H
amish Brown, winner of the
OWPG Lifetime Achievement
Award in 2015, is probably
best known as being the first
person to complete a continuous
round of the Munros in 1974, and
as an enthusiastic promotor of the
Atlas Mountains of Morocco.
He introduced many
pupils to walking in the
Scottish Highlands
He is perhaps less well known as
a naturalist and educator, who
introduced generations of young
people to the joys of the grea t
outdoors. Between 1960 and 1972
he worked at Braehead School
at Buckhaven in Fife, in charge
of outdoor activities, where he
introduced many pupils to walking
in the Scottish Highlands. He later
became County Adviser on the
subject.
Brown is at pains to point
out that his latest book is not
an autobiography, but more
a potpourri of his writings,
particularly during what he calls
his “dancing days of spring” when
he was at his most active as a
far-ranging stravaiger, invariably
accompanied by his faithful
Sheltie, Storm. This is when some
of the best of his writing took
place, particularly when describing
his beloved Scottish highlands.
This is outdoor writing
at its finest and most
evocative
A later example is his beautiful
description of the view from the
summit of the seldom-visited
peak of Roineabhal, on the Isle of
Harris in the Hebrides. “…between
my stance and the road over to
Calanais (Callanish) lay a crazy
world woven on a warp of water
and a weft of rock. A single loch,
as complex in shape as a piece in
a jigsaw, could reach into a dozen
kilometre grid squares on the map,
or a single grid square could hold
a dozen lochs.”
This is outdoor writing at
its finest and most evocative,
recording, as he says, “a day of
glory given when we – so small –
are possessed by landscape.”
in 1951, not as the Peak National
Park as the author suggests. The
“District” was dropped later, and
has now been reinstated.
DARK PEAK WALKS
Paul Besley
Cicerone Press, £12.95 (pb)
T
his is the long-awaited and
welcome updating of Mark
Richards’ High Peak Walks of
1982, describing 40 walks on
the Peak’s gritstone moorlands,
from The Roaches in the west
to the Eastern Moors bordering
Sheffield.
The author, a volunteer ranger
with the Peak District National
Park, has chosen 35 varied circular
day walks and five longer treks,
including the classic Marsden-
Edale and Edale Horseshoe
marathons. But it is good to see
lesser-known long day walks, such
as the 28-mile Gritstone Edges
from Derwent to Birchen, and the
15½ mile Langsett to Edale, via the
Cut Gate Track, also included.
If there’s one criticism it’s the
fact that the author cannot match
Richards’ idiosyncratic knowledge
of the landscape, from place
names to snippets of local history
– but then, few could. And the
Peak District National Park was
so-named when it was designated
Others...
New and revised editions of the
following guide books have also
recently been published by Cicerone:-
WALKING THE PENNINE WAY
Paddy Dillon | £16.95
WALKING BEN NEVIS AND GLEN COE
Ronald Turnbull | Cicerone, £14.95
WALKING THE MONROS: VOL. 1
SOUTHERN, CENTRAL AND WESTERN
HIGHLANDS and WALKING THE MONROS:
VOL 2. NORTHERN HIGHLANDS AND THE
CAIRNGORMS
Steve Kew | £14.95
WALKING THE SPEYSIDE WAY
Alan Castle | £16.95
WALKING THE COAST TO COAST PATH
Terry Marsh | £16.95
Publishers’ websites
Cicerone
www.cicerone.co.uk
Sandstone Press
www.sandstonepress.com
summer 2017 | Outdoor focus 13