Really low total in 2015, due to both lack of opportunity and having discovered Tumps in May. I have been sidetracked by climbing easier peaks for a tick. I have actually done 56 Tumps in the year, my second-best total after 76 in 1992 - the peak of my Munro bagging. I did 15 Marilyns in 2014 and completely forgot to send in my baglog by the deadline date. Very annoying as I had finally completed my Munros on Ben More, Mull, with ten others - family and friends and a wee dram of Laphroaig. I celebrated the next day by offering prayers at Iona Abbey and then climbing Dun I, the highest point of the island. Lovely views of the sea and Mull, looking back lovingly at Ben More.
Highlights of 2015 were a lovely wintry trip to Yorkshire for Sharp Haw, Great Whernside and, the best walk, a circuit of Buckden Pike, ending in a tea shop within two minutes of the doors closing for last orders.
Eabhal, North Uist (photo: Martin Richardson)
We had another great holiday in North Uist in the summer. We drove via friends in the Borders, climbing the lovely heathery Eildon Hills on the way. Nicola and I also enjoyed climbing up a superb wee Tump, Crogary Beag, with lovely views despite some drizzle over the lochan-strewn landscape, while James and Laura went sea kayaking. On the way home we climbed a superb Marilyn, Knock of Crieff, on a lovely afternoon. The walk up through the forest to the summit included the final magical ascent through a dark pinewood with a carpet of brown needles and beautiful shafts of sunlight illuminating the summit marked, by a few rocks. One of the highlights of the year.
