That Sorta Wraps It Up For 2016, Then.

Knipetowers was abandoned over Christmas for a 1000-mile driveabout visiting rellies and drinking their port…

First we went to Halifax. Then Long Eating…Eaton… Then Halifax – Back to Crook for an hour – Then Motherwell and… Kilncadzow (wherever that is..) and Dunbar via Peebles and then home again.

The very last hill of the year was Venn Law – a steep and forested Tump overlooking Peebles.

How Hill near Ripon has a church on the top and a permissive path from the bottom. Bagged on the journey to Halifax

Halifax town centre looks just like this from the slopes of Beacon Hill. Very windy up Beacon Hill on Christmas Eve..

With the son-in-law on Drumelzier Law – a windy, murky day of thick hill-fog. We had to chop a lump off this walk to try to finish in daylight. Oddly enough, as we descended, a well-equipped lassie, although sporting sunglasses was met on her way up. She was reluctant to say “hello”. Or anything else.

This is  the site of William Roy’s birthplace. A bit later, we bagged Kilncadzow Law – a small Tump with a big view. Unfortunately it was too hazy for decent piccies of Kilncadzow Law. Major-General William  Roy  (Ooor Wullie as his mum would have it) was an innovative engineer and surveyor who’s work lead directly to the establishment of the Ordnance Survey in 1791. And this is where he first popped out to survey the world.

LTD re-arranges to configuration of the beds in an hotel room in Motherwell by pushing them together. Daft dog.

Gloomy view of Peebles and the Manor Valley from Venn Law. (some peeps may remember this as the start of the route through to Moffat) Venn Law is forestry commission and community woodland and is fully open to the public and has multiple footpaths, some of which lead steeply to the top.

That ends 2016. The score on the door is 1189 miles not including doggy walks, 186000 feet of ascent, camping nights – sites 14, wild 20, beach bivis 5. 

That’s not too bad….