Return to Murton Pike

Murton Pike is magnificent. No matter how many times I climb this, the highest of the three pikes that seem to guard the Eden valley from the long ridge of the Pennines, I never fail to be impressed. We hadn’t been up the Pike since before lockdown and Sunday was a good clear day, with

Walking in the Lowther Valley

We could hardly ever tell people just where we’re going on a walk, as we tend to change our minds as we go. We were planning to walk up from Askham through the Lowther Estate and then up to the ring cairn on Knipe Scar. But in the end we put off the cairn and

A Stroll in the Westmorland Dales

The village of Orton’s original name was Sker-Overton, changed to Orton in the local dialect. I found this out when I was researching my novel Villain  – the third in the series which brings some reality back to the legend of Robin Hood. My book starts on the wild moorlands above Orton, before my villains return

A North Pennine Ramble

For a while I could almost have thought I was back on northern Dartmoor in the old days when, apart from the ancient tracks, there were fewer paths. In recent years, paths have sprung up on Dartmoor, from tor to tor and from antiquity to antiquity etc. In those golden olden days we used to

A Church Path to Knock

For the first time in months we drove to the start of a walk, albeit just a few miles. We are still not prepared to drive any great distance to walk, given that Cumbria has one of the worst Covid-19 outbreaks in Britain and that scientists believe it hasn’t yet peaked in our county. We