I did a fair bit of hillwalking in Britain and Ireland during 2014, with 47 new Marilyns bagged in all. As most of this activity took place on the west side of the Irish Sea, it is apparently, for some strange reason that eludes me, out of bounds in this magazine. The IOM and various lumps of rock some considerable distance off the Scottish coast do count, but you had better not go any further west if you are hell bent on reaching the higher echelons of the Marilyn achievement table. However, if you care little about that and are after some excellent hills not that far from home, then do visit the Emerald Isle, where some of the ranges - Twelve Bens, Maum Turks, Macgillycuddy's Reeks to name but a few - rival those in the west of Scotland. Hence, I only have eleven new summits to add to my very slow growing British Marilyns total. Alas, as none of these are particularly noteworthy, the problem I find with many of the lower Marilyns, I have little to report here for 2014.
The exception was North Berwick Law, which is a super little hill, with great views out to sea. I enjoyed its short ascent as a detour from the John Muir Way, which I walked from east to west in spring, in mixed weather. But the day from Dunbar to Gullane was a sunny cracker of a day and my excursion onto North Berwick Law was sheer joy; the view out into the Firth of Forth, dotted with its several islands, is a delight.
I have tried to arrange to go to the Shetland Islands for many years now, but somewhere else has always come up to fill an already crowded diary. But Shetland is firmly pencilled in for spring 2015, so hopefully I will be able to get to grips with the 20 Marilyns in the far north, as well as enjoying some of the coastal walking on these islands.
