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.

Wednesday, 28 September 2005

Day 93 - rolling right....

Today there was drizzle on and off all day, and it rained particularly hard as I went through Moreton-in-Marsh.

I was offered an unsolicited lift soon after setting off, but not as far as Land's End! Needless to say, I declined. I walked nearly 10km on roads (skirting Hook Norton - famous for its ale - to the north) and had a pasty lunch on a bench in Great Rollright village, where I found an interesting leaflet about the Rollright Stones at the Post Office.

I reached the stone circle (see photo) on a good path, and had a look around. Later on I had to go through the centre of a very wet Moreton-in-Marsh (a good name for a Watershed town), because the intended path round the north was still closed because of foot-and-mouth.

The road up towards Blockley got steadily steeper, and I found it rather pleasant to find a decent hill again. Once in the village, the pub locals recommended a friendly farm, where I camped at 169344.

[The day was actually walked on 19/9/2001 but has been blogged today to reflect the geographic continuity of the Watershed.]
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