sunshine but a promise of just a cloud covering and no rain. However on reaching Tavistock, and with visibility down to around 200…
The forecast said there could be snow overnight, followed by hail the next morning. So the plan was made to at least go and have a look, I had a walk in mind however as the snow was due to be sporadic the location of the walk could change. The plan was Princetown or somewhere…
This walk took in another new area for me and an extension of a walk I have done before. The area north of the Blackbrook and hemmed in by the West Dart river is a section of land that ends with Prince Hall Rocks. There is a little wooden bridge that allows for a nice…
Brent Tor is just a short walk from the car park and as such it barely deserves a mention when it comes to distance travelled. However what it loses in in distance it makes up in drama and landscape. Its a fabulous tor, all the more spectacular that it has a cracking little church at…
This is a walk to another of the smaller, lesser tors that I haven’t been to before. Aller Brook Outcrop is a nice little gathering of rocks overlooking the River Dart and its valley. We decided to add in Combestone Tor as well as it allowed us to carry on following the Aller Brook as…
As I reached my last day up here, the weather turns, what a lovely day. Blue skies everywhere. Packing up I headed off to Latrigg to catch the early cloud inversion and sunshine. The views were as good as I’ve ever had up in Lakeland. With good weather comes lots of people and the Gale…
This walk is a classic Lakeland walk, and now I’ve done it I can see why. This specific walk though isn’t the full Coledale Round, that one can include another 3 or 4 fells if you want it to. However I’ve already done Outerside, Barrow, Grasmoor and Wandope, with Hopegill Head pencilled in for a…
Time for another low level walk from my week in The Lakes and this one is a classic and probably my favourite low level walk in the Lakes. I’ve been and done this one once before, on a glorious crisp February day (here). Today wasn’t quite like that but the quality of the views and…
The roman road over High Street is famous around the country for traversing the 828 metre peak of the same name. It connected the two roman forts of Broughton (near Penrith) to Galava (near Ambleside) and took its route due to the marshy and wooded valleys on the normal route, which were prone to ambush.…
Back in the Lakes again for another week of food, drinks, walks, food, walks, drinks and more food. The weather this week wasn’t the best I’ve had up here, only on the last day did it turn into autumn as you would want it and the colours of the trees came out. As it was…
I fancied a nearby walk, but a long walk to go with it. This one fitted the bill nicely as I could lengthen and shorten this walk to fit the changeable weather, as it was the weather got better as I neared the end. By the time I was driving home the sun was cracking…
Finally a good weather day, a Sunday with sun. I was up early and off to western Dartmoor where I arrived to a full car park behind the Dartmoor Inn (Lydford). A bit of squeezing got my car in and I was off. The plan was a pretty full circuit, from Hare Tor to the…
As I mentioned in the previous walk, the weather hasn’t been great in September. Well October didn’t start any better either. This walk was done in thick mist, however with this being my favourite walk and my go to walk, I loved it. It gave an already great walk another layer (of mist!!). I concentrated…
The weather in September down here in the south west corner of Devon has been pretty abysmal. Particularly at the weekends. This was only my second Devon based walk this month, and like the last it was very short and between the rain showers. Bring on the colder weather. This walk is an easy one,…
Any walk in this area is dominated by the 196 metre TV mast, most of the views have part or all of the structure in the way. I enjoy walking to the summit of North Hessary Tor. Firstly it is very easy, secondly it is the highest point on the south moor, meaning brilliant views…
Now the seasoned Wainwright walker will know all about the central spine that consists of 7 Wainwrights, running from Walla Crag to Ullscarf. They will also know, more specifically, about the part from Bleaberry Fell to Armboth Fell and how wet and boggy it can be. I can confirm it is indeed wet and boggy…
On the map this looked like a do-able walk, we had about 4 hours to do the walk (with treetop adventures at Brockholes planned for later that afternoon) and no walk the previous day. The weather was looking good and the pay meter in the Grasmere car park was broken, must have been my day!!.…
This walk wasn’t really on the agenda for this week. We were a bit tired after the previous day on Skiddaw and we felt a shorter easier walk would do. Nothing longer than a few hours. This walk is ideal for that. Starting at the Honister YHA and following the easy path (called the Drum…
This is the first of 4 walks on this visit to the Lake District this summer. The boys wanted to beat their previous highest mark (which was the Old Man of Coniston at 803m). We were staying in Braithwaite and the mountain of Skiddaw overlooks this village, it seemed an obvious choice. So 4 children…
I must be getting a fondness for this place, this is my 3rd visit this year. Its a great walk for when the cloud is down on the moors or you fancy something with a tea room at the start and also halfway round!! This is obviously a National Trust spot so being a member…
My second visit to Castle Drogo this year, this time I had a look around the castle as well as a short walk. The walk is one of the published walks available from the shop and is the very short walk of just over a mile. I also added on Hunters Tor as an easy…
This walk was made to scout out a good camping spot for myself and my boys for a planned wildcamp in August. As it was I found a couple of spots that fitted the bill. The walk itself is one I’ve done before and a good one to take in the rarely visited Hart Tor…
Just a short walk today with a couple of aims, the first was to scout out a wild camp spot and the second to find Tor Rocks. As it was both these two aims are within about 100 metres of each other. We started out from the Harford Gate car park and headed up to…
Time for a good walk and one in pretty much my favourite area of Dartmoor. I love walking around here, the views are always great, there’s a pub or two for the end of the walk and there’s lots of tors to summit and many routes to do them. This is a walk I’ve done…
This is an area I hadn’t been to for perhaps 5 years now, long before I started this website. I did part of this walk (in the opposite direction), heading up the lane from Five Lanes, then down towards the reservoirs before looping back through the woods and past Great Rock. I thoroughly enjoyed the…
Saturday had been a pretty grotty day and wasn’t getting any better. The boys were crawling up the walls, or more accurately, with their heads buried in technology and gaming. Enough was enough and we had to get out, there were some breaks in the rain late afternoon so we headed out. This isn’t really…
We had a bit of time on a Saturday afternoon and decided that a walk was needed, plus an ice cream. So I picked a spot where an ice cream van was guaranteed and we set off. Its been a while since I’ve been on Ingra Tor and I reversed my normal route in order…
The last day of three (Day 1 and Day 2 here) and I felt pretty good. This had been my first long ish walk, over multiple days and I was feeling like I could carry on for at least two more days. I’ve already started looking at the South West Coast Path for next year,…
Day 2 (Day 1 is here) and after a few pints in the Castle Inn at Lydford and a decent nights sleep I was ready. Breakfast downstairs was the full English variety and by 10am I was on my way. Today was a long day, 16 miles, a fair bit on roads so I knew…
The West Devon Way is a 37 mile path that links Okehampton to Plymouth. It roughly follows the route 27 cycle route and at many times it follows it. It also links many other trails together including the Tarka Trail, the Two Castles Way, Devonshire Heartland Way and the South West Coastal Path. Its a…
Just a quick walk today, not too far but still a fair bit of height to give a good view. I’m fond of the area around Lynch Tor, in fact its one of my favourite tors and the views west are fantastic. Standon Hill is another with a great view with parts of Tavy Cleave…
I’ll let you into a secret, one of the best sunsets you can get is from Barn Hill Rocks at this time of year. I’ve made it a bit of a pilgrimage to always try an evening walk, where a sunset is guaranteed, to this place around the summer solstice time. This place never fails.…
A better day Sunday than the previous walk on Saturday (click here), thankfully a bit of sunshine and dryness. This area can be a bit of a trudge, so I tried to pick bits of interest in between to lighten the long grass, boggy trudge and hardly any paths that you get from Avon Head…
We’ve had a bit of a grotty start to the late spring/summer time down here in the south west. After a pretty dry May, June started with very heavy rain and strong winds. This weekend was no different, especially the Saturday. We needed a walk and the weatherman promised drier weather to the south west…
This was a good walk after the morning rain had been and the next day rains arrived with vengeance. I don’t think however that I’ve been on Shell Top or Lee Moor without at least a shower, and today was no different, it lashed down for 10 minutes and then left as quick as it…
A bank holiday and previous week filled with scares, hospital visits and no thoughts to walking. My dad was taken ill last week and ended up in hospital with a heart attack. Thankfully he’s recovered now and he’s on the road to recovery after having a number of stents put in. By bank holiday Monday…
Another walk in an area I wanted to come back to and this time with some added on bits and new things that I’ve wanted to go and look at. Lakehead Hill is one of these places, with plenty of antiquated cists, cairns and a stone row to keep people happy, Bellever Clapper is a…
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