Empty, undulating peat can feel like an ocean when you're standing on it — one that offers few landmarks and many soft, treacherous sinks. Over the years I've learned that the landscape often leaves clues if you know where to look: a faint sheep-track, an old cairn, a line of tussocks, or the way water runs over the bog. These small signs can be the difference between a confident crossing and a...
Read more...
I often plan cliff-nesting kittiwake shoots around the same two priorities I have for any wildlife photography: get...
Peatland restoration is one of those practical conservation tasks where a small group of volunteers, the right kit, and...
When you spend as much time on Britain's wild edges as I do, the question of what to carry for an emergency bivvy moves...
When you spend as much time on Britain's wild edges as I do, the question of what to carry for an emergency bivvy moves from theoretical to essential. Wet border hikes—sea-swept cliffs, peat-drenched moorland, and drizzle-prone coastal routes—demand kit that actually works when everything else...
Read more... →
I’m often asked on the path — usually by someone balancing a camera and a wind-blown jacket on a cliff-top — which lens they should bring for “dramatic cliff portraits.” There’s a deceptively simple short answer (bring what you can handle), but the practical truth is richer and rooted...
Read more... →
I spend a lot of time on long, mixed-terrain day hikes — coastal cliffs, heathered peat, stony upland tracks and muddy forest rides. Over the years I’ve learned that being able to walk all day is as much about sensible training as it is about good kit. You don’t need a gym membership or fancy...
Read more... →
When I set out for a day on Britain's wild edges I expect three seasons in a single walk: a wet morning, a bright but blustery afternoon, and a chilly, damp evening. Selecting layers for that unpredictability is part kit, part judgement. Over thousands of miles on coastal cliffs, peatlands and...
Read more... →
I often think of fieldcraft as the quieter half of photography — the set of small, patient skills that let you collapse the distance between yourself and a scene without collapsing the scene itself. On Britain’s borders — where cliffs meet sea, peatlands breathe in mist, and woodlands keep...
Read more... →
On long, cold marches where the rain never seems to stop and wind bites through layers, keeping your energy up is as much about having the right calories as it is about having food you can eat quickly, cleanly and without leaving a mess. Over years of walking Britain’s coasts and peatlands I’ve...
Read more... →
I’ve learned the hard way that a long ridge walk is not the place to discover your phone battery is dead and your handheld GPS has been quietly draining itself all morning. Over years on Britain’s windswept edges I’ve settled into a routine of using both a rugged handheld GPS and a smartphone...
Read more... →
I’m drawn to the edges — where field meets scrub, verge meets meadow, and the thin slice of marginal ground seems to hum with life. On short walks close to home I look for those thin threads of wildflower habitat that punch above their weight for pollinators: a roadside bank of hemp-nettle, a...
Read more... →
Planning a multi-day border hike that relies on public transport and low-impact wild camping is one of my favourite ways to explore Britain's edges. It combines the logistics of moving between towns and villages, the satisfaction of carrying only what you need, and the quiet reward of spending...
Read more... →
Paths are the arteries of the landscapes I love. Walk them enough and you start to notice small changes — a new rut in the turf, a muddy ribbon widening across a slope, or stones pushed aside to make a shortcut. Left unchecked, these minor shifts become entrenched erosion: deeper channels, lost...
Read more... →