Jane Dotchin packs her saddlebags onto Diamond, her trusty horse, every year and heads to the hills from her home near Hexham, Northumberland to Inverness, covering between 15 and 20 miles a day. She carries everything she needs including her tent, food and just a few belongings – and despite wearing an eyepatch is determined to continue doing it as long as she can.

Jane said, “My mother would look after my other ponies, but she wasn’t that keen on looing after my Halfinger stallion, so I rode him down to Somerset to see a friend, with is about 300 miles.”

After that initial journey, she caught the taste for the open road, and travelled to visit friends near Fort Augustus, near Loch Ness, Highlands, every autumn since.