11-Oct-2025
A brilliant, brilliant walk today, reminding me all over again of why I love this place... South Barrule stands 483 metres tall, but as with all the Island's mountains, you feel you're much higher. They definitely think they're BIG mountains, and it pays you to think so too.
It was a Goldilocks day for walking. Not too hot, not too cold. And not at all rainy.
We pretty much followed the instructions given here.
So we started at the carpark at South Barrule Forest Park. This is part of the South Barrule plantation, and substantial felling (a result of storm damage over the last year) has caused a few diversions. Not too hard to negotiate, though, and once you've climbed steeply upwards, you're already getting fab views:
Love this guy... A forest jedi
Just when you think you've had enough of slogging through the plantation in the mud, you emerge onto the moorland
AWESOME views from up here
One of the faux summits
But eventually you get the real one
This mountain is also the site of an Iron Age hill fort
It wasn't a windy day, but there was a bit of a breeze up here, so we tucked ourselves up against the cairn to eat our sandwiches. Note the new gaiters. First outing. There was a moment of comedy back in the carpark when I started by putting them on back to front...
Then you set off back down the hillside. Not unobserved, mind you:
There's a path for a while, but then there's a stretch where you're plotting your own course across the moor. The vegetation is rich and varied:
And here's the twisty tree that tells you you're nearly back on a proper path
Good day. Shook off the house-hunting gloom. For a bit, anyway...