During 2015, Glenys and I visited Aberdeenshire, Drumnadrochit, Skye, Islay, Jura, Harris, Glenelg and Dornoch to climb new Marilyns. One of our bearded collies, Judy, died in February, which clouded the start to our year. She had a good 14-year innings, going up most of the hills we climbed. It was sad to lose a dog that had such a wonderful nature.
I decided to finally complete regions 10 and 11 this year. This meant revisiting Inverie to climb Druim na Cluain-Airighe, which regrettably was clothed in heavy mist. Other lower Marilyns on this quest included the thickly forested Burach, which involved pushing my bike up 150m on a forest track and an exciting return journey.
As usual, Skye did not disappoint. We visited in April with the Cuillin clothed in snow - the first time we had seen this as all our other visits had been in summer. Roineval and An Cruachan were both climbed in wonderful weather. We were rewarded on Roineval with the sighting of two golden and two white-tailed eagles.
Glamaig and other non-disappointing Skye hills (photo: Michael Earnshaw)
July saw us with our remaining bearded collie, Katie, climb seven of the Harris hills, all in clear weather. All good hills, however our favourite was Todun where we were joined on the summit by three pairs of golden plovers and their chicks.
