The Disgruntled Dozen
Ronald Turnbull gives some love to the 12 peeved hills that got kicked off the Trail 100 bucket list
Standing on High Pike at the end of 2019, I felt an unsettling rumble from inside the mountain. An earthquake? In Lakeland, here at the back of Skiddaw, it’s been pretty quiet earthquake-wise these last 400 million years. No, it was something far more worrying. In the January 2020 issue, Trail magazine announced a dozen new entries for its Trail 100 list. And 12 new entries meant 12 old entries were knocked off. One of them being the thoroughly disgruntled High Pike (pictured).
It’s exciting to get a dozen new summits to climb up. But sad, so sad, to say goodbye to others. Maybe you went up Loughrigg and Clougha Pike just because they were on the old list but at the same time nice and near the bottom. Or maybe you’ve got the clever idea to trickily tick off all 112 names and pretend the cull never happened. Whatever your end goal, these are the ones you needed to get onto before the cut-off occurred.
It’s distressing to get dumped, whether you’re a has-been hill or merely a cabinet minister. So, if you’re up on one of the following 12 tops, do try to tread tactfully. Appreciate their (admittedly substandard and second-rate) appeal. Tell them they’re still loved. Apart from High Pike at the back of Skiddaw. Nobody could love High Pike...
1 Cairn Toul, Cairngorms
The UK’s fourth highest hill stands in the Cairngorms, a looming high triangle at the south-west corner of the Lairig Ghru. Except if you’re coming the other way, when it’s a raised corner of the high-level wilderness called the Great Moss. There’s a scrambly ridgeline; its magnificent outlier Angel’s Peak (Sgorr an Lochain Uaine) has an even better one. It’s also seriously remote. It’s now been displaced by Braeriach, 5m higher, a looming, high, ‘no-shape-in-particular’ 3km to the north.
RT’s reason to reinstate: Braeriach is just a blob.
2 Beinn Tarsuinn, Arran
There are several ‘Transverse Mountains’, and we’re talking about the one which is the second summit of the Isle of Arran. Corbett-height Beinn Tarsuinn stands on the western side of Glen Rosa, the climax of three separate ridgelines of airy granite. Just 3km to the east, the slightly higher, slightly less awesomely scrambly Goatfell remains on the list.
RT’s reason to reinstate: The UK has far too few proper scrambly ridgelines.
High Raise, Lake District
High Raise is a gentle dome at exactly 2500ft, rising (but only slightly) at the back of the Langdale Pikes. It doesn’t count as a Langdale Pike itself, as it’s not slightly pikey. It is, however, the highest point of Wainwright’s Book 3 (The Central Fells), and a necessary obstacle on any circuit of the Lakeland 3000s.
The best of the Langdales, Pike of Stickle, remains on the list.
RT’s reason to reinstate: Well, the other six Wainwright high points all stayed on the list.
Loughrigg Fell, Lake District
Loughrigg is a shapeless lump lurking at the bottom end of Grasmere. It’s just up off the Grasmere shoreline path, and you can also dodge up it out of Ambleside. Its bumpy shape makes it a great place for getting lost on, especially in bracken season. It’s now displaced by the token Lakeland little-un by Cat Bells. RT’s reason to reinstate: Just because Cat Bells is the most trodden on, don’t make it the best.
Clougha Pike, Lancashire
The Forest of Bowland, which is actually a high, heathery moorland, was once a place of mystery and seclusion due to having no rights of way across it. The CRoW access act has transformed it into being a little bit busier. Clougha Pike stands at the western corner of the heatherpatch, looming above Lancaster. It’s not the highest point, and strictly speaking it’s not even a summit, just a hill shoulder with a trig point. But it is the group’s rocky bit. Well, a bit rocky.
RT’s reason to reinstate: It looks quite good from the M6 on your way to the Lake District.
Worcestershire Beacon, Malvern Hills
Worcestershire Beacon stands at the northern end of the great little ridgeline of ancient rocks that’s the Malvern Hills. Two counties long (the southern end is Herefordshire Beacon), this is the one mountain moment in a somewhat uninspiring stretch of country south-west of Birmingham. As such it’s the subject of many longing looks from drivers in traffic jams on the M5.
RT’s reason to reinstate: The Brummies need something!
High Pike, Lake District
This particular High Pike has the selling point of being the highest of Cumbria’s five High Pikes. It’s the topmost top at the Back o’ Skiddaw, that grassy and boggy bit at the northern edge of the Lake District. Everybody agrees that the Back o’ Skiddaw is deeply wonderful, due to the fact that nobody goes there. Well, everybody thinks that apart from all the people who don’t go there (possibly because of liking their tops to be pointy with rocks on). RT’s reason to reinstate: Sir Chris Bonington says he likes it!
Hound Tor, Dartmoor
At the northern edge of Dartmoor, Hound is a true tor, a rocky outcrop SCotLand of deliciously grippy granite. The blocky jumble that makes its top offers a host of (very, very short) climbs and scrambles, and those who like grazed knees and ripped-off fingernails describe it as a granite gem, with excellent grassy picnic sites for the family underneath. Sherlock Holmes made an early (but fictional) ascent, and while the tor probably doesn’t take its name from the dreaded beast of Dartmoor, the mobile café at its foot – the Hound of the Basketmeals – undoubtedly does.
RT’s reason to reinstate: Its abandonment leaves the less exciting Yes Tor as England’s only hot hill south of Kinder Scout.
Bleaklow, Peak District
Bleaklow, at the northern edge of the Peak District, is a high-level peatbog plateau crossed (in a hurry) by the Pennine Way. At 633m it isn’t particularly low, but it is very, very bleak. The summit area is decorated with gritstone lumps, including the mildly suggestive kissy-kissy Wain Stones – a natural sculpture park where everything’s by Henry Moore. Kinder Scout, 3m higher and 8km to the south, remains on the list. RT’s reason to reinstate: Tops for groughs, assuming you like those up and down brown peaty hollows.
Rhobell Fawr, Snowdonia
Rhobell Fawr is 705m of yellow grass and black basalt rising out of a romantic wilderness of Welsh bog, in an almost people-free part of Snowdonia National Park. Its lower and even more rugged sidekick Dduallt is pronounced something like ‘thwacked’. You’ve been warned. RT’s reason to reinstate: Just because it’s hard to get to, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go.
Cadair Berwyn, NE Wales
Magnificently craggy on their eastern side, the Berwyns rise forbiddingly somewhere midway between Snowdonia and England. They’re the eastern end of a three-part high line crossing Wales by way of the Arans and Cadair Idris to Cardigan Bay. Cadair Berwyn stands as the centre and high point of 10km of ridge all above 600m. A long way from anywhere else, its waterfalls, tarns and high-striding ridgeline are comparatively unpeopled.
RT’s reason to reinstate:
It’s a real mountain. Nuff said.
Moel Ysgyfarnogod, Snowdonia
This one stands at the northern end of the magnificently rugged, ankle-twisty Rhinog range between Snowdon and Cadair Idris. It may be lower than Snowdon, but this is the national park’s most uncompromising bit of mountain ground. The group’s main summit, Rhinog Fawr, remains on the list.
RT’s reason to reinstate: It’s not fair to knock Ysgyfarnogod off just because you find it troublesome to spell!