My Wider Interests
For many years I have been a keen hill walker. A specifically British obsession with hills is to tick off lists of summits, a wide variety is available to suit all sorts. Various lists for the UK are here, and I am number 54 on the all-time list of those who have climbed all the 2,000 foot summits in England and Wales.
Scotland is an altogether more serious proposition. Many of the hills are remote, and the climate on many summits is sub-Arctic. On the highest summits, snow can fall on any day of the year. The only month I haven’t encountered snow personally is August! The Scottish Mountaineering Council maintain a list of completers of the 282 3,000 foot mountains, known as Munros
It gets even more complicated. There are over 6000 completers of the Munros. But there are also the Munro Tops, also 3,000 foot peaks but not separate mountains. There is no formal definition of the two, and some of the Tops are distinctly harder than the Munros. And there are the ‘Furth of Scotland’, the 3,000 foot peaks of England, Wales and Ireland. Only 193 people have completed the Munros, Tops and Furth since records began in 1901 before I did.
I was pleased last year to be invited to join the Relative Hills Society of Britain. Membership is by invitation only and there are less than 200 active members. To qualify you have to have bagged a very large number of British hills. Here is a link to their general site which shows the full complexity of the lists of hills to be bagged.
I am a keen cross-country runner and occasional fell runner (running up and down steep hills). I also do a bit of winter climbing in Scotland, though at pretty low climbing grades.
I have been interested in butterflies for a long time, and sometimes I combine this with hill-going. Here is a short note I published in the Entomologist’s Journal and Record of Variation on butterflies in remote parts of the Scottish Highlands.
I have supported Rochdale Hornets, the Rugby League team of my home town, for many years. The club has not won a major trophy since 1922, but it has a dedicated group of fans and is rooted in the local community. I am proud to have been asked to be the President of the club, and here [I will send the link] is the President’s medal, worn on ceremonial occasions.
I have been interested in butterflies for a long time, and sometimes I combine this with hill-going. Here is a short note I published in the Entomologist’s Journal and Record of Variation on butterflies in remote parts of the Scottish Highlands.
I am a keen cross-country runner and occasional fell runner (running up and down steep hills). I also do a bit of winter climbing in Scotland, though at pretty low climbing grades.
I have supported Rochdale Hornets, the Rugby League team of my home town, for many years. The club has not won a major trophy since 1922, but it has a dedicated group of fans and is rooted in the local community. I am proud to have been asked to be the President of the club, and here is the President’s medal, worn on ceremonial occasions.
