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.

Sunday 29 June 2003

Day 78 - Jacob's Ladder to Buxton

After church and lunch in Edale, I climbed back up Jacob's Ladder and resumed this final part of Section 7 at about 1pm.

It was a glorious hot, sunny day to finish on. The walking was mostly on paths and uneventful. The most interesting things were a crowd of paragliders on Colborne Edge and Mam Tor, a crowd of frisky bovine teenagers who mock-chased me, and (onto map 119) the final heather-clad ridge of Black Edge.

The last 3km was over very rough ground - deep heather and tussocks - and I left the Watershed at 042756 to make my way down to Buxton. The plan for the following few days was to travel back to Scotland for some real hill-walking with Tim (the Grey Corries from the Ossian station).

The stats for this Section were 170km and 2,122m of ascent.
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