On reflection, there was a certain amount of symmetry to my 2014 hillwalking year, centred round the Alan Holmes Orkney extravaganza. This was up to his usual high standards and it enabled Doug, Jim and me to bag all the hills bar the Old Man and a handful of Tumps. The ferry logistics were very complicated as their timetables easily rivalled CalMac's Small Isles effort, but after the inevitable readjustment required upon first contact (and discovering that cars do not fit on a passenger-only ferry), we succeeded in optimising our plans and racked up numerous sea-miles and a total of 88 hills. Jim and I decided wisely to avoid planes altogether on this trip, and so were spared the ignominy of those marooned on their small foggy island on the final night, and hence missing their pre-booked ferry crossings back to the Scottish mainland. Kudos to them for getting back to Helmsdale in time though.
The journeys to and from Orkney (thanks for doing all the driving, Jim) were book-ended by forays on to various northern hills, the highlight from which was the discovery of a recently-born red deer fawn, still wet from after-birth, that was observed for a few moments before being left well alone. My first Marhof annual dinner was interesting and yielded various consumable goodies from the quiz. The finale to this trip was a dash over to Lewis for a thankfully calm boat trip to the islands of Sula Sgeir and North Rona. Having been raised in and around Stornoway, it was extremely interesting to visit the island where my former neighbours still harvest the young gannets (guga) for eating, but very slippery and awkward underfoot. North Rona was a complete contrast, being covered in vegetation, and possessing a (thankfully) inoperative blowhole near where we landed.
Either side of this opus were week-long trips to Ullapool and to Barra. The former yielded various remote hills as well as a tenth anniversary repeat of my Munro completion circuit of An Teallach, this time with my wife accompanying me. The latter holiday enabled me to visit the Barra Isles, and ultimately to bag all of the available P100s (after close inspection, the stacks of Arnamul and Lianamul fell well and truly into my no-way category). We had some great weather with which to enjoy the beaches and to visit various tidal islands, but we managed to miss the Queen's baton as it landed at the famous beach runway of An Traigh Mhor. Fortunately, Prince Charles was not piloting this particular plane. Our return home was via North Lee and South Lee on North Uist, and Alan Holmes' September arrangements gave me my last two remote Pairc Marilyns and with that, region 24 was finished. I wish that I could say the same for region 25, but I chose not to pursue a place on the October trip to St Kilda.
Shorter trips at Easter to Breadalbane for a friend's Munros, and in the late summer to Easter Ross for various Corbetts and Grahams, gave some great days out. Either side of these were various local Tumps (as and when crop rotations allowed), and a long-overdue exploration of various walks available from my doorstep. More recently, a rather wet Lakes weekend saw me joining in my first Great Gable Remembrance Day gathering, and a deserted Glen Coe gave me my first taste of the year's Scottish winter - a day of persistent heavy rain resulting in thigh-deep stream wading, followed by two days of full-on winter conditions. No doubt 2015 will provide hills and conditions as varied.
