It was May 2015 before I climbed my first hill, six months after the previous one, by which time I was wondering if I wanted to continue this game. Then a rare fine afternoon tempted me up Cairn Gorm for the umpteenth time, and that persuaded me I was not quite finished yet. A long-desired trip to south-east Lewis was then planned but the weather would not settle and only Beinn Bhreac was achieved.
Kearvaig coast near Sgribhis-bheinn (photo: Andrew Fraser)
June's weather was almost as bad - I even had cloud on lowly Creag an Amalaidh - but I did manage a bus-pass trip to Orkney to collect my last two there, Milldoe and Mid Hill. In July, the Trotternish Ben Dearg on Skye was climbed but not without rain. In August, I introduced a friend to Durness and Cape Wrath that added Sgribhis-bheinn, the mainland's most northerly Marilyn, to the list.
It was even further north in September, with a return to Shetland for all my remaining Marilyns there with the exception of Ronas Hill, deliberately avoided so I will be tempted back, and Foula's two. Foula was a case of so near and yet so far. We were about to board the plane when the pilot announced that the return flight in the afternoon was in doubt. The prospect of being stranded there for at least three days without accommodation was too big a risk, so that is another reason for a further return to Shetland.
A trip to eastern Canada meant I missed most of October's fine weather and thereafter it was back to washout conditions and no more hills.
