In The Hills
A unique encounter by the lake
A few years ago I was working a job where I was on permanent night shifts. It didn’t pay much and very often on my days off, my body-clock would be so skewed that I would simply remain in ‘night mode’. When I struggled to sleep on a night, I would often go out for…
Commando Memorial, Spean Bridge
Back in 2010 I visited the Commando Memorial at Spean Bridge. It wasn’t somewhere in the hills I had planned to visit. I had been on a touring holiday in Scotland, but once I saw the sign on the road-side I knew I would have to stop and take a look at this memorial dedicated…
My Favourite Scottish Island
Back in 2011 I took a trip to western Scotland and the Scottish Islands. It was a grueling schedule driving around 1200 miles in just a few days. Most of the driving was on narrow highland roads, so there was no chance to use anything as luxurious as cruise control. The twisting and winding roads…
Driving the country lanes at night
A couple of days ago I was struggling to settle in for the evening at home, so I decided to to go driving for a bit to clear my head. Inevitably I ended up in the countryside and I found a road I hadn’t driven on before. I’ve driven most of the roads in our…
Time to Look Up
As the Summer draws to a close, the nights are becoming darker. That makes it the perfect time to start looking up at the sky again. While in town there is plenty of light pollution from a wide variety of sources such as street-lighting, signage and traffic, in the country there is no such extraneous…
Staxton Wold
Nestling, quite inconspicuously in the Yorkshire Wolds, is Remote RADAR Head Staxton Wold. It is a RADAR facility operated by the Royal Air Force as part of the UK’s Air Surveillance & Control System. The base itself is fairly innocuous and easy to drive by without realising, unlike the ‘big wedge’ at RAF Fylingdales. However,…
A Night Visit To Upper Weardale
There are two great dales in the County of Durham; Teesdale and Weardale. I always think of Teesdale as the pretty, agricultural dale. Whilst I tend to think of Weardale as having a great industrial heritage as well as its share of agricultural heritage. The Place Tonight’s visit was to Weardale. If you wound the…
Wandering the moors
Today I spent a bit of time on the moors. The county where I live has quite a variety of environments to go walking in. Coast, hills, moorlands and forest all are within easy reach of anyone who has access to a car. Also, despite being out and about on a sunny weekend, it felt…
