Category Archives: Hunting

An Uneasy Night on Cerro de la Salchicha

Posted on September 25, 2017 by McFadzean

SPENDING a night on the summit of a mountain, watching the sun sink into a splash of gold and the constellations revolve in blue-black emptiness, does have a romance and a sense of adventure about it. There is something raw … Continue reading →

Posted in Camping, Climbing, Environment, Hiking, Hunting, Mountains, Walking, Weather, Wild boar, Wildlife | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 22 Comments

Forgive Them Their Trespasses?

Posted on September 10, 2015 by McFadzean

IT’S a perfect spring morning in 1982. Arkengarthdale slumbers green and shadowy beneath a blue sky as we sit in damp grass and drink tea from tartan Thermos flasks. Nothing moves except the wind in the heather and the birds … Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeology, Caving, Climbing, Country Land and Business Association, Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, Environment, Footpaths, Highland Clearances, Hiking, History, Hunting, Industrial archaeology, Mountains, Politics, Potholing, Ranting, Rivers, Walking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 34 Comments

Arkengarthdale Moor and the Death of Sods Law

Posted on February 17, 2015 by McFadzean

SOMETIMES when you walk through wild and lonely countryside you experience a creeping realisation that things haven’t always been the way they seem. The heathery moors to the west of Reeth, in the northern Pennines, are empty places except for … Continue reading →

Posted in Coal mining, Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, Environment, Footpaths, Hiking, History, horse gins, Hunting, Industrial archaeology, Mountains, Pennine Way, Railways, Ranting, Ruins, Tan Hill Inn, Traditions, Walking, Weather | Tagged , , , , | 45 Comments

It’s the Poor What Gets the Blame

Posted on January 2, 2015 by McFadzean

WE’RE going to try something different today. I’m off for a short run across the hills above Richmond, North Yorkshire, because it’s time I knocked myself back into a semblance of fitness – but this post is all about ethics … Continue reading →

Posted in Country Land and Business Association, Environment, Footpaths, Hiking, Hunting, Ranting, Running, Teesdale, Teesside, Walking, Weather | Tagged , , | 38 Comments

A Christmas Walk: With Ghosts on Baysdale Moor

Posted on December 16, 2014 by McFadzean

I AM wary of the North York Moors because they are more than a little bit sinister. They are wild and empty, peppered with the scratchings of forgotten people, laced with legends, and punctuated with the stumps of ancient crosses … Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeology, Captain James Cook, Cleveland Way, Death, Environment, Footpaths, Ghosts, Hiking, History, Hunting, Industrial archaeology, Legends, Mountains, Politics, Ranting, Ruins, Teesside, Walking, Weather | Tagged , , , , | 42 Comments

Only a Rosedale, I give you . . .

Posted on March 11, 2013 by McFadzean

THIS set out to be a hike to the Rosedale iron mines – but I got tangled in a fox hunt and that’s far more entertaining. It was also a day of bewildering signposts, dazzling sunlight, heather fire haze and … Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeology, Climbing, Environment, Footpaths, Hiking, History, Hunting, Industrial archaeology, Mountains, Quarrying, Railways, Walking | Tagged , , , | 27 Comments

I’m Not a Pheasant Plucker . . .

Posted on May 24, 2012 by McFadzean

SO I’m sitting at work doing my job – which consists of creating and editing the national news pages of The Northern Echo and one or two other things – when my eyes alight on a story from the Press … Continue reading →

Posted in Climbing, Environment, Feet First 2012, Hiking, Hunting, Mountains, Northern Echo, Politics, Ranting, Walking | Tagged | 26 Comments

The Inglorious 12th – It’s a Riot

Posted on August 12, 2011 by McFadzean

IT’S not a good day for walking the moors. There are looters about. And they’re carrying guns . . . CLICK HERE FOR FEET FIRST to continue reading.

Posted in Environment, Hiking, Hunting, Life, Mountains, Politics, Ranting, Walking | Tagged | 4 Comments

Dances With Pigeons

Posted on April 26, 2011 by McFadzean

Wide blue skies above blue remembered ridges – that’s the Pennines at Easter . . . Oh, and pigeons. Continue reading →

Posted in Climbing, Environment, Hiking, Hunting, Life, Mountains, Pigeons, Running, Walking | Tagged | 4 Comments

Me and Carole King on Beinn Iutharn Mhor and Carn Bhac

Posted on September 8, 2010 by McFadzean

THE big mistake of the day is to gaze at the horizon and mouth the words: Way Over Yonder. This rattles a brain cell that has lain happily dormant for about 35 years, and before I’ve left the car park … Continue reading →

Posted in Climbing, Hiking, Hunting, Mountains, Walking | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

A Pennine morning – red flags and guns

Posted on September 3, 2010 by McFadzean

RED flags flying along the B6276 between Brough and Middleton-in-Teesdale. Heavy rattle of gunfire from somewhere behind Helbeck Fell. And it’s not the pop-pop of a shooting party. It’s proper gunfire. Machine-guns. Heavy machine-guns

Posted in Environment, Hiking, Hunting, Life, Mountains, Running, Walking | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Inglorious 12th (Keeping your head down)

Posted on August 13, 2010 by McFadzean

KEEP your heads down and watch your backsides. It was the Glorious 12th yesterday and there are dangerous people walking the moors, most of them armed to the teeth and looking for blood. At this time of year it’s very important … Continue reading →

Posted in Environment, Hiking, Hunting, Mountains, Politics, Ranting, Walking | Tagged , | Leave a comment