http://www.bletheringblonde.com/2013/03/coniston-fells.html

I will make an effort to post more regularly, honest!

A good night was had on Friday evening with a variety of Tesco Curries. There may also have been the odd bottle of beer consumed also!

The forecast for the weekend wasn’t too bad, a few wintry showers and a bit breezy. Elaina is still building up her hill fitness so we decided to do a relatively easy day doing Catstye Cam next to Helvellyn. However it turned out to be a bit more challenging than anticipated. The walk up towards Red Tarn was easy enough but as we headed up the east ridge of Catsty Cam the wind started to pick up. By the time we got to the summit we were literally on all fours crawling. I’ve been in some pretty windy conditions but the difference this time was the sheer strength of the gusts interspersed with lulls. We had planned to head off the north ridge but quickly decided to head southwest to the bottom of Swirral Edge and down to Red Tarn. From there we had a leisurely walk back to the bunkhouse. Thankfully the only casualties were two lost hats! Later that evening we found out that a woman had been airlifted from near Coniston.

As we were back a lot earlier than planned we headed to Ambleside for a well earned hot chocolate and cheesecake. An entertaining evening again followed with excellent home made lasagne and rice pudding.

An absolutely cracking weekend, looking forward to meeting up with the same folk at Black Sail in March!

I didn’t take many photos so here’s some taken by Maria and Robin.

In the meantime hopefully the Tigers can get a result at fellow play-off contenders Reading. Hesitate to say it but we might just have an outside chance of going back up to the Premiership…

We parked the car at Stevenston (NS270401) and set off south-east with the breeze behind us. It wasn’t long until we came across an image of Rabbie Burns on the sea defences along with accompanying grafitti!

Rabbie Burns

A little further along I thought for a minute that I’d been transported back to Holderness and its eroding coastline. I suspect, dramatic as it looks, the Ayrshire coast will take a bit more of a battering before it disintegrates as quickly as the East Riding boulder clay!

Eroding Ayrshire Coastline

Eventually we reached the River Garnock as it enters the Clyde at Irvine with the now closed bridge to the now defunct “Big Idea” aka the Tellytubby House!

River Garnock at Irvine

Laa-Laa says "Eh Oh"!

Elaina then did an impression of Laa-Laa before we headed back across sand dunes before dropping back down to the beach for the long walk back to Stevenston. There may have been lots of snow up north but as the following photos show at least we were able to have a bit of a slide in the sand!

Going...

...going...

...gone!

We finally got back to the car just as it was getting dark and before the tide came in! Another cracking wander and one we will need to do again with Craig!

I had the kids with us this weekend so had a fairly quiet Hogmanay watching Jools Holland’s show on BBC2. Surprisingly Craig had a bit of a lie in this morning which made a refreshing change! After the obligatory bacon roll we went for a wander along Saltcoats beach making the most of a rare glimpse of sunshine!

Elaina and Craig silhouetted on Saltcoats Beach

After the fresh air we went home for an excellent New Year’s Day dinner of Steak Pie, Mashed Potatoes, Roast Parsnips , Sprouts Cabbage and Carrot & Swede mash. Thanks Elaina!

Looking forward to getting some snow to replace the constant rain we seem to have had for weeks if not months!

At least I’ve got a few hillwalking trips planned…Glenridding in January and (another!) return to Knoydart in March folloowed by a first visit to Black Sail Youth Hostel. And I’ve promised Craig a first wild camp at some point!

As for the Tigers, things are looking pretty good despite the disruption following Nigel Pearson’s return to Leicester. But I’ve been a City fan for far too long to get too excited, it is only December after all!

And I’m trying to organise a school reunion to celebrate our 50th birthdays – mine was earlier this month and I had a fantastic time with family, old school friends and hillwalking pals.

So hopefully I’ll have enough stuff to talk about. Until then have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Stevenston Beach with Ardrossan and Arran beyond

Our next trip to us to the Isle of Cumbrae and a fantastic circular route. It was so good that we decided to go again the following week this time with Craig who had created his very own map!

X marks the spot!

Of course no visit to Cumbrae would be complete without a photo of the Crocodile Rock!

Craig on Crocodile Rock

We then decided to venture further afield to the Isle of Bute. We drove up to Wemyss Bay to catch the ferry across to Rothesay. Fron there we headed south towards Kingarth and Kilchatten Bay. On the way we got a good, and different, view of Arran.

Looking over to Arran from Bute

After a quick rest at Kilchattan Bay we headed for a the Kingarth Inn for some lovely Scallops and chips and a pint (or was it two?!).

Elaina relaxing at Kilchattan Bay

The Kingarth Inn

Really good day and one we will need to return to with Craig!

So this weekend Craig was desperate to go for another bike ride especially as Elaina’s Dad had given him one of his bikes! Saturday morning wasn’t great but it cleared up in the afternoon so we decided to head to Eglinton Park which is about 4 miles away.

Craig looking very pleased with his "new" second hand bike!

A new adventure park has recently been added to the park including an interesting climbing frame which Craig enjoyed doing a bit of bouldering on!

Craig bouldering!

"Dad, you're upside down!"

I must admit a was a bit doubtful when I started this cycling lark but have to say I’m quite enjoying it!

Portencross Castle has now been fully restored but unfortunately I didn’t take any photos! It wasn’t open but I’m sure we’ll be back in the summer for a proper look round.

We had a good scramble around the rocks and got great views across to Little Cumbrae.

Craig enjoying the view to Little Cumbrae

Craig enjoying the rocks!

We then followed the good path north towards Hunterston Power Station. Further on we deviated from the path to have a wander through a lovely wood which had lots of wild garlic – much to Craig’s amusement we persuaded him to eat some! There were also plenty of opportunities for tree climbing…

Craig in his natural habitat!

It's hard work climbing trees!

Above the wood is an interesting rock formation known as the Three Sisters above which we kept seeing a Buzzard being hounded by the local seagulls! Unfortunately it was too far away to get a decent photo.

The Three Sisters

We must have spent about four hours wandering covering all of two miles, but I think that shows just how interesting this wee corner of Ayrshire is. We will definitely be back now the nights are getting lighter!

We headed through to Hull on Friday to visit my Dad and on the way back we made a detour via Spurn Head, somewhere I’d never actually been to despite living in Holderness until I was 19. We didn’t really have enough time to fully explore it as we had arranged to go for a bar meal that night with my brother Andrew, his wife Janet and my nephew Jamie and his partner Graeme. However we will return in the summer to have a good look around. It was also interesting to drive back to Hornsea past the industrial landscape around Easington Gas Terminal which is in complete contrast to the rest of rural East Riding as depicted in the recent adaptation of “South Riding” although not all was filmed in Holderness!

On Saturday we popped over to see my aunt Mary in Foston-on-the-Wolds to let her know how my Dad was and also to pick her brains on the family history front. It was a really useful chat as I discovered a few things about my grandparents that I didn’t know about. I knew my grandfather had not been brought up by his own parents but it was useful to find out that the people who did bring him up were called Mr and Mrs Williamson and that they also had at last one daughter.

I knew he was born in Leicester in 1905 and a search of GenesReunited led me to a 1911 Census record showing a Thomas Morley aged 5 living in a family of 7 children aged between 7 months and 15 years. Whether this is my grandfather I’m not yet sure as if it is it would suggest that something happened subsequently that led to him being put in a children’s home for some reason. Anyway I’ve contacted Barnardo’s Family History Service just on the off chance that they have a record of a Thomas Morley being looked after by them in the early twentieth century. I’ve also contacted Leicester Council to get a copy of his birth certificate which will hopefully confirm whether or not he is in fact the same Thomas Morley as the one in the Census record. Only down side if it is is the fact that his parents were from Leicester and London which rather screws up my Yorkshire bloodline!

I also discovered that my grandmother had two sisters one of whom was born in 1913 and died in 1930 aged just 17. Again not much information, just a photo a a gravestone possibly in York, so will need to do a bit of research on that.

So the search goes on…

We booked a week on Knoydart to coincide with Elaina’s birthday on the 8th. Unfortunately Elaina has had a knee operation and wasn’t going to be able much in the way of hillwaking but we still had a fantastic time as we were staying at the fabulous Knoydart House.

Knoydart House

It really is a superb house that sleeps ten and includes the best view you could possibly want from a hot tub! And it’s also only a two minute walk from the Old Forge pub, the remotest on mainland Britain.

The Old Forge, Inverie

We arrived on Friday 4th after meeting our friends Jamie & Nicky, Maria, Kirstin and Zoe in Mallaig, some of whom were staying for the whole week and some for a long weekend.

After a lovely Toad in the Hole made by Elaina we headed for a quick pint at the pub. But of course there’s no such thing as a quick pint at the Old Forge! Several pints later, a game of Killer Pool involving everyone in the pub and an incident involving a paddle (!) we finally headed back to the house…and despite the very short distance some of us still managed to take the wrong path!

On Saturday most of the gang decided to do the Corbett behind the village, Sgurr Coire Choinnichean, a hill Elaina and I had done the last time we were on Knoydart. We had an easy day with a walk to the beach and then on to Kilchoan followed by an excellent meal in the pub.

On Sunday we had a short bike ride to Gaschoille House a couple of miles to the west of Inverie. Monday saw Jamie, Nicky and Zoe depart and in the afternoon I went for a wander along the beach in between the showers, the hut at the campsite came in very useful for shelter after one particularly heavy shower!

Campsite Shelter

View from campsite

On Tuesday afternoon we headed out to Inverguseran Farm in the northwest, a lovely relatively flat walk made more interesting by the Golden Eagles soaring above us.

Walking back from Inverguseran Farm

A wet day on Wednesday gave us a chance of a rest which is just as well as Thursday saw us wake to glorious sunshine. Maria had set off early to do Ladhar Bheinn, the highest Munro on Knoydart via Sgorr Coire Choinnichean – an impressively long route! I knew that a) I wouldn’t be able to get up early enough and b) my hill fitness was not what it was having not been out on a proper hill since October so I decided that I would do the same mountain but in a clockwise direction giving me the option to either do a simple “up and down” or if time/fitness permitted go for some sort of circuit.

I left the house at just after nine and made good progress to reach the ruin at Folach at about 10.30am. From there I plodded up the slopes to the beallach between An Diolaid and Ladhar Bheinn. This was the point Elaina and I had got to a few years ago in very deep snow before turning back. This time however the snowline was much higher up but very impressive, no words needed I think the photos say it all…

Heading up the north west ridge of Ladhar Bheinn

View from 1010m trig point towards Ladhar Bheinn

Having got to the summit and with no sign of Maria I sent a text letting her know where I was and decided to carry on with the intention of going along the ridge then along Aonach Sgoilte before dropping down to Gleann an Dubh Lochain. Again some fantastic views looking back…

Looking back to the two summits of Ladhar Bheinn

Looking back at Ladhar Bheinn from the south east ridge

I met Maria on the south east ridge and after a quick chat we set off in opposite directions. It was clear by now that my plan, whilst doable, was clearly going to see me finish in the dark. Not really a problem as the last few miles are along a good track but we had booked a table at the pub for a last night meal and I really did not want to miss that! The easiest route out was to head south west into the Coire Torr an Asgaill, a glorious coire of grassy slopes that were easy to descend. I eventually picked up a path alongside the stream and enjoyed the walk out with a couple of deer for company making it back to the house at about 5.30pm.

Looking back into Coire Torr an Asgaill

And so on Friday we headed home, sad that we had to leave but happy that we had enjoyed a week of great company with friends and locals alike and knowing that we will be back!