The Great Outdoors June 2022

I’M WRITING THIS ON an auspicious day: the 90th anniversary of the Kinder Scout Mass Trespass. In the intervening almost-century, this act of civil disobedience (a limited word count prevents me from recapping the story, but do some Googling if you’re unfamiliar!) has come to be seen as a crucial turning point in the access campaign in Britain. But it has also been sentimentalised and softened into heritage; and it’s easy to forget how controversial, provocative and even unpopular it was at the time. The trespass was led by Communists, and comprised largely of young working-class people from Manchester. More mainstream – and middle-class – organisations were disapproving. Many more affluent ramblers were simply less encumbered by the limited access arrangements of the time; they had the status and connections to…

Hanna Lindon Hanna is a writer and journalist specialising in the outdoors and environmental issues. She’s just got back from a family trip to Snowdonia, where she took her six-year-old daughter scrambling for the first time and also managed to ditch the kids for a solo traverse of the Carneddau. She recently finished walking the South Downs Way, too. In this issue, Hanna contributes to our lead feature on all-time classic walks and their alternatives (p30), and finds out more about Britain’s remotest pub (p18). Rich Hartfield When he’s not on tour with a band, you’ll probably find sound engineer Richard up a mountain somewhere. A passionate walker, fell runner and climber, he has backpacked across the Alps, the Pyrenees and much of Eastern Europe – as well as an epic crossing of…

The wildflower and hay meadows of Swaledale in the Yorkshire Dales National Park are renowned for their beauty and biodiversity. Early June is a good time to visit, as the meadows are at their best for only a very short time after grazing animals have been excluded and before the hay is ready to be cut. England has lost 97% of its traditional, species-rich wildflower meadows since 1945, and these are some of the few remaining examples. Local farmers are supported to maintain the Swaledale meadows by a special agri-environment scheme. Here at Muker, in the heart of Swaledale, visitors can wander along gently winding, flagged footpaths that go straight through the meadows. Early evening is a wonderful time to be here, with low raking light casting long shadows across the landscape…

SIMON OPIT MAKES sound collages and ambient soundscapes, capturing the slowly evolving aural textures of the landscapes he visits. He sometimes recombines the sounds at a later stage with other recordings, or with instrumentation created in the studio in a fluid, or ‘non-intentional’, process. He’s been composing and creating sound art for almost 40 years, and as an enthusiastic disciple of sonic experimentalist John Cage he’s always been interested in the improvisational end of the music spectrum. But the pandemic caused a sudden shift in his relationship to his music work, as well as the outdoors. Covid restrictions meant that collaboration in person with other musicians was impossible, and instead he took to the hills whenever possible with his sound recording equipment. “Anyone who spends time in outdoor spaces finds themselves increasingly…

tgo.ed@kelsey.co.uk Postal address The Editor, The Great Outdoors, Kelsey Publishing Ltd, The Granary, Downs Court, Yalding Hill, Yalding, Kent ME18 6AL. Please include a phone number and postal address. Dales High Way inspiration I loved reading the article ‘Highs and Lows’ by James Forrest and Nicola Hardy in the April issue of The Great Outdoors. It immediately sparked an interest for me and I spent a busy weekend of planning [see right]. I’ve now booked to walk the Dales High Way – a 90-mile route from Saltaire to Appleby-in-Westmorland – in July and I’m very much looking forward to it. I walked the St Cuthbert’s Way last year (a 100km long-distance trail between the Scottish Borders town of Melrose and Lindisfarne off the coast of Northumberland) – it was the first continuous long-distance…

If you only do one walk in the Peak District, this is the walk you should choose. It is a Peak rite of passage – an iconic hike that’s suitable for the whole family. This route strikes a perfect balance, delivering just enough drama to make you feel like you’re on a ‘real’ adventure, but in a bite-sized package that won’t take all day or leave you exhausted. Instead you get maximum excitement for minimal effort, and that’s something to be cherished. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a better ridge walk you can fit into half a day anywhere in the UK. At just 12.5km with slightly over 600 metres of ascent, the Great Ridge is far from a tough outing for the competent hill-walker; but it packs a similar punch…