Walking with Ember

About · The team

Nick, Ember and Lizzy.

I'm Nick. My grandad and my uncle took me walking when I was young enough that it felt like an adventure rather than exercise, and it never wore off. Rock climbing came next, then mountaineering, then the sort of days that need an early alarm. I'm in my fifties now, and the Peak District is home ground.

None of these walks was done in order to write about it. The walking comes first. The writing is what happens afterwards, usually the same evening, while I can still remember which gate was the awkward one.

  • 59 walks on file
  • 439 miles walked
  • 23,585 m climbed
  • since 2014
Nick and Ember at a trig point, with the valley behind them
Ember, a black and white border collie, looking out across a green hillside

Ember

Border collie · on every route

A three year old border collie, which tells you most of what you need to know. Twelve miles in she is still working the ground ahead, still checking back to see where I have got to, and visibly disappointed when the car comes into view. On the days I would have turned round at halfway, she is usually what gets us both to the top.

Every route here has been walked with her. That is why the dog detail is not an afterthought. It is what I was paying attention to the whole way round.

Lizzy with Ember at a trig pillar on the moor, under a heavy grey sky

Lizzy

Walking companion · in the photographs and the stories

My eldest, and a regular on the hill with us. When Lizzy comes, the day changes shape. We stop more, notice more, and take the longer way round for no better reason than that there is no hurry.

She is in a good share of the photographs on this site and in the stories behind the routes. If a walk has more pictures than usual and a better account of the day, Lizzy was probably on it.

Why this site exists

“Dog friendly” settles nothing.

Nearly every walking site in the country will tell you a route is dog friendly and then stop, as though that settles it. It does not tell you there are eleven stiles and your labrador cannot climb. It does not tell you the last mile is a verge on a B road, that there is no water for four miles in August, or that the field at the top has ewes in it every spring.

Those are the things that decide whether a walk is a good day or a long apology to your dog. So they are written down, on every route, whether or not they make the walk sound good.

If that sounds obsessive, it is. It is also the entire reason this site exists.

What every walk includes

  • The GPX from the day: the actual line, not an approximation
  • Distance, ascent and moving time from the recording, not an estimate
  • The grid reference and postcode of where the car went
  • What the weather was doing, in degrees and miles per hour
  • Photographs from the walk, in the order we came to them
  • The dog facts: livestock, water, stiles, lead rules, ground and roads

No turn-by-turn directions: they go stale the moment a farmer moves a fence, and following a numbered list is not navigating. The gradings are my legs on the day. Everything here is planning support, so check the forecast, carry a map, and turn round when the day says turn round.

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