Author | Writer | Photographer
Slow Journey County: Cumbria
Slow Journey Destination: Claife Heights
Slow Journey Distance Travelled: 0 Steps.
My immediate thought was of radioactivity. It was a series of unmistakable clicks. But where from? Standing on Claife Heights, overlooking Beatrix Potter’s favourite tarn (Moss Eccles), I was puzzled by this noise. The air was still, the tarn’s waters reflective, and a cold wintry sun sat low on the horizon, as if still trying to warm itself up, let alone anything else.
The July 2014 issue of Country Walking magazine carries my 8.5-mile route around the Shropshire/South Staffordshire border, offering walkers the opportunity to visit White Ladies Priory, Boscobel house and the famous oak tree!
The June 2014 issue of Country Walking carries my 7.25-mile route around Clee St Margaret, giving you the opportunity to visit the church at Clee St Margaret, St Milburgha’s Well, and Heath Chapel – it’s a right religious wander, you could say!
Take a wander around Earl’s Hill, Shropshire Wildlife Trust’s first nature reserve and explore the hill known as the Sleeping Dragon!
Experience the drama of this wild and atmospheric Welsh Border landscape that attracts the Devil, Wild Edric’s ghost and lightning!
Simon Whaley investigates Wainwright’s ‘dreary’ tarn.
Step back in time to roam beautiful ruins immortalised two centuries ago by the great Romantic painter JMW Turner.
Simon Whaley goes looking for a hidden gem in this Welsh fishing town …
“Sorry, all boat trips to Caldey Island are cancelled today,” the operator apologises from his wooden hut in Tenby Harbour. “The sea is too rough to land,” he explained. “You could try again tomorrow.”
We’d planned to take the little boat on the three-mile trip across the sea from Tenby to Caldey Island, anchored in the Bristol Channel, to visit the Cistercian monastery based there. Downhearted, we wondered what to do instead.
When travelling to the Cumbrian Lake District you should always keep one eye on the weather …
There are two types of weather in Cumbria: the first is forecast by the Met Office and never happens; the second is Mother Nature doing her own thing (and never telling the Met Office about it in advance).
It was a calm, late autumnal day, when I arrived at what the Rough Guide to the Lake District calls a “limpid little lake.”