Just where can a Hill and Moorland Leader lead walking groups?
This is a question that keeps cropping up on social media from people who are working towards becoming a Hill and Moorland Leader. They want to remain within the scope of the qualification they are working towards, and they need to log a minimum of 20 Quality Hill Days prior to a training course, and a minimum of 40 Quality Hill Days before an assessment. And so, the question keeps popping up, “Where can I go for a walk and count it as a QHD?”.
As a prolific provider of the Hill and Moorland Leader qualification courses, both training and assessment, I thought I’d try to answer this very question.
First of all, it’s important to understand the scope of the Hill and Moorland Leader. Mountain Training say in the Candidate Handbook:
1.2. Scope of the qualification
A qualified Hill and Moorland Leader can lead others on day walks in hill and moorland environments. Qualification holders are able to manage groups safely during this activity.
1.2.1 Terrain Hills and moorlands in the UK and Ireland meeting the following criteria:
• Open, uncultivated, non-mountainous high or remote country known variously as upland, moor, bog, fell, hill or down.
• Areas enclosed by well-defined geographical or man-made boundaries such as classified roads.
• Areas of remoteness that are easily exited in a few hours, returning to a refuge or an accessible road.
• Areas where movement on steep or rocky terrain is not required (in either a planned or unplanned situation) Such areas may often be subject to hostile weather conditions and require an element of self-sufficiency. This is reflected in the syllabus of this qualification.
1.2.2 Exclusions The qualification does not cover:
• Areas that merge with mountain regions and do not have well defined boundaries.
• Walks undertaken in winter conditions. This qualification does not provide training or assessment of the skills required to cope with the hazards of winter conditions, particularly lying snow and ice. ‘Summer conditions’ are defined by the conditions prevailing and not by the calendar.
And in the Definitions section of the Appendix of the Candidate Handbook:
Hill and moorland terrain:
In the United Kingdom and Ireland hill and moorland areas include*:
• Pentland Hills • Hills of Cromdale • Campsie Fells • Dartmoor • Peak District • North York Moors • Bannau Brycheiniog/Brecon Beacons • Cambrian Mountains • Sperrins • Slieve Bloom Mountains
*This list is not exhaustive and there are many more areas across the UK and Ireland that are considered appropriate terrain
All of these areas are good suggestions, as you’d expect from Mountain Training, and these would be a really useful starting point for anyone who isn’t sure.
As Mountain Training state, that list isn’t exhaustive, so I thought I’d put together a bit of a list of my own.
Here’s my own Top 50 Hill and Moorland Leader areas, in no particular order:
Again, this list certainly isn’t exhaustive - there are lots of other places to go to gain QHDs, especially in Scotland where I’ve just given a few ideas. Apologies to those of you from Ireland, or those going to Ireland. While I personally know all of the areas below pretty well, I’ve actually done very little walking in Ireland. Perhaps someone who lives there could do a list of the best hill areas there?
Bodmin Moor
Exmoor
Dartmoor
Shropshire Hills
Bannau Brycheiniog/Brecon Beacons
Radnor Forest Hills
Drygarn Fawr
Plynlimon
The Tarrens
The Dovey Hills
Arenig Fach
The Migneint
Clwydian Hills
Moel Eilio
Tal-y-Fan
Shropshire Hills (Long Mynd, Stiperstones, etc.)
Peak District
West Pennine Moors
Yorkshire Dales
The Howgill Fells
North York Moors
Northern Pennines
Cheviots
Shap Fells
Northern Fells
Black Combe and Ulpha Fell
Loweswater Fells
Whinlatter Fells
Moffat Hills
Ettrick
Culter Fells
Megget Fells
Tweedsmuir
Lowther Fells
Galloway Forest/Cairnsmore of Fleet
Moorfoot Hills
Lammermuirs
Pentland Hills
Ochil Hills
Campsie Fells
Luss Hills
Mount Keen to Mount Battock
Abernethy
Hills of Cromdale
Monadhliath above Kingussie
Little Wyvis
Colonsay
Ross of Mull
Hoy
Ronas Hill and the North Roe Plateau
