Run.Hike.Bike.Paddle.Camp - Outdoor Adventures in Ireland & UK
I’m a filmmaker from Northern Ireland, love the outdoors want YOU to come along on a new adventure. We will explore, maybe see something new, have a chat and importantly maybe a laugh or two.
Wild camping, fast packing, trail running, hiking, bikepacking, gravel biking, paddle camping, van camping and a bit of bushcraft.
I've seen in America that they've dropped hundreds of thousands of floating balls into reservoirs to block the sun and photosynthesis but it might be too late
Very strange to pick "Alien" as the first reference, and then "Wallace and Gromit" as the 'more classic' reference, when Alien has ten years on wallace and gromit, lol.
The quarrymen had names for each section - most were women's names - Matilda, etc but a couple of the higher ones were called Garrett and Australia. Climbers generally had different names - the flooded pit is Dali's Hole after the surreal trees poking out of the water. The quarry through the tunnels to the start of Snakes and Ladders is California. There's also Lost World and Mordor. Snakes and Ladders was something first done by the kids of Llanberis rather than climbers - it used to start with a toilet chain hanging off a small chain hanging off the existing big chain! The hoops have replaced those. I used to live a few miles away, one of the old guys in the village used to work in Penrhyn Quarry on the other side of the hill. A lot of tales.
I’m with you on this one as everything as well social media have two sides of the coin and always depends what is an intention behind and how we take what we see…I think social media can be great to connect people same way as they disconnect them, great source of inspiration same way as killing one, way to learn about outdoors wild camping and decide if it actually is something a person won’t to peruse - it won’t be for everyone but there will be many inspired by it and adventure is just very important for our wellbeing.
We are at an acre per person world wide and you think tourism justifies depriving others of their equal share? Go confine yourself to an acre and justify your right to survival.
I was born and brought up here and even without this national park status small towns have been taken over by holidays lets (eg. Portpatrick, Rockcliffe, Gatehouse). It makes buying a home here seem completely unattainable for us young people who know this to be our home. Putting us on the map would only make this issue worse. Growing up being from this area it has always frustrated me that people have no clue about the beauty of it, but locals are understandably concerned about people coming in and ruining the beauty. BUT businesses here are failing at an alarming rate - the Dumfries high street is like a ghost town which is miserable. I’m completely torn!
@StephenJReid you might be interested to know (if you weren't already aware) that there was a similar proposal here in NI to give the North Coast area (iirc from roughly east of Ballycastle, much of the glens and down to Carnlough) national park status. It was about 20 years ago so I don't remember too much other than my uncle (a hill farmer) spitting feathers after attending a meeting by a farming organisation that had pointed out all the possible drawbacks to the scheme (similar to what you list in this video). Maybe worth looking into how it all came to nothing for a future vid? (I'd watch anyway 😂)
I actually remember my aunt saying that specific 'you won't be able to put up a shed without permission' line that you bring up in the video. Time is a flat circle I guess 😂
Same in Northumberland. Walking through these plantations is eerie. The only benefit i could see was the red squirrel numbers. I'd like to see the harvested areas left to rewilding
And what a modern tourist industry needs is purpose built accomodation. Not adapted cottages and terrace houses in villages. And that becomes much harder to do in a NP. Our system is crazy where we intentionally create tourist traps and then make it impossible to build proper hotels.
Scotland is being invaded thanks to millennials, retirees and influencers of all ages but the worst of all are the “wild” crappers shitting on beaches, lay-bys, woodland, banklands and basically anywhere they fancy. It’s been promoted as a country of roam, camp, dump wherever you please and it’s become a mess. Tents and litter on all our beauty spots. Time for a border and deportations. Glencoe and Skye are lost to the entitled generation.
Its an already beautiful part of the country should be left alone, if its designated a NP the climate communists will regulate the local populations out of existence.
We Scots have long memories lol…..had a friend from New Zealand who visited Scotland and was retracing her family roots. She was in a shop in that area and got talking to a local who asked what her name was, when she replied “Campbell” the local gave her a dirty look and said “ I don’t talk to Campbells “*and stormed off…. This was in 1995.
Interesting the sitka plantations further up the country support an abundance of wildlife like pine martens, jays, gos hawks, sparrow hawks, cross bills all the corvid species, red squirrels and thousands of insects. Your carbon argument doesn't stack up as trees are not as efficient with carbon storage than improved pasture field with regenerative grazing. The reason we import timber is do with Brittish climate warm and wet weather grows poor quality structural timber unlike are Eastern European friends
I almost died in a coughing fit. If I heard this right, 4:38 , 'Young families will settle down because area was designated as a park.' What kind of logic is that, I hereby designate the entirety of the U.K as a Nation Park, I just solved the demographic crisis plaguing most developed countries, you are welcome.
I love many things about Scotland, living there for my first 37 years. Right to roam is the main thing I miss since coming to live in Tasmania. But a national park should first and foremost be about nature and ecosystems. They do that well here. Whole landscapes are under World Heritage designation. Wildlife is everywhere. Not so much in Britain. I spent over a decade on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales NP. Lovely place, great to ride, explore, camp, climb and walk. Terrible for wildlife. Catastrophic even. For that reason alone I'd resist a Galloway NP UNLESS the model was one of rewilding with nature conservation and growth at its core. Replicate Carrifran across the region and I may be persuaded.
SIXTY PERCENT of the nutrient output is from animal agriculture, and yet you go out of your way to pay homage to farmers and praise them and say how necessary they are. So weak. We can't be held hostage by culture and tradition. Make sure all people are provided for, but you cannot just excuse away MASSIVE levels of toxic waste pollution by saying "aw, look at the happy farmer and his family". Sorry, their tyranny will not dictate the way our collective heritage is managed. I also love this very original cop out of "incompetence". It is such convenient apologia for power. Make no mistake, these are very competent people. They are polluting the earth to exploit animals for money, or to help their friends who do the same. It's that simple. What is there to be incompetent about? The lake is dying. Do something about it, which would require stepping up to animal ag, or do nothing and enable it. That simple. Stop apologizing for power.
This is very interesting one and makes me think often too…I certainly experience the fear greatly and only slowly am facing it as I just love outdoor solo often more than with others. My first solo camp was stressful but I was not scared of people attacking as rather big rats 😅, second time I camped by a long distance hike which is less popular and in quite urban areas fairly close to each other and I had to find very secluded hidden place which was not easy as there just weren’t many basically out of this fear, despite the fact I didn’t meet anyone ‘scary’, I was really hidden in the woods so there was no way someone would stumble upon me that just would be a big coincidence…but the irrational fear was there initially…I think that women have a bit more inner fear because we’re just conditioned to it from very early age. By that said does not mean that men do t experience fear they do too but less men get comments where there is someone genuinely worried about their safety when they go wild camp. I don’t even tell my family I camp alone as they’d be very worried. My partner support my ventures though and I’m very greatful to him that he does not ignite more fear in me but is there whenever I need. I think you’re right it just always comes down to an individual and I really love the sister analogy that’s just actually really beautiful and I wish more men think exact that way. It’s something what will improve over generations it’s been very short time in history since women enjoy ‘same’ rights as men and it’s just gona take some time until whole society adjust to that - there already are safer and less safe countries when comes to that. I often think of all the woman perusing outdoor activities nowadays to be pioneers of such notion and I’m very proud of them because generations to come will enjoy these with more ease 😊
Great channel just subscribed. Imho your solo tent is a great bit of kit absolutely keep it. In the 70s and 80s I was a royal marine and we would have killed (preferably a certain Argentinian general) for such a tent but we used a considerably more draftier system also known as the poncho. Def not recommended with such a tent as yours as an alternative.
Fundamentally Scotland will want to make money from the land somehow. If it's turned into a preserve that's going to be tourism, if not then silviculture. That's the crux of the matter, preserves are nice and all but they can't burn a hole in the governments or landowners pocket.
Before I moved to the deep south of New Zealand, I'd seen pictures of Queenstown: picturesque views of beautiful unspoiled snowcapped mountains and blue lakes. It looked so serene and relaxing - a definite addition to my travel list. Then, I ended up getting a job that required me to travel to Queenstown every few weeks. Boy was I wrong! It's absolute overtourism hell. Queenstown is almost a caricature of a place: so thronging with people from all over the world that you'd almost think you'd landed in downtown Auckland or Sydney. The town itself is chock-full of mega-overpriced restarurants, bars and "adventure" activities. You can't buy a house there unless you are a multi-millionaire. The traffic is horrendous - finding somewhere to park is a nightmare. If you're a worker there, good luck finding accommodation: it's not uncommon for 8 or more people to share a cramped, tiny apartment designed for 2. Rentals are so tight that I've even heard of people having to "hot-bed" - i.e. share the same bed as someone else when they're not using it! If that's not bad enough, the rents are astronomical. This has created a whole army of low-paid foreign workers - who initially came to see the place for themselves - toiling long hours for (in relative terms) an absolute pittance just to survive there. So despite attracting big spenders to come to Queenstown and gamble and enjoy the outdoors and dining experiences, there's a whole population of poverty-stricken workers and young locals that support that. New Zealand - as a whole but particularly in that Queenstown area - has also had a history of allowing "freedom camping": this is where people with almost no money arrive to travel around and set up camps (sometimes becoming semi-permanent traveller camps) in public places, like car parks and picnic areas, in low-quality campervans. They party up, trash the local environment and amenities, and inject as little money as possible into the local economy in order to prolong their travel. That is, they're always tring to get everything for free or at least for as little as they can spend. The locals then have to clean up after them. There's another problem that tourism brings as well: road deaths. Like the UK and Australia, we drive on the left. This is very challenging if you're not used to it and not familiar with our road rules. Further, the road network in that area is made up of often narrow, winding roads that are difficult to pass on. After a few close calls where I had to dodge campervans on the wrong side of the road, I grew to dread driving in that area. There have been (IMHO) far, far too many New Zealanders killed on the road because of tourists having momentary lapses of attention. In terms of conservation; encouraging millions of tourists to the area is probably the worst thing you can do. Recently (well, prior to Covid anyway) there has been backlash in New Zealand against this overtourism, though tourism operators are predictably trying to entice tourists back to pre-Covid levels. So, I can understand why the locals in Galloway do not want this National Park. I go out of my way to avoid Queenstown; I can see the same things happening to Galloway if the park goes ahead. Every objection those opposed to the project have raised has been played out in Queenstown in real life. Many Kiwis won't go there now - and couldn't afford to even if we wanted to.
The attraction is the landscape obviously - it’s a beautiful place. Yes they might temporarily improve the landscape by building new trails etc.. but the inevitable damage from people who come and go, the ugly things that will need built such as massive car parks & portaloos will ruin it much more than they’ll be able to improve it In the end I think place will lose much of its natural beauty and be plagued with money making facilities “for the people” As many folk have said, the only ones that really benefit are the owners of those facilities. It’s not a privilege for people to be offered new jobs at minimum wage House prices inflating is great if you’re dying to sell and move away. But for the locals who call this place home, I don’t expect it’ll mean much to them. Anyway give it a few years and some huge property development company will come and create lots new build homes which will drive all their house prices back down The capitalist machine is coming for all the spare land so enjoy it while it lasts I guess 🥲
Thanks that was fascinating and informative, here I am living in the Scottish Borders (Peeblesshire) and ignorant of all this. So is the Forestry Commision on the ball with these issues?
Hi Stephen. I only discovered your channel today and have watched three videos already. Just wish I had known about you earlier! Keep up the good work.
