We had a good variety of trips in 2014, all of which provided good and long-lasting memories once again.
In early May we were on Barra as part of an assault on the Marilyns on the string of islands to the south. Two trips were planned, both of which managed to conquer the five Marilyns, in quite different weather conditions. Guess what? We had the bad weather. Of course, that did not really matter as it was the ticks that were important. Back on the mainland we had a week camping in Oban and managed all the Marilyns around there and within striking distance of the A816 to the south.
In June we were back in the Outer Hebrides taking in the Marilyns from Castlebay to Harris, with friends. After hostelling and camping up through the islands we had a rented cottage at Manais on Harris. This was a great base for doing the Harris Marilyns and we finished up on Lewis visiting the impressive war memorial high above Stornoway, on our way for the ferry home.
In July we headed for Wales where we completed our Welsh Marilyns on the fairly recently promoted Mynydd Anelog on the Lleyn peninsula, having had a successful visit to Bardsey island the previous day. We celebrated with a cup of tea with the friendly couple in whose garden we had parked our car - many thanks.
It was disappointing that Alan Holmes' trip to St Kilda was postponed due to the bad weather in September. However we did not waste the planned holiday and returned to Arran after a long absence. We took in parts of the island we had never visited before, picking up a variety of ticks. Our way home was via the ferry from Lochranza and picking up Glas Bheinn above Loch Fyne, our 1100th Marilyn.
In and about all this, we had started at last to take an interest in Humps and Tumps, having had no idea of their existence, or should that be their significance, until a couple of years ago. This has given us a new interest in our local area around Yorkshire and the not-too-distant Lakes and saw us reaching our 1200th Hump on Sale Fell above Bassenthwaite Lake. We have also introduced ourselves to county tops.
