Up Barton Fell

So it's Easter, the weather's gonna be good, and we know the whole world is gonna be on a beach or heading for the Lake District. Well, that's not strictly true, they might be heading for one of the other national parks. But most of them will be heading for the Lake District. Why? Cos that's where we're going! And we wanna go cos it's the Lake District, innit?

To be honest, we've been waiting for months for the decent weather to be around at the same time as us so we can go climb a mountain in the Lake District, in the sunshine. And finally we got what we wanted, the only drawback being that it was Easter Bank Holiday Weekend.

But we hadn't booked anywhere to stay. We had been waiting to make sure we had decent weather, and once the Met Office promised that, about four days before the bank holiday weekend, we found that trying to book into any one of the hundreds of Lake District campsites was completely useless. They were all full.

Except one.

Actually, it was nearly empty. A great big field with hardly anyone on it. Flamin' Awesome!

This campsite empty on Bank Holiday Weekend.  There were a few others camping on it, but as you can see..... Bliss.

OK, so the facilities weren't the best.  No shop, a single shower in not much more than a cupboard and a not very flat field. But it was EMPTY during the bank holiday weekend. We drove past campsite after campsite filled to the rafters with kids and campervans, dogs people and tents. Then we got to the peace and quiet of ours. Bliss.

And not only that, it was the starting point of our first walk up Barton Fell. Well, that would be cos Peter worked out a walk using the campsite as the starting point, but what a coincidence eh?

Barton Fell looking good.  And fantastic weather too.

So we set off from the Cross Dormont campsite and walked on past Seat Farm and Crook-a-dyke, heading for Thwaitehill and Sharrow Cottages. Our plan was to start uphill from Sharrow Cottages, but the thing was, we came to a permissive path that directly headed uphill, and we took it. 

Half an hour or so (make that even more of the so) later, we were up Lock Bank near the Reservoir. Point to note...... The Reservoir is underground, which is why you cannot see it, either marked out on the map, or in the landscape. What you can see is shown in the fotie.

The fenced off area with the block is the reservoir, or at least an entrance to it.  Did I mention our campsite overlooked Ullswater?  Doesn't it look gorgeous?

Anyway, our planned route was to follow the path along and then switch back to get up to White Knott. Or we could take Peter's preferred route which is always the shortest. We found another path going straight up, which is of course what we did.

So we reached White Knott glowing red and sounding like overcharged steam trains. But from there it was a nice gentle slope along Barton Fell to the Cairn at Arthur's Pike. (I like that name). Easy Peasy! And of course the views are wonderful.

Looking over Ullswater from Barton Fell, Blencathra in the distance.  What a beautiful day.

Next we were to make our way to Bonscale Pike and Bonscale Tower following the paths on the ground as they are on the map, but............. What is it about us that means we always seem to wander off paths. We did find our way to the next landmarks, but not by following a well trodden route. We meandered a little. (Or maybe a lot).

Despite losing the path, we did find it again at the Swarth Beck crossing.  These are the remains of an old sheepfold and hut.

Swarth Fell and White Knotts next. (Note the 's' on White Knotts, it's a different place than White Knott).

More views of Ulswater.  Just stunning

Then we had to make our way down to Mellguards. If this part of the walk looks steep on a map, it's because it is. Steep I mean. It hurts your knees and forces your toes into the front of your boots with the slope. Ow. Ow. Ow!

Going down.  That round lump mid right is Hallin Fell, and the ridge mid left is Steel Knotts. 

And finally, the flat (Phew! What a relief.) walk along the shore of Ullswater back to the campsite.

Ullswater again.  We enjoyed watching the yachts and boats.  

A nice little foray out for our first day in the Lake District. In the end we walked just over 6 ½ miles, and nearly 1700ft of up.

Despite our pleasure at finding the delightfully empty Cross Dormant campsite, we were also due to stop near Brotherswater, so tomorrow we are at a different campsite and Peter has his sights a bit higher for tomorrow's walk.  I am so looking forward to it. 

Finding the falls in Swaledale

This walk was a little bit of a Swaledale exploration. I worked out a simple circular route from Thwaite, and invited Mel from the WalkersForum to join me, promising her an easy day of it.

We met at a layby just outside Thwaite and after brief hello's and then a yes, no, yes, no, yes, no, yes discussion about wearing gaiters, we set off on a nice gentle slope from Thwaite to Dirty Piece. (Yes, really). I'd noticed a waterfall marked on the map called Aygill Force and wanted to go take a look.
We got to Angram, crossed the road and then started to make our way towards where I thought the waterfall was. I think Mel was suspicious of my map reading skills, especially when we couldn't see the path (she's probably got a point). But she needn't have worried, I did know where we were and where we were going, despite the lack of paths, AND I have Gizmo (GPS). My only problem was that we couldn't find the waterfall.

Looking back towards Thwaite from Angram Lane

Lime Kiln near Angram

Looking back at Angram and as we go up.

I should have remembered how ambiguous OS maps are when it comes to locations. If I'd have looked a little closer, I'd have realised the waterfall was at the end of the OS wording, not the beginning.

But no matter, it caused plenty of hilarity at my expense and it was easy enough to follow the course of the little beck Ay Gill back down to the village of Aygill and Hey Presto, we found the falls. We'd convinced ourselves they'd be naff after all the effort it took to find them, but actually, Aygill Force is a striking little drop. There wasn't a lot of water coming over it when we visited, but we could imagine how it would look after a downpour. Even more attractive was the fact that we found the perfect little seat for a snack stop right alongside.

The grassy tussock lower left is perfect to sit on for a snack stop.

From there, it was a little bit of trespass through fields to get back to the road, and then left to follow that road into Keld.

Awwwwww.  So cute. 

Funny enough, I'd never been to Keld before. Mel had, and knew exactly where to get coffee n cake, so naturally we made a beeline for the little cafe. At this point I realised that the money I had deliberately brought with me for the purpose of coffee and cake in the little cafe at Keld was actually in the little purse in a little car just outside Thwaite. 

DOH!

Mel subbed me.

Coffee'd up and raring to go we set off with renewed vigour, and then immediately stopped at the notice board telling us stuff about Keld, (Did you know it's the highest village in Swaledale?). We stopped again five minutes later to visit the unnamed falls at East Stonesdale.

I say that now, but at the time I was well confused. As mentioned earlier, OS maps can be very ambiguous with names, and these falls could be Catrake Force or even Kisdon Force. But they ain't, Catrake and Kisdon are on the river Swale. Once again Mel knew the area better than me, and put me right. I've visited these falls a few times with Peter, and I've always liked them. It's a shame they don't have a name.

Toothwort.  A parasitic plant without leaves

So we set off again, our plan was to take the higher path around Kisdon side above North Gang Scar.

A cracking rock formation on the path around Birk Hill

But just before we did, we took a diversion down and around Birk Hill to see Kidson Force. Mel had been here before and remembered where the falls were. I'm pleased she did, as I'd not seen them before.

Two waterfalls make up Kisdon Force

Now it was time to get back up again to our path. We decided to take the most direct route, i.e. straight up. This meant a load of huffing, puffing and glowing red until we burst out from the trees onto what was, much to our relief, a relatively flat path. Once we'd got our breath back, we turned in the direction of Muker.
We were chatting away, as women do, enjoying the sights and taking photographs. In fact, we'd been chopsing since we'd met, and perhaps, if we'd been less talkative, I'd have noticed that we'd got back from our diversion onto the wrong path and we were now following the Pennine Way. Not that it mattered, we were still heading for Muker, the sun was out and the valley was lovely spring green. The only downer was the wind. Boy did it blow, and it blew cold. 

I wonder who lived here?

We stopped for a break just opposite Arn Gill and it's waterfalls. We sat in a hollow, "sheltered" by a wall in a completely ineffectual attempt to get out of the wind, which was FREEZING!

Swinner Gill catching the sun. 

We were on the last leg now, Muker was just ahead, and once we got there, all we had to do was find our way out of the village and back to Thwaite. That took three attempts! It was Gizmo that found us our way this time.

Looking back towards Muker on our way to Thwaite.  It's a beautiful day.  (But still very cold n windy)

And then back to Thwaite, our cars and the drive home. 8½ miles and about 1000 ft of up and down.
Thank you Mel, it was a really good day. 

Here's the map.

A Series of Walks

The thing about the blog is that it needs to be kept up to date. The thing about me is that I am lousy at it sometimes. So now I have a backlog of walks to post.

Being the lazy type, I’ve decided to go for the easy option of sticking several walks on one post. It sort of works to be honest, cos there ain’t a lot to say about a couple of the walks, and there wasn’t a lot to see on a couple of the others – which all adds up to not a lot to write about.

Sat 29th March I’ll start with a walk I did with Heather, Frog and Fruit. These are real names by the way, two belong to a pair of gorgeous collie dogs, the third belongs to a long standing friend of mine. I’ll leave you to work out which one’s which. 

Still wearing winter colours. Lovely though, even in the mist.

I’d worked out a route from Lofthouse, up onto the moors on the the northern side of the river Nidd, out to Scar House Resevoir and then back. The Met Office promised us a good day once the sun had burned through the mist. Hah! There was no sun that day......No mist burning off and wonderful vistas over Nidderdale. Just downright claggyness spoiling our views. We start off planning to walk as far as the reservoir, but it looked so good as we approached, we extended our route to have a look at the dam. It was was well worth it.

Approaching Leighton Reservoir - and the mist refuses to burn off. 

Looking over the side of the dam.

From the dam we should have made our way back to our planned walk on the northern side of the river, but instead, we walked on the southern path, intending to cross The Nidd further down. Trouble was, there were problems with the stiles and ROWs. One stile had been made almost impossible to get over by the farmer, our route over a footbridge was blocked (barbed wire!), and I missed a turning later on. It all meant that we ended up getting back to Lofthouse using the road, which is hard on the feet. 

Still misty, but nice. 

It was a good walk though, in good company. 12 miles, 1550 ft of ascent.

Sat 5th April I decided to follow this route: Walking Englishman - Sutton Bank, Whitestone Cliff and Cold Kirby, except I started from the Sutton Bank visitors centre, not Cold Kirby. The advantages are toilets, coffee and cake, the disadvantages are the parking costs. I really enjoyed this walk. Somehow or other I managed to do 12 miles in 5 hours, including stops, which is not like me at all. I blame it on the rambling club that were following me at the start. They were making a right racket, and although I stopped to take some photo’s and wait for them to pass, they stopped as well. I felt harrassed! I belted off again to get some distance between us, and sort of kept up the pace from there. Me legs didn’t half hurt the next day though.

Whitestone Cliff or White Mare Crag and...........

Gormire Lake have their own legends, as can be read here:  Mysterious Britain - White Mare Crag and Gormire Lake

Sadly the weather wasn’t all that bright. I did get to take some pictures but everything was a bit misty, and the views from the top of the bank weren't the best.

An amazing tree, still growing despite being snapped in half.

As I came to the end of the walk though, I thought what a brilliant route it is for Heather and her dogs. There was only one stile that I remember, it’s mostly flat (675ft of up and down), and although there are fields of sheep, Frog and Fruit are extremely well behaved. So we went round the circuit again with Heather on Sat 26th April. A really good walk, but unfortunately the weather wasn't any better the second time round either so no more pictures, just the ones from last time.

A lovely wide, grassy path along the edge of the Hambleton Hills

The lunchtime view. 

We just managed to get back to the cars before it started raining. 

Tue 8th April This was a little walk to test the idea of walking after work. I finished at 5pm, Peter picked me up and we drove out to Leighton Reservoir to see if we could walk around it. I was trying to work out a route of about 5 miles.  I have to confess that Peter took the photographs, as I forgot me camera.

So what did I learn? Well, the idea of a 4-5 mile walk after work during the summer is very feasible, but I should have picked somewhere a bit closer to home. I also learnt that although you can’t walk around the reservoir, it is a beautiful place with a fantastic range of bird life. I will go back, but with me binoculars next time.

Sat 12th April  saw me attempt a walk out from Gayle in the Dales to Dodd Fell Hill and Wether Fell, (another route from the Walking Englishman)  There are no photos, and there is nothing to report except it was a lot wetter than I had hoped. Actually it was an absolute washout.  The weatherman said it would clear up in the afternoon, so I waited until 2pm to start the walk.  The rain got harder the higher I went, and it wasn't until I'd reached a little bit of a ridge and the wind was blowing wet needles so hard into my face that I couldn't open my eyes, and all of my clothes were drenched through to the skin that I decided it wasn't to be.  Sadly, I turned around and walked back to the car.  Very disappointed.  

Of course, by the time I did get back to the car, the sun was shining and everything was steaming in the heat!

Looking up at the tops still in black cloud, I knew though that coming back was the better choice this time. 

Anyway - Now I've covered quite a bit of the gap between Cragside and Skye.  I can concentrate on a fantastic walk in the Dales, followed by three walks in the Lake District.  Class eh?