Author Archives: Martin

On the way home from Scotland we made a diversion through Hull.

A week in Dumfries and Galloway, in SW Scotland. We stayed in a farm cottage in Colvend, on the coast between Dumfries and Kirkcalbright. The weather was much better than forecast and we managed lots of walking but not much … Continue reading →

We walked from Allerford, through Bossington and along the coast and Sparkhayes Marsh to Porlock Weir, then back via Porlock. Afterwards fish and chips and bottle of Muskadet in camper at Dunkery Beacon overlooking Exmoor. Sophisticated or what?

We started at Clearwell Caves, ancient iron mines. The woods have “scowls” where iron ore was mined in the iron age (when else?), and the trees grow around stones, like the nearby “Puzzle Woods”.  

I first met Jim Brady (not my late, missed, uncle of the same name) in 1982, after seeing his paintings in an exhibition in the foyer of The Old Vic theatre in Bristol. I subsequently bought these pictures of people from … Continue reading →

John Cabot sailed from Bristol in the caravel Mathew in 1497, to “discover” Newfoundland (unlike all the people who were already there, waiting for him). We were walking down the south bank of the Avon when this ghostly replica, built in … Continue reading →