Blog :: Geograph Britain and Ireland

Blog Entries by Geograph Users

Tighnaspeur - a circular walk

1 months ago

This was to be quite a significant walk for me as it involved completing my final grid square in the eastern block of the island. Furthermore, it was a 'green' gridsquare - and little wonder! Not only is it situated in one of the remotest parts of the island, but it has nothing within its 1 km square to entice the everyday walker. The Abhainn Staoin (bending/crooked river) flows diagonally NW to SE, almost dividing NR 4252 in half, but otherwise there is nothing but contours and a small...

Looking ahead

2 months ago

I was delighted this week when it was as light at 5pm as it was at midday (OK, we all know it's really 1pm and 6pm, but this country has to be out of step with the rest of Europe), as after a couple of months hibernating and only able to do the odd trip south at weekends when there was little or no traffic slowing me down I could now start the first ventures beyond the main red blob on my map again. My Fuji compact, bought after the Olympus had finally stopped producing uncorrupted photos,...

planning driving maps

Keeping the momentum

5 months ago

Following my last entry I had about six weeks before the clocks go back (less time now) and wasn't going to make a fool of myself trying to get anywhere really ambitious to get held up and it get dark before I made it there. As it happened I found a few old road signs in Henley on Thames after checking because there was one known there, none were new to me but better condition, plus one which may or may not be council issued which certainly was new to me, no way to river. In the end the one I...

willesden cricklewood henley-on-thames geotrips norwood sutton southall

Little Minch circuit by kayak

6 months ago

For four years or more I've nurtured an ambition to paddle across the Little Minch. The chart has sat open in my front room for uncounted hours as I fantasised about seeing for myself the islands, skerries and buoys that make this bit of sea amongst the most interesting. So when I got a week of holiday at the beginning of September, I packed a sleeping bag and tent into my kayak, along with 4 days' worth of food and a camera, and headed out from Bornesketaig. It only took half an hour...

geo-trip boat trip completing a hectad

Mission complete

7 months ago

July 29th actually saw the completion of a two year mission here, after uploading about 4,000 archives over winter 2010 I began making specific Geographing trips, with ambitions to get into all the compass points and adjacent myriads. I was very busy last year doing a trip a week on average during the long days, sharing the driving, and knocked off myriads SZ, TV, TR and finally TM after having driven into a field the first time and having to return to actually cross the line on the following...

myriads breaking records long distances

Hyskeir and Rum kayak trip

9 months ago

I'm normally wary of using the word "remote", as it's such a subjective thing. To a Londoner, the Scottish Highlands probably seems very remote, but for those of us who live there, it's England and the south that seems remote. However, even in my book, Hyskeir qualifies as "remote", with the nearest habitation more than 10km away across often rough seas. I'd had my eye on Hyskeir for a couple of years before I got free time and good weather co-temporally. The idea was to get out to the...

geo-trip boat trip completing a hectad

The new season

10 months ago

This year I set myself three simple goals for the photography season (April-September while the clocks are forward), to beat the distance between two squares, ideally enough to potentially beat two myriads horizontally or vertically (nowhere like diagonally which adds 50 miles), from 122.8 miles to beyond 125, which I did shortly after, adding one just short of 130 in Ashford. South of London is now completed unless I do the old run using Waterloo Bridge when it was still free to cross during...

pre-worboys sign essex braintree

Overzealous Policing

10 months ago

A lovely day in the sunshine, a chance to go out and about taking photos in the countryside. Today – Saturday 1 June 2013 – I decided to head out to West Somerset. I hadn’t been there for a while, and there were a few Geograph squares just north of Wimbleball I thought I’d go and have a nice long walk in the sunshine there. Parking at around 3:30pm and making sure my GPS satellite was on, I headed out from the lake towards Withiel Florey and Treborough, as I got back to where I started at...

Glas Bheinn's spurs

10 months ago

OK, so I'd just learnt this new term 'spur' and was keen to get as much usage out of it as possible; plus there were several gridsquares I wanted to bag in the area and the forecast for the day looked good. Not having been able to persuade any friends to come a walk with me (they've all grown wise to what that term means!), and knowing I'd be doing a lot of gratuitous walking, I set off solo on what was to be a long day's walk. I'd come prepared with enough food for an army. Reluctantly...

Walk Islay 2013 - Ascent of Beinn a' Chaolais, Jura

11 months ago

It was the day we'd been waiting for all week, which doesn't sound like a long time, but in a week of unsettled weather with several walks having had to be modified or cancelled, the highlight of the week, the long awaited ascent of Jura's lowest Pap was anticipated with anxiety. Would the weather put paid to this eagerly anticipated event? The forecast had looked good for Friday all week, but often it changes at the last minute. I logged onto XC weather the night before and peered over my...

Gortantoid to Finlaggan

11 months ago

This is the last in my latest series of walks. It's taken a lot of photo manipulation and working out which photo relates to which gridsquare, so a lot of time. Don't expect to see me on here for about another year! Just kidding, this thing is far too addictive for that to be the case. Sadly, though, there's only so much manipulating that can enhance boring photos and so I apologize in advance for the lack of interest in these photos; the weather was poor and, whilst the scenery was more...

The new season 2013

11 months ago

The new season officially kicked off two weeks ago, with the clocks going forward, allowing my freedom to go wherever I wanted given the opportunity before it got dark. The first was a shortish run to the Sussex border as there was a gap without any red squares it was easy to fill in, and a week later finally got to Cuckfield to get this wonderful pair of signs only found because of Dave Spicer. Photo I have a list of trips for 2013 now, that was the first, mainly as old signs are...

ambition hectads pre-worboys sign

Glen Beanie circular walk, Glen Shee

12 months ago

Our plans to do some hillwalking had been thwarted by the heavy snowfall of recent weeks, but we remained undeterred from doing some serious walking - my daughter and I that is. I simply revised my 'wish list'. Unlike when I am on Islay, constantly perusing the maps for gridsquares yet unvisited, I was looking at a totally green map and so could choose anywhere, as long as it wasn't too risky. I chose Glen Beanie. originally my wish list had included a circular trip which took in both Loch...

Liverpool - one hour ashore and one hour afloat

12 months ago

On what was - for me - a rare foray south of Hadrian’s Wall, I had the opportunity to visit Liverpool – opportunity in this case meaning just two hours. Using the ferry from Woodside to the Pier Head, this involved a short cruise on the Mersey, followed by one hour to explore a little of Liverpool’s waterfront - with the much-photographed Royal Iris of the Mersey performing ferry duty between Birkenhead and Liverpool. Photo Photo Photo Photo In Greek...

city town centre economy tourism river docks sculpture architecture

Loch Cam and Loch Drolsay Circular Walk, Islay

12 months ago

This was to be my third or fourth visit to what is known as the Sorn Valley in the centre (ish) of the island. The area is difficult to access and some gridsquares are therefore really only accessible by repeating some parts of previous walks. This is not a complaint, of course, particularly when the weather is as glorious as it was today. Angus, the friendly farmer of both Scarrabus and Balole farms met us at the deer gate Photo and welcomed us, advising us that we need not fear...

Into the new year

12 months ago

I was stymied from posting for most of January due to 'upgrading' to Windows 8 and then discovering that my machine wouldn't run for more than a few minutes before freezing. However, I did eventually get started and was able to post my January backlog then move on with February - blessed relief to be back on site. On the 12th of January I filled in some of the local scenery that I have been neglecting since the 1970s with a wander round Worcester - Photo Photo Photo...

industrial archaeology steam railway steam engine colliery

Giur-bheinn and Margadale Circular, Islay

12 months ago

Having my daughter home for the Easter holidays, combined with (finally) glorious weather meant that I just couldn't wait to be out. This was a reconnaisance walk for the forthcoming Walk Islay week on which I'd been asked to lead a walk up this modest hill. Being one of my favourite hills and being near one of my favourite ruins, I decided to combine the two and make it into a circular walk. After much research and enquiry, I've recently discovered that 'Giùr' is an Islay word for crouching...

In the lee of Beinn Dubh, Islay

12 months ago

We nearly didn't go on this walk. The cold north-easterly wind did blow and we had planned to walk on Islay's eastern shores; well, not shores exactly; that just sounded better. I had worked out a circular route, starting at Ballygrant quarry, walking up the track to Lossit Farm, down to the bothy at Baleachdrach and then southwards at the foot of Beinn Dubh to Lochs Fada and Leathann and back to the road and the car. It was all familiar territory to me, although I have only done all the...

Ancient Ileach company on Mother's Day

12 months ago

Feeling a little sorry for myself as it was my first Mother's Day on my own - not that we had ever made much of a fuss about it in our family - I decided to pack a picnic and gain some more Islay gridsquares. After all, that was my favourite thing to do and I didn't mind doing it on my own so would be less likely to indulge in a bout of self-pity. Perhaps my least visited area of the island is the Rhinns peninsula. I'm not sure why. But I had long ago noticed on the map the curious name of...

Spring is coming

12 months ago

Although the calendar (read 'government') means the clocks don't go forward till the final day in March this year it's now not getting too dark for photos till 6pm, so ignoring their method of trying to cheat time and beginning my 2013 plans, even if I haven't yet carried any out yet. I was pleased to get the first medium trip a few weeks ago to the edge of Reading, as it made a little splash in a previously green void, and luckily since when I've been available more pre-Worboys road signs...

First-bagging in the National Nature Reserve of Cairnsmore of Fleet

12 months ago

Ever since seeing them from the ridge during a cold February walk with a friend on Cairnsmore of Fleet in 2009 Photo, a group of 8 unGeographed squares in the valleys to the east had been winking at me. I’d rather assumed (wrongly) that they must have been protected by some sort of access restrictions into the National Nature Reserve, but a call to the warden at the Dromore Visitor Centre confirmed that those sorts of archaic conditions genuinely only affect us poor souls in England...

geographing trip report geotrip

Two Old Islay Farmsteads

12 months ago

I seem to be having a bit of a thing at the moment for Islay ruins - the more isolated, the better! Hence, after checking the forecast and yep, it was going to be another beauty of a day, Fiona and I met at the Coullabus road end at 9.15 am to work out car positions and the route. The only thing was, it wasn't a beauty of a day. It turned out to be the bad day sandwiched between two good ones - and naturally the day we'd chosen to walk! Fiona is familiar with this terrain - we both are -...

In search of ancient Islay

13 months ago

Three very amateur archaeologists set off in search of a variety of features shown on the Ordnance Survey map off what is known locally as the 'back road' to Gruinart. We were so amateur that we did not really know what the words in fancy writing indicated: - 'hut circles', 'burnt mounds' and 'tumuli' all had to be looked up and pages printed off from Scotland's Places website before we ventured forth into the unknown at Lagstoban Photo. For once I wasn't after gaining new gridsquares...

Capturing a piece of railway heritage before it's lost forever

13 months ago

Driving along the A38 into Tewkesbury on Thursday afternoon, crossing the Mythe causeway I was aware of something was different. It was one of those moments when something you are familiar is different but you’re not sure exactly what, you know the feeling, something is missing. To my left the railway embankment between the Mythe Tunnel and the River Avon looked very different; it had been cleared of trees. Later that day I asked a friend “What’s happening to the railway embankment in...

Sunderland hinterland, Islay

13 months ago

At last the sun was out again and after several ramblings with other very patient people, I decided the time had come to venture out on my own again. There's only so many times that the words 'OK folks we're in a new square', can remain exciting to anyone other than a dedicated Geographer! I worked out a route from Burnside, Bruichladdich, northwards to Gleann na h-Uamha and hopefully reaching the intriguing Dun na h-Uamha, north-eastwards to Loch Treunaidh and south again to join a track...

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