Blog Analysis - 2024

Revisiting my favourite Torridonian balcony summit in 2024

I started blogging in 2009 after I retired, initially to inform my son of what was happening at home when he called in at internet cafes on his round-the-world trip. The blog has since grown into a log of all the Munros and Corbetts, some of my long-distance walks, holiday trips, eulogies for lost friends, places in the UK and Europe, and a record of political shenanigans over the 15 years. There are 950 posts and another 40 or so are waiting for completion as I search for old photos or find the right words to capture some thoughts and events. It is a timeline of happenings and thoughts with photos to prompt my memories as l drift into the era of baby boomers wallowing. 

For most of the past ten years, the traffic on the blog has been steady, with an average of 30 -50 hits per day, about 12,000 hits per annum. Two-thirds of those are from the UK and another 20% from the USA, presumably mainly Google keeping up with the latest postings. Other views were typically from France, Germany, Canada, Netherlands and Ireland. Ukraine and Russia kept a close eye on the UK but they have largely stopped since the onset of the Ukraine war. This last couple of years traffic has skyrocketed mainly from Singapore and Hong Kong. There is no indication of which posts they visit and the presumption must be that they are bots, Israel visits also fall into this category although they are at a far lower level. 

There have been over 260.000 hits although in the last couple of years, bots have probably added 60,000 or so hits. I occasionally check what is being read, there is no obvious pattern. It is an esoteric collection of my mumblings. Over the past year when I  posted 70 times, I was pleased that the most read 2024 posts covered all types of posts, the most read dozen are listed in ranked order below.

1.  A grand day out in Edinburgh Local Government

2.  Lurg Mhor and Bidein a' Coire Sheasgaich  Munros

3.  Desolation Democracy   Politics

4.  What about local government? Local Government

5.  Sunday Morning on the wee Ben  Trossachs

6.  Blencathra   Lake District

7.  The Crow Trap  Home 

8.  Scottish Democracy: Time for a Reset   Politics

9.  An Alphabetic Legacy of the Tory Years  Politics

10. Universities: the facts about fiction  Economics

11. London: Home of the Money Tree  London

12. Buchaille Etive Beag  Munros

Over the 15-year life of the blog, the all-time top four posts also cover a range of themes.

1.  The Top Forty Munros   Munros

2. GR20 Corsica  Long Walks

3. Strathclyde Regional Council, ashes to ashes  Local Government

4. Ronas Hill and da Lang Ayre     Shetland

These are followed by the West Highland Way, the Aonach Eagach, Vienna and a couple of Eulogies. 

Is it worth blogging? Well yes, even if only for the selfish ability to revisit and remember the things and events that have captured my interest in Q4. The rest is for others to judge.

The long and lonely downhill road of retirement