Follow The Oikofuge: Walking, filter it, and define how you want to receive the news (via Email, RSS, Telegram, WhatsApp etc.) https://follow.it/the-oikofuge-walking Thu, 30 Nov 2023 22:28:46 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTdDaMS-XQGRy96jHbRcHw3s I haven’t written about hill lists for a while, and after writing about the classic Scottish hill lists, and dealing in separate posts with the Corbetts and the Donalds, I’m overdue to write about the third (and original) classic, the Munros. But instead, I’m veering off into the long grass with this one, which deals … Continue reading Hill Lists: “On Top Of The World” →]]> Wed, 16 Aug 2023 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTdDaMS-XQGRy96jHbRcHw3s https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTed21_n9IxJxeGkz6RCC25z Ben Ever (NN 983001, 622m)Ben Cleuch (NN 903006, 721m)The Law (NN 910996, 638m) 11.2 kilometres810 metres of ascent Another in my series of Ochils circuits, in which I trace a new outward route, but return by reversing the outward route of a previous walk. This one retraces my route over The Law, which was the … Continue reading Ochils: Daiglen Circuit →]]> Wed, 12 Jul 2023 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTed21_n9IxJxeGkz6RCC25z https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTfibowsdKfBtpJTpfXVttXD Auchterhouse Hill (NO 354397, 424m)Balkello Hill (NO 361394, 397m)Craigowl Hill (NO 377400, 455m) 7.8 kilometres365m of ascent For complicated reasons that need not detain us here, The Oikofuge hasn’t been getting out much of late, to the extent that I had to miss this year’s rendezvous of the Crow Craigies Climbing Party. But as I … Continue reading Sidlaws: The Classic ABC Circuit →]]> Wed, 21 Jun 2023 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTfibowsdKfBtpJTpfXVttXD https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTcGXtoED4u0BCRFMxTa8z4W I am quite clear in my own mind that I’d set my face in the right direction, though I don’t pretend to know why I should be destined to visit Greenland any more than Timbuctoo. Maybe I’m not, and I shall be able to visit Timbuctoo another day, for one journey leads naturally to another. … Continue reading Isobel Wylie Hutchison: Peak Beyond Peak →]]> Wed, 17 May 2023 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTcGXtoED4u0BCRFMxTa8z4W https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTflvnMWJHgeHcqq6eZJzUh9 The Law (NS 910996, 638m)Andrew Gannel Hill (NN 918005, 670m)King’s Seat Hill (NS 933999, 648m) 17.4 kilometres910 metres of ascent Another loop in the Ochils, this one taking advantage of the Devon Way cycle/pedestrian path to make a return from Dollar to Tillicoultry. And, again, it was designed so that the return limb of this … Continue reading Ochils: Tillicoultry-Dollar Circuit →]]> Wed, 29 Mar 2023 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTflvnMWJHgeHcqq6eZJzUh9 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTflDmaEIauUq68qfTAM-Smm [The letter] h is one of the most common letters on any page of Gaelic, and as a result has become the victim of its own popularity. In pseudo- or pidgin Gaelic it is used by many who do not know the language well and feel that the liberal insertion of a few examples of … Continue reading Hillwalkers’ Gaelic: “Doing The Dubhs” →]]> Wed, 15 Mar 2023 14:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTflDmaEIauUq68qfTAM-Smm https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTfgO1o1YMx6MdaXKMm36c-X 19 kilometres410 metres of ascent Ever since I made my ascent of Ben Vrackie from the west, I’ve been hankering to use the Pitlochry Path Network to make a circuit of the waterways between Pitlochry and Killiecrankie. So this one is devoid of hills but replete with rivers and bridges. I parked at the car park below the visitor centre at the Pitlochry hydroelectric dam, and walked across the dam to reach the south shore of Loch Faskally. Here’s the view looking back along the dam to the visitor centre: And looking east below the dam, to the “salmon ladder” … Continue reading Loch Faskally Circuit →]]> Wed, 01 Mar 2023 14:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTfgO1o1YMx6MdaXKMm36c-X https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTc428M5F3yf65u9CxXrVx4c I stood in the rain at the foot of the Inaccessible Pinnacle’s east edge, that ‘easy edge’, looking up at it, trembling a little. True, I was overawed by its history, its odd and discomfiting form, its dizzying position — but I think I was basically just very scared. In the part of your brain … Continue reading Simon Ingram: The Black Ridge →]]> Wed, 21 Sep 2022 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTc428M5F3yf65u9CxXrVx4c https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTfWn3MIAGl0Vbb9ICM-PHur This is the second in my planned series of posts dealing with the revision history of the three “classic” tables of Scottish hills—the Munros, Donalds and Corbetts, which I introduced in an earlier post. I also introduced the idea of topographic prominence, and a way of charting these hill tables in two dimensions by plotting … Continue reading Scottish Hill Lists: The Donald Revisions →]]> Wed, 14 Sep 2022 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTfWn3MIAGl0Vbb9ICM-PHur https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTf-6A5XxOOmsO4DA87rvhPr King’s Seat Hill (NS 933999, 648m)Andrew Gannel Hill (NN 918006, 670m)Skythorn Hill (NN 926013, 601m)Cairnmorris Hill (NN 933016, 606m)Tarmangie Hill (NN 943013 645m)Whitewisp Hill (NN 955013 643m) 14 kilometers930 metres of ascent I mentioned the Glen of Sorrow when I wrote about my circuit of Glen Sherup, and promised I’d write more about it on … Continue reading Ochils: Glen of Sorrow Circuit →]]> Wed, 07 Sep 2022 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTf-6A5XxOOmsO4DA87rvhPr https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTei1Br-PGYmOAaB2UxGNFpJ Last time, I introduced the concept of “Hillwalkers’ Gaelic”, which I abbreviated “HG” to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic (“SG”). I did so in the context of a comic poem entitled “The Climber’s Guide to the Pronunciation of the Gaelic Tongue“, which appeared in the Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal of 1897, probably written by the … Continue reading Hillwalkers’ Gaelic: Part 2 →]]> Wed, 31 Aug 2022 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTei1Br-PGYmOAaB2UxGNFpJ https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTfWbFu9ynJHQWhamfNIiY2W In a previous post, I wrote about the three “classic” Scottish hills lists—the Munros (1891), Donalds (1935) and Corbetts (1952), and how these were brought together, in a publication commonly referred to as Munro’s Tables, by the Scottish Mountaineering Club in 1953. As a way of displaying the topographic data for these hills, I also … Continue reading Scottish Hill Lists: The Corbett Revisions →]]> Wed, 17 Aug 2022 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTfWbFu9ynJHQWhamfNIiY2W https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTcGAPZaIko9Q7b9ICM-PHur Innerdownie (NN 966031, 610m)Whitewisp Hill (NN 955013 643m)Tarmangie Hill (NN 943013 645m)Ben Shee (NN 952039, 516m) 16 kilometres675 metres of ascent On my previous visit to the Ochils, when I walked in to Ben Cleuch from the north, I looked down on Glen Sherup from Ben Shee and thought that another enjoyable circuit could be … Continue reading Ochils: Glen Sherup Circuit →]]> Wed, 10 Aug 2022 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTcGAPZaIko9Q7b9ICM-PHur https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTf5Y08pN4ku7n-fx8LWuXng The pronunciation of Gaelic hill names is fraught with difficulty for the non-Gael. One problem is the striking way in which some consonants are not pronounced at all. This is the Gaelic phenomenon of lenition, in which the addition of an “h” to a consonant changes and softens its pronunciation. Some lenited consonants, particularly “dh” … Continue reading Hillwalkers’ Gaelic: Part 1 →]]> Wed, 03 Aug 2022 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTf5Y08pN4ku7n-fx8LWuXng https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTeF7YgGnP7Mogp41t9tiERU The view had a massive visual scale. It felt cinematic: an epic horizon like the opening credits of a David Lean film. A path scrolled out ahead of me, eventually fading into the middle distance. Across the plateau I could see other tors emerging from the mist: dark, maritime shapes, spectral galleons held up on … Continue reading Patrick Baker: The Cairngorms—A Secret History →]]> Wed, 27 Jul 2022 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTeF7YgGnP7Mogp41t9tiERU https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTcMVXsyP6RWbDHgrmwRGUK6 After a gap of two years during which the Covid pandemic prevented the Crow Craigies Climbing Party assembling in our usual force, we were back together again, this time in Kingussie. Despite the looming presence of the Cairngorm plateau nearby, I managed to spend my time without ever creeping over the 3000-foot contour—I arrived nursing … Continue reading CCCP 2022: Kingussie →]]> Wed, 13 Jul 2022 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTcMVXsyP6RWbDHgrmwRGUK6 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTds48BNwcMp7wm0QkxGtqLL Meall nan Tarmachan SE Top (NN 589385, 922m)Meall nan Tarmachan (NN 585390, 1044m)Meall Garbh (NN578383, 1027m)Beinn nan Eachan (NN 570383, 1000m)Creag na Caillich (NN 562377, 914m) 14.8 kilometres850m of ascent Some days even I give up on trying to come up with new ways to climb old hills, and just go out and walk a … Continue reading The Tarmachan Ridge →]]> Wed, 15 Jun 2022 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTds48BNwcMp7wm0QkxGtqLL https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTfd7EJ3Jdr9QzHgrmwRGUK6 Hill of Strone (NO 288729, 850m)Driesh (NO 271735, 947m) 18.3 kilometres890 metres of ascent Driesh is usually climbed along with it neighbour to the west, Mayar. Most people seem to come in from Glen Doll in the north, a route I’ve previously described, but the longer approach from Glen Prosen in the south has its … Continue reading Glen Prosen: Driesh From The East →]]> Wed, 18 May 2022 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTfd7EJ3Jdr9QzHgrmwRGUK6 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTe3-whLZar8rOGkz6RCC25z If you’ve spent any time at all reading The Oikofuge, you’ll have gathered that I’m quite interested in hills—climbing them, looking at other hills from their summits, understanding their names and their place in history, landscape and land-use. What you won’t have seen me mention very often is the plethora of classifications that have been … Continue reading Scottish Hill Lists: The Classics →]]> Wed, 11 May 2022 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTe3-whLZar8rOGkz6RCC25z https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTd1P5akhssjeiRFMxTa8z4W The Cairngorms lay beneath what was now a local bonnet of cloud. Everything else was in sunshine and dazzling with colours, cobalts and browns and bright greens, all the peaks around glowing with the pristine pigments of an illuminated manuscript, as far as distant Lochnagar and Beinn a’ Ghlo. Then even the interior gloom began to … Continue reading Sydney Scroggie: The Cairngorms Scene & Unseen →]]> Wed, 04 May 2022 13:00:00 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/nxUhY39heTd1P5akhssjeiRFMxTa8z4W