Boxing Day Morning at Dunham Massey

Wednesday 26th December

Here's a quick photo from my Boxing Day morning stroll at Dunham Massey with my daughter.  As it was a rare sunny morning on a bank holiday it was unsurprisingly very busy today; however we were soon away from the crowds and had a pleasant wander around for an hour or so.

The Moat at Dunham Massey

N.B. 13/02/13 - Post date updated to actual date of walk, i.e. 26/12/12 (from 27/12/12) 

Shutlingsloe by Torch Light

Tuesday 18th December 

An evening wander up to the misty summit of Shutlingsloe above Macclesfield Forest

Distance: 5.5km; Ascent: 230m; Dry but misty on the summit; with Martin, Sue and many others

See tracked route in new window

This morning as I was getting ready for work Lynsey asked if I was still planning on joining Martin for his evening walk up Shutlingsloe today.  I was glad she asked as somehow I had managed to forget all about it!  Therefore at 7:30pm I met Martin, Sue and many others at the Trentabank carpark in Macclesfield Forest.

We set off on good tracks up through the forest by torchlight, with a mainly clear starry sky above us, to reach the edge of the woods.  Much of the path over the open hillside has been slabbed and some of the slabs were a little slippy due to tonight's low temperatures.  Around here we entered the mist and soon reached the trig point on the summit of Shutlingsloe (HuMP, Dewey), where I tried to take a few photos but the mist and an almost flat camera battery conspired against me!  However I did manage the following shots:

It was a bit misty on the summit of Shutlingsloe!

Trig point on Shutlingsloe

Shutlingsloe trig point in the mist

Boxes of flapjack and chocolate brownies were offered round as we gathered around the trig point.  After 20 minutes or so we descended, returning the same way back to the car before adjourning to the nearby Leathers Smithy for a well earned pint of real ale :-)  It had been a good evening out walking - many thanks to Martin for the invite!

Martin's somewhat more detailed account of the walk can be found here, complete with lots of photos of the gathering on the summit.  Also see my account of pretty much exactly the same walk, but in daylight, from July last year.

N.B. 13/02/13 - Post date updated to actual date of walk, i.e. 18/12/12 (from 28/12/12) 

A Trip to Ilam Park

Saturday 8th December

Here's a quick photo from a pleasant afternoon wandering around Ilam Park on the southern edge of the Peak District.  We met up with some old friends from university there due to its location, roughly mid-way between Coventry, Lichfield, Stockport and Liverpool.  There was a Christmas fair going on that day, and after lunch we went on a wander around the grounds at a leisurely pace as we had three under 3's walking with us!  All in all it was a pleasant afternoon catching up with friends :-)

Thorpe Cloud from Ilam Park

N.B. 13/02/13 - Post date updated to actual date of walk, i.e. 08/12/12 (from 09/12/12) 

A Long November Weekend in the Western Highlands - Index

Back in November I had four excellent days walking in the Western Highlands, although things didn't quite go according to plan!

Colin and I headed north with plans to finally have a crack at backpacking the Mullardoch Round, which would take in 12 Munros over 4 days.  However deep fresh snow on the hills made for slow progress and so our 4-day backpack became a somewhat shorter 2-day backpack, followed by a couple of day walks: one in Kintail and one near Bridge of Orchy.  Even though we had to cut the backpack short, we still had a very successful trip and climbed six new hills (2 Munros, 1 Munro Top and 3 Corbetts).

Besides the deep snow, the weather conditions on the hills were generally good and we got fantastic views every day (although not necessarily for the entirety of every day!).  Waking up less than 200m from the summit of Munro was quite magical as we watched the sun rise over the snowy mountains, although it was quite cold overnight!  And then there were lovely late afternoon clouds over Glen Shiel the following afternoon and then the long shadows of the winter sun on our final day.

"Self Portrait" on the N ridge of Beinn Bhreac-liath

This post is an index of my blog posts on the trip, which include lots of photos and also maps of my routes, and there's also a link to my original plans and my Social Hiking map from the trip.

• Original plans for the Mullardoch Round
• Day 1 - Loch Mullardoch Dam to Carn nan Gobhar
• Day 2 - Carn nan Gobhar to Loch Mullardoch Dam
• Day 3 - Day walk up Ciste Dhubh
• Day 4 - Day walk up Beinn Udlaidh and Beinn Bhreac-liath
• Social Hiking combi map for the four days, with occasional tweets and photos

N.B. 13/02/13 - Post date updated to 05/12/12 (from 14/01/13), to keep post in-sync with rest of this trip's posts