Category: Featured Meets

The Craigallan 25th celebration weekend finally occurred after Covid put it back two years and was combined with the President’s Meet. 38 members and guests visited at some point over the 10 days, to make the most of what Craigallan has to offer and enjoy the amazing weather too! Activities included walking, rock-climbing, road and mountain biking, running and kayaking. Special mention has to be made of Andy Llewellyn and Helen Pritchard’s Scottish 4’s crossing in 44hrs and Joe Fisher’s traverse of all 10 Mamore Munros in 7.5hrs (car to car). Social highlights included two BBQs (one each Saturday) and the dinner at the Ballachulish Hotel on Wednesday evening, which was followed by a fascinating talk from Gordon Adshead and Geoff Edge on how Craigallan was found, purchased and renovated! A special thanks goes to John and Pam Patrick for overseeing it all and ensuring all ran so smoothly. A longer report will appear in Meetstaff. Below are some of the photos taken during the Meet.BBQ first Saturday evening. Photo: Andrew Beckett Late evening first Saturday BBQ. Photo: Mark Hatton Tim Taylor on Spartan Slab, Etive Slabs. Photo: Andy Tomlinson Gordon Adshead speaking at the Craigallan celebration dinner, Ballachulish Hotel.[…]

Neil Goldsmith, the journal editor, writes: The Journal is a record of what the Club gets up to in a year. The last two years have been disrupted by Covid and we have lacked articles on current activities. Now that the holiday season has started and Covid is no longer affecting travel, many of you will be doing lots of interesting trips. It’s also time to think about writing up your climbing/walking/running/canoeing adventures for the Journal. We always want good quality photos and portrait photos with people in them have a good chance of making the cover.

This will be a walk of about 10 starting at 10 from Brocton carpark (WS15 2UA) and visiting The Broc Hill, Ancient oak wood, Shugborough Park, Coalpit Coppice, WWI shooting butts, Bremen 25 stone, German Cemetery,  Commonwealth Cemetery, Katyn Memorial, Glacier Bolder, Freda’s grave and two trig points. Devised and co-ordinated by Jill Sumner. More details in attached pdf.

John Patrick, Craigallan Warden writes: Craigallan 25th Anniversary Celebration Meal – Update We will be holding the evening meal on Wednesday 1 June at the Ballachulish Hotel which was also the venue used to mark the original opening of the hut.  We will have exclusive use of a room and a three course meal at a cost of £35 per person.  The booking has been secured and a deposit paid for those already booked in.  I can add to the current number if anyone else would like come.  Due to a cancellation, there is now ONE bed only available on Wednesday night, rooms are available at the Ballachulish Hotel (book directly yourself) and other accommodation should still be available locally.  There is also space for a few tents in the hut garden.  Please get in touch with me if you would like to book in for the meal or any other part of the Celebration and President’s Meet. John Patrick

Hut Warden John Patrick writes … The news that we are now able to return to full capacity at the huts makes this a good time to remind everyone about the opportunity for meeting up at Craigallan in the early summer.    The delayed celebration of our 25th anniversary of opening Craigallan starts on the night of Friday 27th May and the President’s Meet follows straight on, starting on Monday 30th.  Places are still available for sleeping in the hut and for tents in the garden although the four campervan spaces are now booked for the week.      A meal (maybe a BBQ) is on offer for Saturday evening (28th) and a sit-down evening dinner is planned at a local hotel (details to be confirmed asap) on Wednesday 1 June during the President’s Meet.  Thursday and Friday are bank holidays so some may wish to join in for the final four days.  Andy is providing a meal on Saturday 4 June.    Some Members have booked right through whilst others will be leaving on Thursday allowing more hut space for the long weekend. In addition to those in the hut, some Members are already booked in at local B&Bs or[…]

President’s Update March 2022 Club activity is virtually back to normal and the main thing to report this month is that the Regulations for Booking and Visiting Club Huts from end February 2022 have changed. After the announcement that England’s Covid restrictions were to be lifted on Thursday 24th February, as well as similar proposals for Wales and Scotland, the Committee reviewed our Hut Regulations. Taking all things into consideration, the Committee agreed to end all restrictions on numbers staying in the huts from the end of February, although members wishing to use the huts must continue to check with the relevant hut warden as to availability and have a confirmed booking before visiting a Club hut. Please do not turn up at a hut without a confirmed booking. Simplified lists of personal responsibilities before visiting a hut and general provisions for the use whilst at a hut remain. For the full guidance please visit ‘Huts’ on the website when logged in as a Member. The Committee recognises that this will remain challenging for some members using our huts and hopes that all members and guests will continue to respect individual concerns. The emphasis remains on personal responsibility for minimising the[…]

Firstly, a belated happy New Year to everyone! 2022 is now in full swing and whilst there was little new to report on following my December Update, Club activity is definitely on the increase which, I am certain, has been helped by the general easing of Covid restrictions by all the Government’s. Meets: The annual Marsden-Edale became a real challenge, not only because of the appalling [and correct!] weather forecast but also by the cancellation of all trains between Sheffield and Manchester on the day to allow for station upgrade work to take place. Club tradition was upheld by Gareth Llewellyn who completed a solo single in very challenging conditions. I can vouch for this as I wandered over and around Kinder to try and meet up with him…the sight of Fair Brook in full spate was enough to deter me from fording it, so I followed the east side all the way back to the northern edge of Kinder! Gareth appeared at the Ramblers just over 8hrs after starting looking as if he had been out for a gentle afternoon stroll…great effort Gareth! Two weeks later there were 8 members on his walk around the Kinder Edges Meet, but[…]

President’s December Update. Since the last Update at the end of September, Club life has slowly returned to normal, although we now wait to see what effects, if any, the Omicron variant causes. There are a few things to mention in particular. The Annual Dinner was a great success. Friday evening kicked off with two excellent talks from members. Saturday dawned fine, with members and guests walking, biking, climbing and just ‘catching up’! There were 10 on the ‘official’ Dinner Walk over Weatherlam, Swril How and Coniston…good job there weren’t any more as the good weather had brought large numbers of people out early and the car park at the end of the Walna Scar Road was full by 10.15! 126 members and guests enjoyed catching up with friends at the Dinner on Saturday night, with Guest speaker Mick Fowler providing a fantastic start to the evening. Remembrance Sunday was another clear bright day and, after a 2 minute silence, 22 members joined a leisurely stroll across Whitbarrow. It was a great weekend thanks to all who attended and also to the staff at the Cumbria Grand who were most welcoming. Huts: At the last Committee Meeting [29th November], the[…]