Believe it or not, this thing actually started as a place to convey site news and share trip reports as a means of a teaser for new additions to the photo gallery. Within months, it began to gain a life of its own with musings of outdoors activities such as hillwalking, cycling and photography all finding their way on here. The first of these is the major focus these days and never seems to fail to yield something new to be shared, whether it's an idea for a trip away, something new in the outdoors media, a new piece of outdoors gear or even mental meanderings induced by the weather or the wonder of nature. I hope that you find something of interest, whatever it might happen to be.

Online Outdoor Gear Retailers

Here are a collection of online stores selling outdoor equipment in the Britain and Ireland. I know that there is a list of U.K. stores on OutdoorsMagic.com but I plan to add my experiences of any of these with which I have had dealings and I have not seen a listing of Irish stores anywhere. Many have bricks and mortar stores as well and I will admit to visiting some of these too.

Part of the same group as Millets but serving a slightly different market sector, their bricks and mortar shops have seen me more often that their online variant. My North Face Nuptse jacket was bought at their Manchester branch but I have been known to buy at other ones too like in Aviemore when I acquired rubber tips for my walking poles to replace easy to lose plastic caps.

Though this lot is based in Macclesfield, I only ever have had a look in through their windows. The business started at the tail end of the boom and you have to wonder how concerns like this are going nowadays but it's still going in online and offline forms.

When I became in need of new boots a few years ago, the Manchester branch of Cotswolds was where I sourced my now resting pair of Scarpa ZG10's. Their online store has yielded some items too though I cannot recall what they were from the top of my head.

It may be because they don't do discounts as a matter of course but I can't say that I have bought much from these people. For ages, my only purchase of note was a pair of North Face trail shoes but 2008 saw me pick up an Osprey Aether 60 rucksack that accompanied me on my escapade taking in Skye and the Western Isles. They also operate bricks and mortar stores for The North Face in the U.K. so it shouldn't have been a pleasant surprise to seem them The North Face's replacement's for their ever practical Paramount Cargo trekking trousers. In their own shops, there's a good selection of brands and I am considering a return visit to their Castlefield store in Manchester. As regards their online store, it needs attention in the speed and navigation areas (stuff isn't as easy to find on it as on competitor websites).

For a few years, this was an online emporium that I frequented more than I care to admit or remember; their real world stores seem to be away from the sorts of places that I tend to frequent. Apart from the non-delivery of a Magellan GPS receiver by Royal Mail, most mail order items made their way to me without incident. Two pairs of my favourite hill trousers, North Face's Paramount Cargo, came from them as were a now well holed pair of Salomon Nubuck leather boots (they fitted well and performed likewise while they lasted).

These are the people who sold me my (blue) Osprey Atmos 50 after a spot of tick-tacking with them. I found the service friendly and efficient with the pack arriving to me within days of I putting in the order.

I must admit to picking some bits and pieces (volume adjusters, for instance) from these people but, when I recently tried ordering something from them, their system wouldn't process my payment details. Needless to say, that may have an impact on the amount of business that they can expect to get from me in the future. It's a pity because they do some some good deals and I had no trouble with them before.

It's a name that appears over the door of a number of outdoor emporia so it needs to be said that this one is in Dublin, Ireland. The site is the online branch of the pair of bricks and mortar shops.

These are the people who sold me my Kahtoola Microspikes and very efficient the service was too. The items in question have served me well thus far.

This lot are everywhere and, though they may not have much outdoor credibility in the eyes of some, I must admit to picking up a few items from their stores, one of which is in Macclesfield. These days, I limit my shopping there to things like water bottles, socks, laces and other odds and ends but they supplied my pair of TNF Hedgehogs and these have earned their spurs well since then.

Their shop in Fort William has seen me a good few times over the years and is more than an outdoor gear emporium with a bar, a cafe and a souvenir shop all under the same roof as the outdoors stuff. The Sprayway Commanche jacket that I use for going to work when it's wet came from here as did the overtrousers that bale me out when the heavens open. On a more recent occasion, I fulfilled a lighting need with my purchase of a new Petzl head torch only for the older one to resurface afterwards; you never can find anything in a last minute rush…

The words "Corrán Tuathail" are anglicised to Carrauntoohil, Ireland's highest mountain, and it should come as little surprise that an outdoors retailer is based somewhere nearby, Killarney in this case.

My Rab Latok jacket came from these people after a wait of a few months and a misfire with the wrong jacket appearing before it was returned in exchange for the correct one. Others may have given up in disgust, but I put it all down to the tardy availability of winter stock in the month of August. It also was £50 less than elsewhere too so I stuck with my vigil with my not being in a mad rush. After that, I would have been forgiven for giving them a wide berth after that but it has not been so. A pair of Meindl Burma boots bought in a January sale arrived promptly as did a Mountain Equipment duvet jacket in the same sale so all is forgotten. The delay with the waterproof jacket must have been caused by availability and I think that they are transparent about things like that these days.

Their shop on Rose Street in Edinburgh was where I purchased my first ever footwear for outdoors escapades, a pair of Columbia trail shores that I still have somewhere. Further purchases include a Low Alpine Walkabout 35 rucksack found at a knockdown price in a sale in the same shop among other things; it has been taken on journeys across the Irish Sea and local jaunts in Cheshire. There is a store in Leith too and a Craghopper shirt came with me from there and their online store has been the source of a pair of trail shoes from The North Face and other bits and pieces.

Collected Musings of a Hill Wanderer: Copyright © 2006-2010, John Hennessy

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