Grant Hutchison's Blog, page 10

Durness

Air travel still being something of a tedious lottery in the UK at present, the Boon Companion and I have not entered an airport since our return from Morocco during the very early days of Covid. We’ve contented ourselves by knocking around Scotland, and I haven’t posted much about those travels, since they’ve either been … Continue reading Durness →

Simon Ingram: The Black Ridge

I stood in the rain at the foot of the Inaccessible Pinnacle’s east edge, that ‘easy edge’, looking up at it, trembling a little. True, I was overawed by its history, its odd and discomfiting form, its dizzying position — but I think I was basically just very scared. In the part of your brain … Continue reading Simon Ingram: The Black Ridge →

Scottish Hill Lists: The Donald Revisions

This is the second in my planned series of posts dealing with the revision history of the three “classic” tables of Scottish hills—the Munros, Donalds and Corbetts, which I introduced in an earlier post. I also introduced the idea of topographic prominence, and a way of charting these hill tables in two dimensions by plotting … Continue reading Scottish Hill Lists: The Donald Revisions →

Ochils: Glen of Sorrow Circuit

King’s Seat Hill (NS 933999, 648m)Andrew Gannel Hill (NN 918006, 670m)Skythorn Hill (NN 926013, 601m)Cairnmorris Hill (NN 933016, 606m)Tarmangie Hill (NN 943013 645m)Whitewisp Hill (NN 955013 643m) 14 kilometers930 metres of ascent I mentioned the Glen of Sorrow when I wrote about my circuit of Glen Sherup, and promised I’d write more about it on … Continue reading Ochils: Glen of Sorrow Circuit →

Hillwalkers’ Gaelic: Part 2

Last time, I introduced the concept of “Hillwalkers’ Gaelic”, which I abbreviated “HG” to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic (“SG”). I did so in the context of a comic poem entitled “The Climber’s Guide to the Pronunciation of the Gaelic Tongue“, which appeared in the Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal of 1897, probably written by the … Continue reading Hillwalkers’ Gaelic: Part 2 →

Desmond Bagley: Four Novels

It was long past lunch-time when I finished the story. My throat was dry with talking and Jean���s eyes had grown big and round. ���It���s like something from the Spanish Main,��� she said. ���Or a Hammond Innes thriller. Is the gold still there?��� Desmond Bagley, The Golden Keel (1963) I first encountered Desmond Bagley���s work … Continue reading Desmond Bagley: Four Novels →

Scottish Hill Lists: The Corbett Revisions

In a previous post, I wrote about the three “classic” Scottish hills lists—the Munros (1891), Donalds (1935) and Corbetts (1952), and how these were brought together, in a publication commonly referred to as Munro’s Tables, by the Scottish Mountaineering Club in 1953. As a way of displaying the topographic data for these hills, I also … Continue reading Scottish Hill Lists: The Corbett Revisions →

Ochils: Glen Sherup Circuit

Innerdownie (NN 966031, 610m)Whitewisp Hill (NN 955013 643m)Tarmangie Hill (NN 943013 645m)Ben Shee (NN 952039, 516m) 16 kilometres675 metres of ascent On my previous visit to the Ochils, when I walked in to Ben Cleuch from the north, I looked down on Glen Sherup from Ben Shee and thought that another enjoyable circuit could be … Continue reading Ochils: Glen Sherup Circuit →

Hillwalkers’ Gaelic: Part 1

The pronunciation of Gaelic hill names is fraught with difficulty for the non-Gael. One problem is the striking way in which some consonants are not pronounced at all. This is the Gaelic phenomenon of lenition, in which the addition of an “h” to a consonant changes and softens its pronunciation. Some lenited consonants, particularly “dh” … Continue reading Hillwalkers’ Gaelic: Part 1 →

Patrick Baker: The Cairngorms—A Secret History

The view had a massive visual scale. It felt cinematic: an epic horizon like the opening credits of a David Lean film. A path scrolled out ahead of me, eventually fading into the middle distance. Across the plateau I could see other tors emerging from the mist: dark, maritime shapes, spectral galleons held up on … Continue reading Patrick Baker: The Cairngorms—A Secret History →