thelonious

17/03/2019 – Staying in Bristol for a few days we decided to take the Stagecoach Falcon bus south past Bristol airport to visit Brent Knoll. The bus stops on the A38 at White Cross just south of the hill. It’s a shortish walk to Brent Knoll from here. We took the marked footpath up from behind the church, there’s parking for cars here too.

The sun was shinning and the sky was blue (very windy though). Visibility was very good. Brent Knoll might be a small hill but wow what a position it has. Full 360 views for miles. We could easily make out Dunkery Hill in Exmoor and the wonderful Glastonbury Tor to the east. The large univallate fort itself is very good. Nice big ramparts and the interior is a good size. We tucked down just east of the topograph that occupies the position now of the long gone trigpoint to shelter from the wind to have our sandwiches. Just lovely to sit and gaze out across the landscape.

Really good hillfort and well worth a visit.

We made the slow walk back down to catch the bus north to Wavering Down (nice hill here too for walking, anyone know if the trig sits on an old cairn?)

16/03/2019 – We were staying a little way south in Bristol but it was just a quick train journey in the morning to Cheltenham Spa, followed by a stroll along the old railway line through town to get to the bus stop and the bus which would take us to Cleeve village and the start of our walk. Good bus most of the week, not quite as frequent on a Sunday. Normally it’s just me and Mrs T when we visit places but today we were in the fine company of thesweetcheat.

We headed up to the top of Cleeve Hill via the nice Cleeve Cloud hillfort with its fine views out across the countryside. The forecast had promised rain at some point in the day but so far it was holding off. The wind though was pretty strong. After a visit to the county top and back round to The Ring trigpoint, we strolled across the hillside to make our approach to Belas Knap. The approach from Cleeve Hill is good. You get a good feel to the barrow’s place in the landscape as it can be seen from a fair distance away. I was taken with the stonework on the false entrance beforehand, it had looked great from the TMA photos, even better seeing it for real. We tucked ourselves inside the chambers for a break from the wind. Made it easier to hear each other speak as well. The southeast chamber was a bit of a crawl. The restored bits of the long barrow are well done. The roof of the chambers are a little odd, like an upside down driveway, I liked it though.

We walked from here down in to Winchcombe for a bit of cake and a coffee before taking the bus back to Cheltenham.

A lovely day out and luckily no rain! So pleased to have finally visited this one.

Great to meet up with tsc.

09/02/2019 – Train trip to Forres to visit Cluny Hill and the wonderful Sueno’s Stone nearby. Nice stroll up the hill on tracks through open woodland. Good view from the top to Findhorn bay. Nothing much really to see of the fort. Nice walk though and bakeries/cafes in Forres were worth the trip alone, yum.

28/01/2019 – Early morning bus out to Wilkieston from Edinburgh (big thumbs up to the Edinburgh bus network, cheap and you can get a bus nearly anywhere). Good access, sign posted path to the top of Tormain Hill from the north. We reached the stones just before sunrise. Lovely open woodland setting. I think we counted seven stones with cup marks on them. The pick of the bunch is the one with the cup and ring markings, it’s very good indeed. Really enjoyed our visit here. It was pretty special watching the sun rise from behind the Pentland Hills to slowly light up the stones and surrounding area, magic.

26/01/2019 – Walking a few of the tops in Edinburgh. Blackford Hill was the last of the day so we thought we’d have a go at finding the deer carving. Turned out not too bad to find. Close to the top of the hill, just a short distance from the steps behind a big tree. It’s steep though but nothing too tricky if you take your time.

I was fair chuffed to find it. A nice little adventure away from all the runners and dog walkers on a pretty busy hill. I didn’t know what to make of the carving really. It didn’t seem that old to me but I still really liked it. A proper mystery.

Plenty of nice walks round and over Blackford Hill. Pretty easy going. The top is the site of a fort but not much to see of it. The views are very good of Edinburgh and the surrounding area. This carving was a nice cherry on top of the Blackford Hill cake.

31/12/2018 – A few weeks back most of the Aberdeen bypass finally opened, first talked about in the 1950’s, it’s been a long wait for folk round here. I can’t put into words the level of excitement this has caused. It’s all folk have been talking about for the last few weeks (apart from that new RSC!).

Today I thought we would have a trip south on it to see what all the excitement was about. We decided to head to the Caterthun hillforts. I’d been to White Caterthun years ago but for some strange reason I didn’t visit Brown Caterthun at the same time! Very odd.

We parked up at the roadside layby between the hills just past 9 o’clock. We went first to White Caterthun. It’s such a fine hillfort, great walls and a lovely cup marked rock. Next it was time to climb our last hill, Tump, top, call it what you want! of the year. It’s an easy stroll up (no cows which was a bonus). Brown Caterthun hillfort might not be as impressive as its neighbour but it’s still a good one. It’s big! Lots of grassed over ramparts. You can easily find a quiet spot for a brew and a bite to eat. The views all around from both forts are fantastic.

It was a fine way to end the year and that new bit of road round Aberdeen was quite good too :-)

29/12/2018 – Day trip to Inverness for a loop round three little tumps. It was a fine walk that also included along the way this chambered cairn and a hillfort later on.

We took the Great Glen Way from Inverness to make the steepish climb up to this cairn. It’s a little off the path but not too hard to find.

Leachkin chambered cairn is of Orkney-Cromarty type. Though just a few stones remain, the entrance and chamber can be made out. The tallest stone is over 6ft in height.

Really nice location for this one and I loved the feel of the place, very peaceful in the morning sunshine.

The stones are nice. Reddish cobble and boulder conglomerate (Kilmuir Conglomerate Formation formed 385 to 398 million years ago, an age that hurts my head a little to think about). Same stones as under the hillforts of Craig Phadrig and Ord Hill to the north.

Well worth a visit if you are passing by.

22/12/2018 – Down in Lancaster for a few days of walking. Train strike today, had to change my plans a little. After a hill in the morning we ended up near Morecambe so decided to visit here. Tump, trigpoint and barrow with a fine view – can’t go wrong. Easy access from the lane to the south. Cows might be a problem but not today. It had been a bit rainy in the morning but the sun came out as we made the short climb to the top. Really lovely views from this one for such a little hill. Not much to see of the barrow, just a grassy lump. After taking in the surrounding landscape from the barrow we headed to Morecambe for an afternoon walk along the prom. Nice day.

10/11/2018 – A good old castle in ruins is just great. This one at Auchindoun is well worth a visit. There’s a newish carpark now a short drive up the track from the main road. Location is wonderful with fine views of River Fiddich and surrounding hills. I was really taken aback by the size of the ramparts of the bivallate Iron Age fort, they are huge. The medieval castle in the middle of the fort is really fine as well, it took me back to visits to castles in Wales as a kid. Very exciting.

It was a lovely November day out with a walk in the Cabrach in the morning, then a visit here followed by a pop in to see Nether Dumeath stone circle on the way back. All in the fine company of Drew and co :-)

28/10/2018 – I’ve not been here before, stupid me as the cairn is huge and pretty fantastic. Same starting point as Drew. Little bit tricky finding it. Don’t bother trying to follow the track on the OS map, it gets messy. Better really, once you’re in the wood, just to head up, you get there in the end. From the photos on here the cairn looked big but it’s even bigger than I thought it would be. Really good and the location is lovely in open woodland. Well worth a visit.