Today I took a walk up one of the famous 'Three Peaks' Pen Y Ghent - a much needed opportunity to blow some cobwebs away after a busy few weeks running some photography workshops with young people, run my two businesses and helping out with my little lad (as well as generally running about like a headless chicken which is v important too).

It was also an opportnity to reacquaint myself with shooting my digital camera for fun! I shoot lots of jobs for clients on my trusty Canon 6D but often choose a film camera for my personal work these days so it was nice to give the 6D a break as well and take it for a walk up a big hill - as is abundantly clear I decided to render the final images in contrasty Black and White - this might be the influence of all that Black and White film I've been shooting...

We set off from Horton in Ribblesdale - a hamlet clustered around this beautiful church and a less beautiful (but more appealing) pub. Here you can see Pen Y Ghent looming in the distance - speaking of which let's check the internet for some info about the name of that thar hill.... Ah yes here we go..."In the Cumbric language, exactly as in today's Welsh, Pen meant 'top' or 'head', and y is most likely the definite article (the), exactly as in Modern Welsh Y. The element ghent is more obscure, however: it could be taken to be 'edge' or 'border'.The name Pen-y-ghent could therefore mean 'Hill on the border' Alternatively, ghent could mean 'wind' or 'winds' – from the closest Welsh transliteration, gwynt ('wind'). Thus it might mean simply 'Head of the Winds'. It is also possible that ghent may have been a tribal name and that the hill may have once been an important tribal centre. It is also acceptable to write the name as Pen y Ghent rather than Pen-y-ghen"  (Ok then - there we have it....erm - thanks Wikipedia)!

So basically the internet isn't sure what the name means - 'Head of the Something or other' it might well have meant 'head of the winds' today as it was blowing a chuffing gale on top of the peak!

The Head of the winds/Hill on the Border - it's a steady walk up, we took the long way round the base of the hill and walked across the top of the peak - it was perfect hill walking conditions with the sun shining and a strong wind blowing so it was warm without being too hot when struggling up the steep incline.

Been seeing more and more of these balanced stones on cairns recently - I like them very much!

I think the above shot is probably my fave of the day - I wonder how long the small tower will last on top of the winds swept slopes of Pen Y Ghent?