The Fool On The Hill

LETJOG PEAK No 41: Billinge Hill, Merseyside (179 metres)

Walk Date: Monday 14 August 2023

More than a couple of folk have asked me why I am undertaking this LETJOG Peaks challenge. Having trekked the length of the country two years ago, why would I need, or want, to go traipsing around the country all spring and summer in all weathers? Well, for most of the time I am comfortable with my choices around the pursuit of this enduring walking venture, but there are moments, usually in anticipation rather than in retrospect, when I ask myself the same questions; and last evening, as I set the alarm for 5.30 am this morning, ahead of a four-hour road trip in awful weather and the prospect of a thorough soaking on a 13-mile hike to the top of Merseyside, was certainly one such occasion. Added to all of this, for today’s foray I was to be joined by my close Berkhamsted friend, my fellow walker, and (for today) my driver, Mark, on whom I had imposed this latest step of my journey. What an ordeal to place upon a companion! But of course, pessimistic projections seldom turn out as badly in reality, and the answers to any such misgivings usually become evident in the doing. Today was no exception: yes, we got (very) wet, but the joys of exercise in the outdoors and the insight into a hitherto unknown but fascinating part of our country were soon to override our reservations and bring home to us why, like many others, we choose to ramble on a regular basis, even in the worst of conditions. And so, with such qualms suitably overcome, our day was bright despite the weather, and my enthusiasm for the task in hand continues unabated.

Mark and I have known each other in Berkhamsted for a couple of decades now, and we have common interests in sport and music, to name but two subjects of our discussions during our many walks together. Conversation between us is always easy, and what better way than a three-day walking trip to indulge ourselves in putting the world to rights? Previous walks have taken the two of us all over the Chilterns and, further from home, to Anglesey and North Wales, along a four-day section of the Pennine Way and, two years ago, along the Severn Way as part of my ‘End-to-End’ LETJOG walk. Great to have your company again for this short break Mark, and of course your good humour throughout today’s downpours. Amongst all the dampness I did manage to capture a few reminders of our day.

Back to Rainford, walk done, and in the sanctuary of the car, we drove the 70 or so miles to Ingleton in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, where for the next couple of days Mark is joining me again for two upland instalments of my LETJOG Peaks challenge. I will be reporting back, naturally, on how we progress over the course of the next few days.

And as for my choice of Blog title for today, from a cast of many fine music artists, there could only be one Merseyside outfit to inspire my heading. Of course the four Beatles all hail from Liverpool, not ten miles to the south-west of our walking route today, so I need look no further. Before and during the group’s breakthrough in the early 1960s their set list and recordings featured many covers of other artists’ numbers, ranging from rock ‘n’ roll to folk, Motown to skiffle, but their later repertoire became almost totally self-penned. ‘The Fool On The Hill’ is a Paul McCartney ballad, co-credited to John Lennon in their usual manner, that appears on the band’s EP and album ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ from 1967. The lyrics describe the titular fool as a solitary figure misunderstood by others who is actually wise: as McCartney comments a decade later, the song is about ‘someone who’s got the right answer but people tend to ridicule him’. I’m not saying anything.