A good year for Dumgoyne ascents: 133, making 947 by the end of the year, with 1000 planned for April or May 2006. Other highlights:
Mull, April: A friend's Munro completion on Ben More enabled a highly satisfactory round over Beinn a'Ghraig, Beinn Fhada and A'Chioch.
Ulster, May: Three glorious days in the Mournes (nine miles from my home town), ranging over a marvellously compact ring of hills, never far from the sea, with routes and pubs aplenty, and a few superb scrambly granite tors. I revisited various Slieves and other Hewitts for the umpteenth time, and disturbed three grazing elephants in Donard Park, Newcastle, confirming later that they were circus performers.
Harris, June: Good hills, shocking weather.
Wales, September: Tal y Fan was a great opener for a Wales weekend - a ridgy top with big views to Anglesey, Wirral and beyond. A welcoming farmer allowed parking at the closed Rhiw youth hostel. The next day the conventional Snowdon round via Crib Goch and Y Lliwedd was populous but it's still a great walk. A bearded male wearing a pink crinoline dress brightened up the weather on Bwlchysaethau.
Y Lliwedd (photo: Alan Dawson)
