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.

Friday 21 July 2000

Day 53 - rounding the Tweed, meeting Hewitt

We made an early start in order to reach the Hart Fell ridge at the time I'd arranged to meet Dave Hewitt.

The whole day was spent on the region boundary between Borders and Strathclyde (later Dumfries and Galloway), and it was a scorcher. We made very good time travelling south along quad-bike tracks beside the fence line and forest.

We reached the A701 (map 78) by 1pm, very close to Tweed's Well, and then turned sharp left up Annanhead Hill. We lunched overlooking the impressive Devil's Beef Tub.

We then headed towards Hart Fell, meeting up with Dave Hewitt and friend at about 5pm. We'd been in touch since 1996, and his book had provided some useful hints, but this was our first meeting.  After some good conversation we went our separate ways. We camped on a good spot near a stream at 133144.
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