Given space to enthuse about a hill that has meant a great deal to me for nearly half a century. And counting. www.ukhillwalking.com/articles/des...

An attempt to manifest Summer with a tour of a Cumbrian plateau scattered with butterflies. 🦋 🦋 🦋 www.ukhillwalking.com/logbook/r/in...

There are goings-on in the rockery.

If you ask why I love mountains, I might randomly drop the word chiaroscuro: the contrast of light and shade. Here are two moments from this afternoon, just an hour apart.

Epic battles of nature, part 2354. Driving across a Lancashire moor, a tumbling mass of feathers resolves itself into a kestrel and barn owl, talons locked, arguing over prey. They land in the heather, with much yickering and the owl eventually yields.

Gnarly conditions on the Kentmere fells, with snow deep enough to stand the bike up in. Pretty blooming marvellous.

St Peter is going to have some fascinating conversations with Trump voters at the Pearly Gates. "So, it took you over a decade to realise this guy was an asshole? Interesting. Go through that side door and my colleague Nick will greet you. See how long it takes you to judge *his* character."

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again. #Pinks #ProudBlue

I've been route-setting in them thar hills again. www.ukhillwalking.com/logbook/r/in...

Sometimes, I love the internet. In the right forum, you can raise an incredibly niche mystery, and get all sorts of knowledgeable folk chipping in, linking Gàidhlig, French, Bengali and stonemasonry. www.ukhillwalking.com/forums/hill_...

When you're out running solo on the fells, wondering if the Savage Beast that took this animal is still around. Size 10 Mudtalons for scale.

Book Review. "Boater" by @jobellwriter.bsky.social This magnificent book elegantly braids together three narratives. The first is the history of the British (English, really) canal network. The subject matter isn't dry and neither is the prose. Yes, there are dates and names and Great Men in top...

There and back again: a double-passage through the Northern Fells. www.ukhillwalking.com/logbook/r/in...

Getting 2026 out of the starting blocks.

RIP, fella. open.spotify.com/track/4up5Kc...

Our Petty, Hollow, Squalid Ogre in Chief We are led by the most loathsome human being ever to occupy the White House. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/16/o...

People without fingernails: end Christmas wrapping misery with my low-cost tip.

This was a properly gripping listen. Hat-tip to @iandunt.bsky.social and @dorianlynskey.bsky.social for totally aceing accessible braininess. open.spotify.com/episode/3awt...

Scampering and Santaring on the Fairfield Horseshoe.

Come on, Sol, you can do it.

In our algorithm-hammered world, what a delight to step into a proper, independent bookshop with a niche request ("Have you got a pictorial guide to cow breeds, simple as a Dorling Kindersley book, but for adults?") and get an unfazed, helpful and successful response. @samreadbookseller.bsky.social

Well done, Leave voters. Well arsing done.

Stomping round the top end of Borrowdale, where every ridge is a bejewelled paradise for the explorer. www.ukhillwalking.com/logbook/r/in...

Exploring the outer realms of winter ultralighting. Is it humanly possible to squeeze everything you need for a midwinter summer camp into a race vest marketed for "day-long runs"? And live to tell the tale? www.ukhillwalking.com/articles/ski...

Traffic snarl-up, Kentmere

If **Jeffrey Epstein** thinks you're a evil and demented sociopath, the odds are overwhelming that you are, in fact, an evil and demented sociopath.

A flash of wildness in the suburbs.

On Golden Tarn. At Holehird, with just the occasional dabchick-squawk breaking the silence.

If you haven't yet subscribed to Origin Story, you really should question your life-choices. Erudite and incisive but with a listenable lightness, this is what learning should sound like.

My latest route, in the Far Orient of Cumbria, for @ukhillwalking.bsky.social www.ukhillwalking.com/logbook/r/in...

Yesterday's outing was not so much a bike ride as a punishment beating: floundering through soupy peat being periodically skittled by huge gusts as the Suburban Dad in the Sky blasted me with his jet wash.

My latest route card, stomping the wild moors above the upper Eden. www.ukhillwalking.com/logbook/r/in...

October, I love you. Saving the best to last.

Running round Whitbarrow checking a few directions for @tgomagazine.bsky.social - not too onerous work.

Bird place-name of the day 99 for @normanhadley.bsky.social: GLEADLESS (Yorks). OE glida + leah. ‘Kite wood/clearing’. For more names see: birdsandplace.co.uk. #birdsandplace #naturewriting

😍 Boston, you are beautiful. #NoKings

My latest for @ukhillwalking.bsky.social, tiptoeing around the periphery of the Scafell massif on the arbitrary edge of public land. Just because. www.ukhillwalking.com/articles/des...

Pretty spicy out on the hills, folks. I ran Blencathra and I swear it took more effort on the descent than the ascent. Then a quick nip into the Blencathra Field Centre to drip on their floor and say a quick Hi to members of the Outdoor Writers' and Photographers' Guild.

I didn't have "pet a fox" on my to-do list today. But I'm going to add it so I can cross it off.

Out tomorrow, including an article of mine on how *not* to navigate the Cairngorm plateau. Arguably includes tips on how not to navigate your romantic life.

After the rain, a freshly-washed Borrowdale greets the morning.

Glorious canter up St Sunday Crag.

This summer, I've been increasingly venturing east of the M6 to map some routes in the Dales. This is an old favourite. www.ukhillwalking.com/logbook/r/in...

What a flimsy popinjay.

In a time when animals spoke in the tongues of men, a donkey being led to market failed to listen to this magnificent podcast and lost the race to a tortoise in fox's clothing, which pleased nobody. So the moral is: something, something, listen intently.

Smashed LetterBoxed today: target of six words but completed in two, without repetition.

Yarlside from Kensgriff

A spot of Howgill-scampering

Thinking of getting into summit camping? Dan and I sketched out a few tips. www.ukhillwalking.com/articles/ski...