About this blog

The journey from John o'Groats to Land's End took place in 14 sections, starting in 1996 (a week or so each year). The idea came to me in 1995 and I completed the British JoGLE Watershed in June 2009.

I was joined by a number of relations and friends from time to time. Most notable among my walking companions were my son Tim (7 sections) and nephews Peter and Jonny.

After walking the first section in 1996 I discovered that Dave Hewitt had already pioneered the Scottish Watershed (to Cape Wrath) in 1987, and had published his excellent account Walking the Watershed in 1994. We have been in touch since then, and he has been a great encouragement.

A simple definition of the watershed is that any rain falling to the left of the path finishes in the North Sea or English Channel, and anything to the right flows into the Atlantic Ocean, the Irish Sea or the Bristol Channel.

I believe that this was the first walk along the full length of the British JoGLE Watershed. I became aware just after I completed the journey that the late Mike Allen walked a slightly different version (from Land's End to Cape Wrath) between 1988 and 1994, so he will have covered the same ground apart from the most north-easterly 220km.

There have subsequently been several walks and publications about parts of the JoGLE watershed, including Peter Wright's 2010 Ribbon of Wildness account of his Scottish section walked in 2005, which has brought the subject of watershed walking in the UK to a wider audience.

I hope you enjoy this blog. I'm planning to publish a full account in 2013/4. A summary of the walk appeared in The Angry Corrie volume 76 in 2009.

Malcolm Wylie.

Saturday 30 May 1998

Day 32 - Rannoch part 1

We were in plenty of time, so we didn't get off until 11:30am. It was dry all day, with cloud at about 1500m - so good views.

There were two Munros on the route today - Sgor Gaibhre, then what looks like its twin Carn Dearg. We met a couple at the shallow bealach between them (Mam Ban), and heard that they were planning to "compleat" their round on Ben Lomond that Autumn. I subsequently checked on the SMC website and saw that they had done so successfully.

On the ridge south of Carn Dearg we noticed some fascinating cloud formations over the Glencoe hills across the moor to the west - undulating waves which seemed to follow the shapes of the horizon below. Unusually for us, we just sat and looked.

The Watershed crosses the West Highland railway line at 414601, which we reached at about 5pm.

[We then walked to the Rannoch Station, passing the tiny house in the photo, and spent the weekend in Kinloch Rannoch - more anecdotes to follow in the book.]
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