My year saw many fortuitous journeys, allowing me to boost the Marilyn total by 70 and to achieve as near as possible my boyhood ambition - to be the man who paints the trig points. First prize in a competition let me take advantage of two first-class tickets on Virgin trains to Penzance, where an all-day bus pass (£2) allowed a circular tour of the Land's End peninsula, with sections of the South West Coast Path and Watch Croft being thrown in. Work commitments in December meant two weeks in Orkney, where I found that three of the nine Marilyns can be achieved by car (hired of course). Mid Hill was surprising; in a land where stone structures play such a huge part in local history and archaeology, it was I who laid the first four stones on the summit. I would ask future visitors to gather stones from the col between Mid Hill and Ward Hill to mark the highest point on Orkney Mainland.
