Collected Musings of a Hill Wanderer

For one reason or another, this month has not seen me spending more time among hills than a few hours of afternoon walking. True, the days are shorter now but I have been known to make  the most of whatever was on offer. Last November saw me atop the Brecon Beacons while December saw me head to Harlech and Bellingham. Those excursions prove that there is still some wonder to be experienced at this time of year so there have to be other reasons why I haven’t had at least a full day in the outdoors this time around.

Grey weather can be blamed but there was another distraction: a technological upheaval at home. A frightful weekend with Windows led me to try jumping ship to Linux, Ubuntu as it happens, for my home computing needs. What started out as an experiment became a permanent state of affairs; I have tried Linux before so I was open to the trial not working out. Thanks to the wonders of modern software technology, I can run Windows and Linux at the same time so money spent on Anquet mapping has not been wasted and my iTunes music library remains available to me. Like any new thing, Linux for me has meant learning new things, resolving new problems and setting things up differently. All that has taken time, time that could have spent on other things, things like hillwalking. I suppose that there was a certainly novelty about the experience too but the novel has become the everyday so my mind can turn now to other things.

Of course, being the time of year that it is, Christmas shopping and other such preparations need doing but walking at this time of year can be a wonderful experience. For me, it’s the magic of walking on a bright crisp sunny day that does it for me and the light is something that pleases the photographic side of me. Being the camera wielding hiker that I am, the magic of the light at this time of year has its draw on me and there are some wonderful opportunities in November and December when conditions are right. In fact, thoughts of opportunities grasped in the last few years have me thinking about pottering out and about. Photography-friendly weather would be nice but I might just head off on a reconnaisance visit to somewhere different regardless. We’ll see…

Access to the countryside in my native Éire has always remained a grey area, tolerated in a lot of cases even if it is not strictly legal. It is also a matter that has also been complicated by history. For one thing, it hasn’t bequeath us a network of public footpaths and bridleways like that which crisscrosses England and Wales. In that respect, the Irish situation is somewhat akin to Scotland’s, though that country does have known rights of way even if they are not marked on any OS map and so take some finding. Of course, Scotland has imported some Scandinavian enlightenment with its access legislation as well, while it places an emphasis on those out enjoying their rights also knowing their responsibilities.

Continuing the Scotland versus Ireland theme, there is also the matter of how land is owned to be considered. A feudal land ownership system still pervades in parts of Scotland but was all but banished from Ireland in the early years of the twentieth century. Scotland suffered the Clearances while the Irish resisted any such attempts at a free for approach that might have ended up there. The result of the former is that we see vast tracts of Scottish land sparsely populated and owned by a small number of people with the people who actually farm the land renting it. Land agitation in the Ireland resulted in several land acts that resulted in loans being given to Irish farmers to buy their own land. This has meant that holdings in Ireland hardly ever top a few hundred acres and a 40 acre farm far from an uncommon situation; the questionable economic viability of the latter is perhaps why EU subsidies are so important to Irish farming families. That has meant that the Irish countryside is more peopled than its Scottish equivalent and the fight for the right to own land has made for an emotional attachment to it that only now may be slackening.

Putting the lack of traditional rights of way and a strong emotional attachment both to the idea of owning land and handing on to the next generation should they be interested in farming, a waning pattern given the rise of the Celtic Tiger and the opportunities that it has presented, it is amazing that there is any off road walking on offer at all. Indeed, the Waymarked Ways, Ireland’s long distance walking trail network, sadly goes over a lot of tarmac and that’s a pity, even if the roads are quiet affairs.

Thankfully, the opportunities remain and Walking World Ireland does have some good ideas for routes that I must explore some time; this was also borne out by Andy Howell’s outings along the coast and among the mountains of West Cork (excursions that put me to shame…). However, the said magazine also reports tussles arising from the whole land access issue and that’s why a recent item on the RTÉ News website was an encouraging sign. The idea of an expanded network of paths for off road walking can only be a good and it also good that there is now a willingness at government level to fund can only be a good thing. Let’s hope that it comes to pass and worries about spurious insurance claims and bad walker behaviour will come to nothing. We all owe it to the proposal to make it a success and then ensure that it is the start of something greater.