Boye

Here's a very dramatic and convincing contemporary ECW illustration of Prince Rupert's poodle, "Boye", who, sadly, was killed at the battle of Marston Moor. You will see some dastardly (left handed?) Parliamentarian musketeer shooting him at very close range. The bullets are thick and fast. Don't know who the odd-bod is on the left - maybe a witch, obviously a dog lover. There were dark Puritan tales of Boye being protected by evil magic - I hope he had some form of money-back guarantee clause in there.

Like every ECW newbie ever, I have been pondering the idea of adding a suitably sized Boye lookalike to my Prince Rupert figure (one of the few celebs who made it to Lancashire), but am now thinking that the idea, while cute, is likely to pall after about two weeks. I think Lord Byron made it to Lancs as well, so I could give him a parrot - no, on balance that might be a tad controversial. Most of the high-profile Royalist generals gave Lancashire a miss, apparently, because they didn't care for black pudding and couldn't play the ukulele.

My second picture, below, suggests that it is likely that Boye met his end through being trampled on, which is less glorious than stopping a bullet but still unforgivingly terminal.

My few days in Liverpool went well - a good balance of the familiar and the new, with some good food and beer. By a complete coincidence, my visit coincided with the announcement of the Hillsborough findings. I refuse to say anything at all about Hillsborough, apart from the fact that the findings - while still deeply upsetting - are exactly in line with what has been common knowledge on Merseyside for 23 years.

Now I am getting my kit and my knees ready for the assault on Hadrian's Wall - we assemble at base camp on Wednesday. Because this is only incidentally a sightseeing tour, it seems likely at the moment that we won't have the time or energy to get to Vindolanda, which is a bit out of our way (off the wall?...), which would be a shame - I'm working on it. This is the time at which I suddenly realise that my back-pack is in a very bad state and may need to be replaced. And then there's my socks...

Hooptedoodle #61 - Glentress, and the Lumberjills

Been walking again this week - taking advantage of some fine weather at the end of the school holidays (so this was family walking), and trying to get some more miles in toward my build-up for Hadrian's Wall next month.

On Wednesday we walked from North Berwick, along the John Muir Way as far as East Linton (this is all East Lothian, South-East Scotland), which is a straightforward walk, without any particular hills - the only challenges were some rough conditions underfoot around field margins, with long grass and some marshy bits, and a remarkably smelly compost works to be passed by.

Looking South across the Valley of the Tweed, between Peebles

and Innerleithen, from the edge of Glentress Forest

Today we were in hilly parts again, at Glentress Forest, near Peebles. This was a bit more demanding in the up-and-down department, and we had a good walk - around 6 miles of pretty vigorous going in woodland - but I got a real surprise - I felt, literally, like a visitor from another century.

Peebles and I have a lot of history. It's a fine little town, on the River Tweed, and I've spent a fair amount of time there. For a while I had occasional use of a holiday cottage there, but I've also done a lot of walking in those parts (Glentress and Cardrona Forest Parks), played tennis and cricket there, even done a little fishing - an easy drive from Edinburgh, it has always been a good watering-hole and relaxing place. When my first lot of kids were young we must have walked hundreds of miles in the Peebles area - at Glentress especially.

Anyway, today we estimated it was three or four years since we were last at Glentress, so it was time we went back. What a change. The place is unrecognisable - they have constructed a very ambitious mountain-biking facility - this is obviously a huge money maker for the area, and though we were a bit taken aback by how busy it is now, it is great to see so many people enjoying the countryside and getting exercise. The downside, sadly, is that they have taken a lot of trouble to keep the walkers and the bikers separate - which is eminently sensible - and the poor old walkers are now restricted to a small number of rigidly-defined walks in the edges of the forest area. We had a nice enough walk, and I enjoyed it, but a small part of me is a little sad that it has changed so much.

In the forest we came across an unusual (solar powered) monument to the Women's Timber Corps of WW2 - the "Lumberjills". A branch of the Land Army, these girls worked in the forests - in the East of Scotland there were a lot of them, mostly making pit props as far as I can see. The little monument was set up to play some audio selections - the recollections of local women who had worked in the forests, along with some excerpts from wartime newsreel clips on the subject. I had a look round the online Pathe News library when I got home, but couldn't find anything relevant.

There is a traditional tale told of the Land Girls in this area - the choice between being called up for the ATS or working on the farms and getting to meet Italian PoWs was regarded as something of a no-brainer...

[Late edit] The John Muir Way - In reply to an email from the US - yes, this is the same John Muir, naturalist and explorer, who is famous for mapping and opening up Yosemite and other places in North America. He was, in fact, a Scotsman - a native of Dunbar, which is about 10 miles from here. Old JM is now commemorated with the big coastal walkway from Musselburgh to Cockburnspath - named after him - and there are statues, a permanent exhibition in a dedicated building in Dunbar High St, and - the ultimate tribute - the HQ of East Lothian County Council is now called John Muir House. However, this huge surge of pride has all been comparatively recent, as far as I can see - he was little known in his homeland until the 1970s, and most of the impetus for raising his profile here came from visiting Americans asking questions about the great man and getting blank looks! 

Hooptedoodle #60 - Walking in the Pentlands, and Hadrian's Wall

I'm in training, you see. Yesterday I spent the day walking in the Pentland Hills, south of Edinburgh, with my friend Chester, who is a veteran of the Appalachian Way and various other Very Serious Walks. It was a terrific day out anyway, but it was all in aid of getting my general fitness up in preparation for a walk along the length of Hadrian's Wall next month, of which more later. Yesterday we started our walk at Flotterstone, and then walked along the switchback of hills which forms the eastern end of the Pentlands.

We went up Turnhouse Hill, Carnethy Hill and Scald Law. There is a single track which goes right over the top of each in turn (which must be a modern phenomenon - Ancient Man would have been sensible enough to walk around the hills, you would think, unless he was looking out for someone). The individual hills are not very high, but they are steep, and the cumulative effect of coming down one and then up the next is interesting, shall we say. Originally we had thought of continuing the chain to East Kip and West Kip, but in the event we decided to head back after Scald Law. My recent experience of walking in the Alps has definitely helped in the heart-&-lungs department, and I have to point out that it wasn't me that wanted to miss the last two hills, though I'm probably glad that we did! The hills are all around the same height - I think the top of Carnethy is 573 metres - but the dips between them are around 200 metres, so it gets your attention when it goes up again.

After Scald Law we cut north, down into the valley, and walked past Loganlea and Glencorse Reservoirs back to our starting point. Probably 9 miles all told. The photos are by Dave Henniker, who does some lovely work in this area.

Looking back from Carnethy Hill towards Turnhouse - gives a good idea

of the surrounding landscape.

Scald Law

As Chester said yesterday, it really is very easy to forget the lovely places we have almost on our doorstep. I worked it out - last time I did this particular walk was 13 years ago. Hmmm.

I'm sure I'll say more about Hadrian's Wall on another occasion. I shall be doing that walk with a couple of other friends. We are attacking it West-to-East, which is not the "normal" direction, but we chose to do it that way because it puts the prevailing wind (and rain) at our backs, and it is far easier to get transport home from Newcastle than it would be from Bowness-on-Solway at the other end. No, they probably aren't very good reasons, but that's how we are doing it. We are also doing it the softies' way, arranging for a courier to handle our main bags from base to base, and carrying only a light day pack, and we are pacing it pretty gently - about 12-15 miles a day. It will not be anything like as strenuous as what I did yesterday, but walking 12 miles in an exposed situation and then getting up the next morning to do it again brings challenges of its own. We will have 6 days of walking, and we're planning to have time to see a few sites on the way.

Another faint disadvantage of doing the wall the "wrong" way is that we can't find any guidebooks which do it in this direction. You would think that it would be easy to reverse-engineer a walk from a guidebook, but I've tried, and it isn't. The maps work OK, but looking out for landmarks doesn't work very well in reverse at all. If I disappear without trace, you will be able to guess what happened.

Hadrian's Wall is not very far from where I live, but I don't often go there, and find some bits of it quite affecting. If you stand at the north edge of Housesteads Fort, actually on the wall, and you face north, then that was the end of the civilised world. Behind you, the Roman Empire stretched to the Black Sea - in front of you were the barbarians. For some reason I find that very moving, and remember that the poor sods who were stationed there included the SAGITARII HAMIORUM, who were Syrians and must have found it a bit chilly.