For newcomers

At the bottom of each post there is the word "comments". If you click on it you will see comments made by followers, and if you follow the instructions you may also comment and I always welcome that. I have found many people overlook this part of the blog which is often more interesting than the original post!

My blog nick-name is SIR HUGH. I'm not from the aristocracy - my middle name is Hugh which relates to the list of 282 hills in Scotland compiled by Sir Hugh Munro in 1891. I climbed my last one (Sgurr Mor) on 28th June 2009

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Friday 7 March 2014

Two more Marilyns

Generally I don't like driving south from Arnside. Traffic multiplies exponentially. The sun is blinding, and the scenery becomes increasingly mediocre.

There are exceptions: if I am on the way to Wales, or to visit my brother in Hereford; then those irritations are largely negated. Last Wednesday I concocted another.

Southwards there remained nine unclimbed Marilyns within  reasonable driving distance.

Not to disprove the speculation that I may be a despised list ticker only, but because I wanted to, I walked to the summit of Winter Hill (SD 659 149). There is a Tarmac road all the way to service the TV station and the many radio masts, including the massive 1015 ft. ITV transmitter, so I could have driven there, but I enjoyed the seven mile round walk on a glorious day.

There is much of interest including murder, plane crashes and  stuff about the construction and servicing of the big mast. Links can be tedious, but I  hope some may appreciate these two.

Winter Hill

Winter Hill mast

A drive across industrial Lancashire to Billinge Hill (SD 525 014) was bearable using Memory Map on my iPad Mini with sat nav positioning and the OS 1:50000 map.

BH is in a drab urban setting easily frequented, and therefore trashed by riff raff, but the views are fine, and in particular I could look back to Winter Hill and its masts from where I had just driven.

To save the bother of Googling here is the most interesting extract from Wikipedia.

Billinge Hill was also used by the Royal Observer Corps, and there was a bunker at the site, 60 yards (55 m) West of and below Beacon. The Beacon itself was used for aircraft observation during and after the war. The bunker would have been used to monitor the location of nuclear blasts and the resulting fallout over Lancashire in the event of nuclear war.

Here also was  personal interest - my father served in the Observer Corps during the war on Otley Chevin in Yorkshire.

The big mast on Winter Hill



North east from Winter Hill - Belmont Reservoir

The big mast from the trig point

On the descent from Winter Hill. Part of Bolton Wanderers stadium. It was impossible to see anything in the so called viewfinder.

Billinge Hill


Winter Hill from Billinge Hill

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No Thursday walk with Pete this week because of weather.  Hayes Garden Centre at Ambleside has a good café but also houses Cotswold Outdoor where, through some kind of frustration I bought an expensive pair of zip-off walking trousers when, if I am honest, I already have two pairs that will do the job.


2 comments:

  1. one of these bunkers is up for sale: in case of doubt, bid now, or pray for peace: perhaps.
    BBC website has the details.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well it's good to get one comment rather than none. One never knows what subjects are going to draw people out to comment.

    Perhaps you have already made an offer on the bunker?

    ReplyDelete