in a revisionist light. But the
outstanding work of the National
Trust and the Moors for the Future
Partnership in restoring Kinder’s
blanket bogs gets scant mention.
There is more vegetation and
wildlife on Kinder now than has
been seen in thirty years and this
surely is also a cause for celebration.
Kinder Scout: The People’s
Mountain
Ed Douglas and John Beatty
Vertebrate Publishing, £19.95 (pb)
K
inder Scout is probably the
most walked-on mountain
in Britain, chiefly because
of its geographical situation
as the highest ground between the
teeming industrial cities of Sheffield
and Manchester.
But it’s true to say that most
walkers either love or hate Kinder.
The sainted Alfred Wainwright
certainly fell in to the latter
category, but many others,
including the authors of this long-
awaited book, find the sense of
freedom given by its unique mix
of bleak blanket bog and diadem
of stunning gritstone outcrops
irresistible.
So this sumptuous if rather
unwieldy new offering from
Vertebrate is very much a hymn of
praise to the Peak’s highest summit.
But it is not so much the story of
“the people’s mountain” promised
by the title, but much more of a
personal testament by the author
and photographer about what
Kinder means to them.
Beatty’s moody and magnificent
photographs are grouped
together in sections in a rather
old-fashioned, 1950s style, and
Douglas’s text, which takes the
form of a backpacking journey
across the plateau with many
distractions, is presented in solid,
hard-to-read, blocks of text.
Of course, Kinder is assured an
iconic status in the history of the
fight for access as being the scene
of the celebrated Mass Trespass
of 1932 and this event is covered
along with many other attractions
along the route, including the great
slate galleries of Dinorwig and the
Ffestiniog Railway.
It could equally be called the
Slate Sculpture Trail with stunning
structures at places like Blaenau
Ffestiniog, on the access road to
Penrhyn quarry in Nant Ffrancon
and at the end of the trail in
Bethesda.
But the most lasting monument
must be to the nearly 3,000
slate workers who toiled, often
in appallingly-dangerous
underground conditions, and
who made such an important
contribution to the landscape and
culture of this part of North Wales.
Snowdonia Slate Trail
Aled Owen
Rucksack Readers, £12.99 (pb)
T
his new, 83-mile circuit of
the main Snowdon massif,
from Bangor on the Irish
Sea coast and reaching
as far inland as Llan Ffestiniog,
was developed over four years by
the Cwm Penmachno Community
Action Group.
The distinctive blue-grey slate
of Snowdonia which once roofed the
world is the central theme, so it’s
appropriate the guide is written by a
man born and raised near Bethesda
and who lived in a remote quarry
village for many years.
The slate quarrying industry is
examined in detail, and the re-birth
of the slate-tip surrounded village
of Blaenau Ffestiniog, sadly but
understandably excluded from the
Snowdonia National Park when it
was set up in 1951, is celebrated,
Cape to Cape
John Sutcliffe
Vertebrate, £17.99 (pb)
E
xploration geologist John
Sutcliffe, who’d spent the
last few years in Peru, was
fast approaching his 70th
birthday, and was longing for the
hills of home.
So he planned this new route,
a blistering 1,250 miles from
Cape Cornwall through Wales, the
Pennines, Southern Uplands and
the west of Scotland, to Cape Wrath
at the north-westerly point of the
continues overleaf...
summer 2018 | Outdoor focus 9