Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2024 i Country Walking

This month I've been… YOU'VE ONLY GOT to turn your head on the side to realise how flat the world really is. (Please note, I don't mean the world is flat, just that it goes across much much more than it goes up – in fact if the planet were a basketball, Everest would soar to a mere 0.2mm). Altitude is the exception, not the rule, misled though we may be by our upright personal proportions. And we're destined to spend a far greater time horizontal than standing tall, along with every tree that will eventually fall and civilisation crumble. Up-ness is something to be cherished in the brief blooming of life. Stems and stalks, trunks and toddlers; our foot-travelling fellow creatures – all things determined to stand up and…

An 18th-century highwaywoman with superpowers thanks to a magical sprite; Sally Wainwright's latest series, Renegade Nell, is a far cry from the gritty drama of Happy Valley. The show leaves Yorkshire where much of Wainwright's work is set for the south of England, with director Ben Taylor saying: 'We looked at and shot in almost every possible forest in and around London.' Windsor Great Park and Bourne Wood near Farnham were key spots, where you can walk in the swashbuckling footprints of Nell Jackson (Louisa Harland). The series also features the Sussex village of Crowhurst and grand houses like Hampton Court, Broughton Castle, and Penshurst Place in Kent (pic), home to Nell's nemesis, the Earl of Poynton (Adrian Lester). Find a free Penshurst route guide at walk1000miles.co.uk/bonusroutes 'Climb the mountains…

If you could go for a walk with anyone, alive or dead, real or fictional, who would it be and why? My kids. We used to go for great walks when they were little but they've now hit that busy and exciting time when social life gets in the way. I just loved the conversations and the freedom. It'll come back, I hope, but I miss it a bit at the moment. We never ask 'what's your favourite walk?', but is there a particular place where you stop and think, 'yep, I'm happy here'? I love the town of Sedbergh, with the Howgills above it. I was walking the Dales High Way and was wearing the wrong shoes. My feet were in an awful state. So I stopped in at…

SEEN YOU'VE WON? Email walk1000miles@countrywalking.co.uk with your address and a pic of you holding this edition to claim your precious! #minichallenge11 Hug a tree Because you don't have to be barking - trees are lovely. #minichallenge13 Spot a toad Because they're kindred spirits: like us, they prefer to walk than hop. #minichallenge12 Take a photo with a stranger Because people are nice, it's good to have a reason to meet. #minichallenge14 Walk a tunnel Because they're never not exciting are they? Sign up today, it's a great time to start: www.walk1000miles.co.uk #minichallenge15 Find an interesting stile New 2024 #walk 1000miles patch! Glorious new woven patch bearing a defiant truth 1000-milers know – iron- or sew on and render any rucksack, rug, chest or sleeve distinctly superior. 10cm x 8cm, £4.99.…

A recent Stuart Maconie column about his favourite felltop tipples got my wife and I thinking. Most of us walkers are aware of the joys of that first sip of something after a good outing, but we have discovered it also works the other way round just as wonderfully. The morning after a recent session of over-indulgence (special occasion – please drink responsibly!) we were a bit worse for wear and our thoughts turned to strong coffee and a greasy breakfast. However, the weather was glorious, so instead we steeled ourselves, packed our bags with fruit and plentiful water, pulled on our boots and headed out on the South Downs Way. Initially a struggle, we felt better with every mile. We marvelled at hare, deer and birds of prey, laughed…

WALKERS DON'T NEED Einstein to tell us things are relative – the gigantic views afforded by Britain's modest hills are enough to convince us numbers are creatures of circumstance. Nowhere is the effect more pronounced than in the Dunstable Downs* in Bedfordshire. At the northeastern end of the Chilterns, the Downs form the highest point in the East of England, and by god we need it. Behind this escarpment lies the yawning Vale of Aylesbury; beyond it the great plains of Cambridgeshire and the Fens. By the time you get to Dunstable Downs and crick your neck into the unaccustomed posture of 'upward', people – thankfully, mostly glider-clad – are throwing themselves off with relief at the great reservoir of altitude they've just been afforded. 797ft (243m) is indeed comparatively…

DISCOVER The Garth IF YOU WANT to kick off a discussion (or risk a brawl) in a walkers' pub, then try asking when a hill becomes a mountain. Is it 1000 feet? 2000 feet? A metric 600 metres or much higher? Is the climber at the bar who's been to Nepal chuckling at the very idea of a mountain in Britain, when our most eminent Ben Nevis (4411 feet) would barely register as a Himalayan foothill? Authoritative guidance is surprisingly sparse. The Oxford English Dictionary, which started defining the meaning of everything in 1888, says a mountain is 'A large natural elevation of the earth's surface, esp. one high and steep in form (larger and higher than a hill)'. Turn to hill to see what it should be larger and…

FEAR OF HEIGHTS is natural. If you had none, it's unlikely you'd be here to read this. But an overgrown fear prevents danger by excluding the enjoyment of overcoming challenge. The hills are rife with opportunities to feed our capacity for both fear and triumph – but there are ways to help us nourish the right one. Building up your exposure to steeper and more difficult ground gradually, being properly equipped and with people you trust are vital, but it also helps to know fear is rooted in the amygdala, a small, primitive part of our brain with a ripcord-like readiness to hoik us from a risk it doesn't fully understand. It can be countered by our more sophisticated frontal lobes, where rational thought resides. Keep feeding your frontal lobes…

DISCOVER WH Murray I MAGINE STANDING ON top of the mountain you love more than any other, believing this will be the last time you'll ever be there; the last time you'll ever breathe that air, see that view, or feel that warmth of achievement. It would be sombre enough for an older person to say goodbye to their special place, but for 26-year-old William Murray, who might otherwise have hoped for several more decades of roaming the Scottish hills, it was hard to take. Murray, born in Liverpool but raised in Glasgow, had spent the previous half a dozen years climbing every rock face, buttress, ridge and ice wall he could find. But his favourite mountain of all was Buachaille Etive Mòr – that giant pyramid that greets all…

WHEN ELIZABETH TAYLOR met William Arthur Poucher she exclaimed, 'I've never seen anyone look quite so marvellous in my life'. Known as Walter, the urbane gent was a perfumer with a 'nose' described as 'the greatest in the English speaking world'; a pianist so talented he considered concert performance as a career; and the most successful commercial photographer of his generation, building a library of 20,000 images and publishing 30 coffee-table books. But walkers remember him best for his pocket-sized handbooks to the mountains of Lakeland, Wales, Scotland, and the Peaks & Pennines, all published in the 1960s. His four 'pictorial guides' were packed with photographs of the hills, with the routes marked directly on the image with a white line. The innovation meant no more puzzling over contours on…

SCRAMBLING STARTS AS soon as you need to touch your hands on rock for balance, or to make progress upwards. It stops where rock-climbing starts – where the ground gets steep or exposed enough to make proceeding without a rope foolhardy; safely before the point where 'exciting ' pitches into 'risky'. For those who enjoy it, going 4×4 takes us back to the time when it was natural to use all possible means to engage with our surroundings; the sofa-clinging toddler, the tree-climbing child, the rough-and-tumble teen. For many, it's a thrilling reconnection – an activity which puts brain and body on equal terms, demanding a focus totally consuming yet curiously relaxing. It should be absorbing fun; it must never be frightening. If you think you'll like it and want…

ABSOLUTE HEIGHT IS one way to measure a mountain, but more exciting is how much a peak stands above the surrounding landscape, or its prominence. Technically, it's defined as the least drop in height necessary to get from the summit to the next higher bit of terrain and 119 peaks in the UK and Ireland are classified as ultra-prominent, with a drop of 600 metres or more. Also known as the Major Mountains, the list features many superstar names including Schiehallion,* Glyder Fawr,* Helvellyn* and Slieve Donard,* and they range in height and prominence from the huge (Ben Nevis, 1345m, all prominence as the highest land in these isles) down to Slieve Snaght in Donegal (615m height, 600m prominence). In 2019, Leicestershire-based walker Liam Chase ticked them all off in…

MOUNTAIN WAREHOUSE IsoCool Hiker £14 Usually sold for a fair bit less than their RRP (they were a tenner at the time of writing), the IsoCool Hiker socks are not just affordable, but very well-made too. They are made from MW's IsoCool fabric, a blend of polyester/polyamide/elastane which is fast-wicking and (we've found) reliable over time. It's especially good in summer conditions. There's cushioning around the heels, toes and soles, with added elastic support under the arch. Not the snuggest or most sophisticated of socks in comparison to some of the pricier options in this review, but a worthwhile bargain, especially if you're still finding your feet (sorry) in the world of walking. mountainwarehouse.com KEELA Insect Shield Hiker £20 It's great to get your legs out in the summer, but…

The SIGHTS | SOUNDS | WONDERS | IDEAS | COOL STUFF VIEWFINDER During May, cow parsley decks verges, footpaths and woodland edges with fluffy cumuli of tiny white flowers. Its delicate parasols earned it the name lady's needlework and Queen Anne's lace, as it was said to embroider the countryside for the 18th-century monarch and her waiting ladies. The plant's dainty blooms and feathery leaves belie an iron constitution as anthriscus sylvestris will grow pretty much anywhere, and it goes by some less romantic nicknames, including badman's oatmeal, devil's meat and the sinister Mother Die. The last was meant to deter children from picking it, for while cow parsley is considered edible, it has many perilous lookalikes including skin-blistering hogweeds and deadly-poisonous hemlocks. Despite the grisly warning, cow parsley has long…

The desire to explore Britain's great outdoors took off in the 1930s, prompting numerous newspaper stories about rambling or, as this headline puts it, knapsackery. 'The popularity of walking or “hiking,” as it is, under the prevalent American influence, now termed, is amazingly on the increase,' the article in The Sphere continues. 'Sabbath days journeys are undertaken by the youth of both sexes, armed with knapsacks.' The accessibility of the Surrey Hills – just a train ride from London – made them a favourite destination, and the paper reports the walkers turned the slopes Tyrolean: 'The corduroy shorts impart a Carinthian atmosphere to this little party. To picnic in a glade or on the turf high above the hurly-burly of the valley is a delight worth finding to-day.' Our kit…

Take part in one of our mini-challenges this month and if we publish your entry, you'll win a money-can't-buy Golden Badger! This month's entry deadline: 22 May. New award for 2024! 21 FIND A MONUMENT TO SOMETHING ODD Find a monument, plaque or other tribute to something unexpected, or that is itself unconventional. For what was your attention sought? Was it worthy? #minichallenge21 22 PHOTOGRAPH A BIRD OF PREY And don't just photograph it, identify it so we can all help remember how to tell apart these monarchs of the skies. Hawk, eagle, falcon or owl? #minichallenge22 23 LEGO IN LANDSCAPE Take a Lego character on a real-world adventure, and photograph them in such a way that you think it would make a nice cover of Country Walking. #minichallenge23 24…

Kes the conker-colour Cocker is an inveterate explorer, often finding his way into the unlikeliest of places when we're busy putting the magazine together. In fact he's hiding out in this issue for you to find! Spot him (not on this page) and you could win over £47 worth of Mountain Paws goodies – just email the page number where you found Kes, along with your address, to: ifoundkes@LFTO.com by 17 May 2024 putting 'Kes May' in the subject line. Congrats to Barbara Koper from Warrington, who spotted Kes along Norwich's Elm Lane on p62 of the Spring issue, and wins this month's prize! GREAT PRIZES WORTH OVER £47…

IT'S ONE OF those enjoyable surprises to spring on yourself to remember (a) eagles are real, and (b) you could see one on a walk in this country. Not, in all likelihood, this lunchtime – but on a good day's walk in Scotland in the kind of wild country both eagles and walkers covet, your chances of having an unforgettable encounter aren't bad. There are more than 500 pairs in the Highlands, and now nearly 50 in the Southern Uplands, after determined efforts by conservationists to boost chicks' chances of surviving to maturity. Broad-winged and soaring, golden eagles form deep attachments to their mountainous territories, which can span 200km2, and pass on from generation to generation. The last golden eagle in England disappeared from Riggindale in the Lake District in…

THERE'S SOMETHING UNNATURAL, yet pleasantly familiar, about Dorset's Hambledon Hill, with its slopes hugged by terraces like the contour lines of a lifesize 3D Ordnance Survey map. They are in fact evidence of an ancient settlement, and while this is not a rare sight in Britain's countryside, the indents on Hambledon Hill are some of the finest remains of an Iron Age hillfort you'll ever see. Its history goes back even further, with evidence of humans having lived on this hill nearly 6000 years ago. No wonder it's a place archaeologists can't wait to sink their trowels into, and designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Climbing to the top through the wispy grass will tell you why this hill was such a handy place to call home. It may…

IT POLARISES OPINION, does Kinder Scout.* To some it's a place of horror; of bleakness and trudge; an unworthy first or final obstacle to those either setting out on, or just finishing, the Pennine Way. But to others it is a place of endless fascination: a place to clear your mind, to seek out wonders, and to touch history in both the geological and human sense. Sprawling over some 16 square miles in the north quarter of the Peak District National Park, Kinder is a vast upland plateau consisting of peat bog fringed by steep edges of grass, grit and granite. The name is a beguiling mish-mash of lost and Norse words, loosely meaning 'water that falls over rock'. It relates to Kinder Downfall: the highest waterfall in the Peak…

ONCE SEEN, NEVER forgotten: the peaks of Scotland's Assynt are staggering bits of mountain architecture. Each is exquisitely sculpted and each stands far from the next as if placed on a pedestal so you can better appreciate its ice-chiselled beauty. Quinag* is the most northerly of this elite group, which also includes Stac Pollaidh and Suilven, and it's not one peak but a rocky Y spanning an area bigger than 5000 football pitches. Long ridges lead to three tops: Spidean Còinich, Sàil Ghorm and the highest of Sàil Gharbh at 2654ft (809m). Ticking off the full trio is a steep, challenging, extraordinary day, but an out-and-back to Spidean Còinich from the A894 is relatively straightforward, if very bouldery. In fact, you don't even have to get to that top. A…

Tom Bailey, Photographer Miles walked this month: 44 Hills and mountains have the habit of prioritising one's thoughts, sifting out what's truly important from the noise of life. Last week I was on the remote Scottish peninsula of Knoydart. During a day climbing the Munro Meall Buidhe, my thoughts had time to percolate, clarify and become real. Where to take my son for our annual summer adventure had been niggling me for a while. I like to talk with him about our trips beforehand, building up the sense that his old dad may still have something to offer. The island of Eigg stared back at me from the west, looking like a submarine cruising at the surface of the ocean, with Eigg's high point, An Sgurr, its conning tower. That…

1 'It has been an incredible role' Jon Bennett has climbed Helvellyn (3116ft/950m) in the Lake District more than 770 times, and in all weathers. For 16 years he has been a Fell Top Assessor, the longest-standing member of a team of three who scale the mountain every day through winter to report on summit conditions to help keep walkers safe. But now, at 61, he's retiring. 'It has been an incredible role to have,' he explained to the BBC. 'But the mountain seems to be getting that little bit steeper… I will miss it but this is the right time to stop.' He'll still be hillwalking though: 'I met a man climbing Scafell Pike on his 80th birthday and thought, 'what an incredible way to mark that milestone'. It stuck…

ON THE DAY we did this interview, David Nicholls was a very busy man. It was the very day that the (now almost universally acclaimed) Netflix adaptation of One Day dropped, so the author was switching by the hour from talk of Dexter and Emma to conversations about two new characters the world had yet to meet: Marnie and Michael. But not only did David give us oodles of time to talk to about his new novel You Are Here, he also just loved the chance to talk specifically about walking. Because that is, in large part, what the book is about. “I'm so delighted to speak to you because walking is something I love, and it is absolutely tied up with the writing of this book,” he smiles. “In…

BROUGHT TO YOU IN PARTNERSHIP WITH 2.74 x 365 = walk1000miles.co.uk 500 miles is an AWFULLY long way. It's not just how far the Proclaimers were famously prepared to walk to stand up next to a lucky someone (which woud have taken them as far as Hoyanger in Norway), it's… ● Six-and-a-half Hadrian's Walls ● About twice as long as Scotland ● Three times the length of Wales ● 16,098 Olympic pools ● 67,692 double-decker buses ● 391,111 MPs (Daniel Kawczynski, 6ft 9in, Britain's tallest) It's also far enough to completely change the diretion of travel for your health and happiness, redouble your resilience and your selfesteem, see you live longer, while avoiding serious disease, enjoy lifelong independence, build rich memories and revitalise your relationships and have more energy for all…

The View MAGNOLIAS HAVE BEEN called the aristocrats of the spring. Not by me, I should add. I didn't know what one looked like until last week. But things have moved on apace since then. A couple of things piqued an interest which is now bordering, frankly, on a mild obsession. Strolling through North London with some pals recently, they would stop periodically to gasp and marvel at the loveliness of this bush thing that I now know to be a magnolia. Then I saw a tweet from the writer Sathnam Sanghera, viz: 'Middle-aged people. Control and pace yourselves. But the magnolia blossom is out.' The replies were enlightening and fascinating. A typical contribution: 'I've been ill in bed for a week but when I saw the first magnolia last…

LOTS OF US have surely dreamed of owning our own mountain; in the 1930s Thomas Firbank lived that fantasy. Arriving at Dyffryn Mymbyr near Capel Curig one stormy day, he offered to buy the farm. A shepherd gave Firbank a tour of the land – straight up a slope so steep he had to use his hands, then west along the ridge which carried Dyffryn's boundary two miles to the shattered summit of Glyder Fach.* 'Whether I knew it or not,' he wrote, 'I had fallen in love with the place during that wet scramble through the mist.' The hard life of working the 2400-acre hill farm didn't dent his love, and his book, I Bought A Mountain, details how he and his wife Esmé learned everything about sheep –…

WELCOME TO SURREY'S little mountain. At 965ft (295m) Leith Hill* is hardly likely to trouble the giants of Wales, Scotland or northern England, but this shapely, wooded spur of the Greensand Ridge is so prominent locally that you'd have to travel 50 miles to find anything higher. A web of paths will bring you up through the woods from Coldharbour, Wotton or Abinger Common, and at the top the trees clear and an immense view over south-east England opens up. It's even bigger from the top of Leith Hill Tower, added to the summit in the late 18th century by local landowner Richard Hull for the express purpose of raising the hill to 1000ft above sea level. Too bad no one told him artificial structures don't count as part of…

Lake District, Cumbria The Shepherds Arms Contact: 01946 861249 info@shepherdsarms.com www.shepherdsarms.com Nearest walk: The Wainwright Coast to Coast route and Ennerdale valley are right on the doorstep as are iconic fells. Accommodation: An award winning, friendly village inn with a reputation for excellent home made food, ideal for exploring Ennerdale, a remote and tranquil place to escape the crowds. Cockermouth, Cumbria Cragg Farm Camping Pods, Eaglesfield Contact: 07833 363490 catherine.mattinson@btinternet.com Nearest walk: There are many low level and high level walks to suit all abilities. The Lakes Loweswater, Crummock and Buttermere are just a 15 minute drive away. Grasmoor & Grisedale Pike ranges, Red Pike, High Stile & High Crag to name but a few. Great Gable being just a step further. Accommodation: Three luxury pods on a working farm…

LIKE TACKING INTO a headwind, zig-zagging up a steep slope can be the most efficient way to make progress, as the gradient eases from vertical agony to achievable puff as you angle back and forward across the slope. It's also thrilling, as each turn spins you into a refreshed view that is bigger and better than when you last saw it. You can zig and zag up any path that's wide enough, but on some hills a concertina line is chiselled right in. At Selborne* in Hampshire, 18th-century vicar and naturalist Gilbert White cut his own path up the steep, wooded hanger at the end of his garden to get to the common above. The fact he didn't own the land didn't slow his ambitions and 28 hairpin-bends later he…