The romantic side of me has always been drawn to the buses and trains of the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District yet the practicalities of travelling by public transport have always put me off. Until recently train travel for me has been limited to a few trips on the Settle Carlisle railway (quite excellent…

I am not ashamed to admit I enjoy ticking. Whether this happens to be a new summit, a different route or simply just an alternative and unusual walk I may not have completed before then for me this increases the enjoyment of a day in the outdoors.   If there is some kind of list…

Daft question maybe, but there are many different reasons why people are motivated to go out, either for a half hour walk in the park or a full days yomp round the fells and valleys of our superb countryside. Over the years I have met many many walkers/climbers on a huge variety of walks –…

Wind farms, and in particular the ones on land , create a lot of emotion and passion. In my humble opinion they are an unnecessary eye sore, extremely inefficient, expensive to us consumers and a sop to those environmentalists who have a pathological hatred of nuclear energy. Cards on the table, I do not like them. The…

Good news all round I suspect. Natural England have announced an extension of the boundaries for the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales National Parks to include many areas of great national beauty which always appear below the radar of visitors to the area. There may be some home owners who do not like the thought…

Away from the hills and walks of the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake district there is so much that I enjoy in the pretty villages that dot the landscape of both these areas. This is particularly so in the Dales where the lovely Yorkshire stone buildings blend in to the softer valley sides and drystone…