Whitchurch Down and Sampford Spiney

Heading through October the weather was very mixed, continual weather fronts bring rain, some bright spells but the mild weather meant rain was never far away. This Sunday was due to rain in the morning and then clear from the west around 1pm. We figured a drive up to the moor, a short ish walk…

Buckfast Abbey

So we were back from the Lakes and we had a week away from proper walking and instead headed for a bit of culture, and a bimble around a small town on the southern edge of Dartmoor. Buckfastleigh is a nice little town with two churches (or one church and one Abbey to be precise),…

Dodd in the sunshine

The last walk of our Lake District break before we were due to head off to Liverpool, for a couple of days sightseeing. The weather was still superb but we were still feeling the effects of two longer walks, earlier that week. We’d also got used to being a little lazy in the morning, so…

A birthday Binsey

So the main reason we were away in late September, was a birthday for myself, one with an 0 in it (yes you are all correct I don’t look 40 do I? 😁). After two big walks around Coledale and Newlands, we were a bit knackered. Our legs knew what they should be doing but…

Newlands Horseshoe

You wait all year for a horseshoe and two come along in consecutive days!! After completing the Coledale Horseshoe the day before, we headed out again on another glorious day to complete the Newlands version. We were taking advantage of the stunning weather, despite some stiff legs and we figured we could take our time…

Coledale Horseshoe

After our drizzly walk over Ling Fell the previous day, we’d looked closely at the weather. Unbelievably it was forecast to clear, not just for one day but the rest of the week, bingo! Being in the northwest corner of the Lakes, gave us great access to the fells around Braithwaite and it was there…

Ling Fell

So the first proper day of our holiday in the Lakes, done to celebrate a birthday with an 0 in it for myself. Unfortunately the drizzly weather had followed us to the Lakes, and as you saw, from the fields around our previous walk to Scout Scar, they’d had rain up here as well (that…

Sizergh Castle and Scout Scar

It had been 13 months since our last visit to the Lake District, when I completed my 214 Wainwright mission. This time we had the advantage of picking walks that we wanted to do, revisits to good places, seeing some summits that I’d had no views from previously and taking our time. The weather for…

10 years of treksandtors

This post was something that I had thought about when I got that 10 year anniversary message earlier this year, I’d also passed 750,000 hits on the site as well, so I thought that I should do a celebration post to mark the event. Its true that I started in 2015, mainly out of a…

Quintins Man, Manga Rails and the long grass

So the end of our coastal walks had arrived, we’d completed 9 walks in a row by the sea and Dartmoor’s Shipley Bridge with the Zeal Tramway seemed a long time ago at the start of June (here). So it was back to Dartmoor and choices of where to go endless, because it felt like…

West Bexington to Abbotsbury

So I’ve completed a few walks over the years that have had plenty of insects, mainly butterflies, in the pictures. I make no excuses for the next three or four walks, where they will be inundated with butterfly pictures. This walk on the Dorset coast extends my coastal path efforts further east, pushing it towards…

Barnstaple to Saunton

So we’d stayed overnight in Barnstaple and as a result we were able to make an early start without the need for a 90 minute drive. We started again from the Long Bridge in Barnstaple, this time on the northern side of the estuary, heading for Saunton, hopefully. The route hugs the estuary again for…

Honeybag Tor and the Holwell Bluebells

It had been a couple of years since we had been to Holwell at bluebell time and we were due a revisit. The display we had seen in 2023 was truly superb, and probably difficult to beat (you can see that walk here), but we thought a loop over the tors to the west before…

Lynch Tor and round to Standon Hill

So the good weather continues, dry, sunny and warm seems to be the order of the day and no doubt these words will be added to, soon, with mentions of drought, hosepipe bans and leaky pipes! Whilst the weather is good, we look to head off into areas which can be pretty wet in normal…

Haytor sunset, without the sunset

So we were looking for a walk which would take advantage of the lighter evenings, plus somewhere we hadn’t been for a while. Haytor is always good for a short walk and visiting at this time means it is far quieter than in the day. We’d also checked the weather, with a small chance of…

Royal Hill and the Crock of Gold

I’ll start this post with a bit of a warning, those with a squeamish disposition scroll down to picture four below the map, after reading this, and miss out the knee x-ray pictures! So to explain what happened, we’d been to South Wales and had three lovely walks, visited Linda’s daughter and seen lots of…

Pupers Hill, Snowdon and Huntingdon Warren

So this was the weekend before our trip to the Brecon Beacons and the good weather of March is still with us. Its been a superb month for blue skies, with barely any rain, no doubt the water companies will have hosepipe bans in force by the end of April. But I’m happy, as it…

Lanhydrock House

We were out looking for a newer car, we had two and decided that one was enough, so we would look to sell both of ours and combine for something with lower mileage that we liked. Two to three year old cars provide a decent value for money so we were looking around that year.…

Dartmeet, Luckey Tor and Sharp Tor

Another Sunday and another half decent forecast, dry, some bits of sunshine, warm but a little hazy with the distance views. No complaints from me though as its early March and we could have all sorts of weather at this point in the year, and considering on this walk that I was stripping off layers…

Linda on Blacka Tor

Hameldown, Grimspound and lots of sun

A settles spell of weather had meant sunshine, and a fair bit of it. Not that it was warm, far from it, but the easterly winds usually means good things for us in the South West of England, as the eastern side sees more of the cloud. We probably saw two weeks of dry sunny…

Shaugh Beacon and Cadover Bridge

So I have an apology to you all, I’m sorry that I said I was fed up with the grey cold dank overcast weather we’d had for the last few weeks. From the minute I hit publish on that walk the weather has clearly gone, right Steve, your wish is my command. Lots of rain…

Ausewell Rocks and Buckland in the Moor

So again the forecast was for cloudy skies and not much sign of sunshine. Up until the Saturday the weather had looked decent, with sunny spells, but on waking up this clearly wasn’t the case. The last 3 or 4 weeks seem to have been some sort of groundhog weather day, with a biting easterly…

A Quick(beam) out and back from Harford

A fine weather day and a chance to get out, walking plans were made and forecasts checked. The forecast had blue skies in the morning, with cloud building from the east as the day went on, so we were planning on a trip to the west around Lynch Tor and Stannon Hill. A really poor…

Chagford, Gidleigh Tor and Holystreet Manor

So a walk to pick off a couple of tors for Linda, one that I needed for my round 2, plus a new Dartmoor 365 square and a couple that we’d been to before, alongside a pub to finish. Chagford is one of the best villages on Dartmoor, there’s plenty of interest to see and…

Snow on Water Hill and Assycombe Hill

So the country was covered in snow and all the talk was of the weather, how cold it was and that “back in my day it was always like this in winter”! Plymouth got nothing, zero, nowt but Dartmoor got a decent covering of the white stuff, on a Tuesday and Wednesday, which is of…

Looking back at 2024 and on to 2025

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…

Birch Tor, Golden Dagger Mine and Soussons Down

So it was time for our first walk in 2025 and the weather was playing ball. Clear blue skies and cold, perfect winter walking weather. This walk was done before the snows hit most of Britain, with even Dartmoor getting a fair bit, closing the road where we parked on this walk, for a few…

Bolt Head and Soar Mill Cove

So this was our last walk of 2024, which meant we’d walked 3 times between Christmas and New Year, which was a good walking end to the year. We decided to head to the coast and Bolt Head as the weather showed promise of maybe a bit of sunshine, rather than the low cloud misty…

Christmas Cadover Bridge to Shaugh Bridge walk

This year we were pretty active between Christmas and New Year, heading out for a walk on 3 days, one day in work, one day a party and one day lying around lazing (New Year’s Eve). This was the second walk of the three and the boys joined us for one of my favourite walks,…

Lustleigh, Castor and Kelly Mine

A walk which is more about bagging tors and having a good nosy around a village than anything else. We decided to head over to Lustleigh to grab the tors in Castor woods, to tick them off Linda’s list, and to tick them off a second time for myself. We would then right a wrong…

Great Links Tor, Bleak House and Arms Tor

We jumped forward a few weeks now, the last walk was at the end of October around Stalldown Barrow and Cornwood. Now its the middle of November, we’ve moved house, wrestled putting up curtain poles, blinds and toilet roll holders and we are in need of a break, and a walk. We decided on the…

Cornwood, Stalldown Barrow and Tristis Rock

Late October, and when the weather is as good as this, it would have been a serious error not to head out and walk on Dartmoor. This despite us being in the middle of packing ready to move house a few days after this (the results of the packing can be seen on the previous…

Penn Beacon, Lee Moor and the Yealm

So it had been around 5 weeks since our last walk in the Lake District, and we’d taken a bit of a sabbatical away from walking. Not for any specific reason, although we did start packing the house up, in preparation for our upcoming house move. Finally in mid-September we decided to head out again,…

My Lake District 214 – best and worst

I wanted to write something about my Lake District journey, sharing what I’ve enjoyed and some bits that I’d preferred to have missed. This might be a long post but then again I am cramming 14 years and 92 walks into one post. This would include my favourite walks and fells, some of the underrated…

Rufford Old Hall and the canal

So we were heading away from the Lakes and we try to look for somewhere to stop off to break up the journey. Normally this would be in Lakeland and involve a longer drive to Plymouth, but this time we drove a bit and then headed to somewhere. Rufford Old Hall was our choice, firstly…

Walla Crag

So when you’ve completed a list of something, what do you do next. Well I suppose you look to do it all over again. I’m not one of those people that has to wait until list one is finished, before you can start counting list two summits. So I’ve already been up Helvellyn a couple…

Haystacks – my final Wainwright fell

So this was it, 14 years, 30 visits to the Lakes, around 24,000 miles driven and 91 walks. It all boiled down to this final walk, which would be number 92 and would take me to almost 540 miles of walking to bag all of them. Lots of people leave an easier fell to finish…

Penzance to Rinsey Head

So it was time for our coastal path trip away, picking the middle of June for the normally decent weather, and with it being still in school time the midweek walking should be quieter. Last year we had done a 3 day loop around Land’s End from Penzance to Pendeen, and this time we again…

Ambleside, Walney Island and Langdale

Between the four walks we did on this visit to the Lakes, we had a look around and visited a few places that I’ve never been to before, and always thought it would be good to see. Considering we were near to Skelwith Bridge you’d have though that Skelwith Force would be on the agenda,…

Cotehele

As we neared the end of April the weather started to turn a bit, more sunny days in between others with rain. But at least we now had the drier weather we would expect at this time of year. We decided on a National Trust property as one of our outings this week, and headed…