John D Burns

Meeting the Grey Man

August 12, 2013johndburns 2

Something is coming towards me through the mist, I can see the figure of a man, easily nine feet high, striding in my [...]

There’s only one thought in my head now, “Keep pedalling!” I know they are after me. My legs screaming and my backside feels [...]

There is magic here. It’s in the way the wind whispers in the trees, it’s in the gnarled trunks of the old woodland, [...]

July 22, 2013John D Burns 4

If you are in the Scottish hills one winter’s day and you see a Victorian climber step cutting his way up an ice [...]

July 9, 2013John D Burns 7

I’m getting soft, I realise, as I stand looking at the icy waters and contemplating the idea that I may actually have to [...]

June 12, 2013John D Burns 2

Almost 90 years ago George Mallory, Britain’s leading climber, and Sandy Irvine, a young powerful oarsman, vanished into the mist close to the [...]

June 9, 2013johndburns 24

Everything had been fine until I’d answered that question but now a silence hung in the air like a malevolent fart. I sucked [...]

June 1, 2013John D Burns 2

From my hiding place in the heather I anxiously I scan the horizon for incoming walkers. I strain my eyes for the slightest [...]

May 24, 2013John D Burns 18

At the end of Loch Arkaig I came across a sign. What it basically says is, “See those big lumpy things behind this [...]

May 11, 2013johndburns 18

The moment I walked into the bothy I could tell something was wrong, I could feel the tension in the atmosphere. The last [...]