Borrowdale - The Other One

It was day two of the new year and another crack of noon start when Nick and I headed out in Nick's car to go to Little Langdale and walk up Pike O'Blisco.  As we drove out of Kendal by a back road, I happened to ask Nick what the hills were out of his window.  It went something like:

Me: "Is that Shap over there?"
Nick: "No, it's Borrowdale.  Shap's further north"
Me:  "Don't be ridiculous.  It's in the wrong direction for Borrowdale"
Nick: "Ah, yes but this is another one.  Shall we go there instead?"

So having stopped the car to look at the map and realised that neither of us had a map for this "other" Borrowdale, we drove back to Nick's house, got the sheet we needed and started all over again.  It was still quicker than driving over to than Langdale.

Borrowdale "The Other One" or Borrowdale "TOO" (geddit?) lies about 8 miles north of Kendal and runs between the A6 and the M6, which crosses it by a viaduct.  If you go under this you are straight on the edge of the Howgill Fells.  There is a convenient layby on the A6 just before the bridge which crosses Borrow Beck and signals the start of this small dale.  The gate onto the footpath was padlocked and a sign posted by Cumbria Council said that the path was closed because of 'dangerous' erosion of the river bank.  But we are made of strong stuff and undeterred, we vaulted (well struggled manfully) over the gate and negotiated the erroded bank.  If you've walked down Glen Feshie, south of the bothy with the impossible name, you'd know what erosion was and this was nothing like it so we say pah! to Cumbria Council.

The actual plan (and remember this was already plan B) was to cross the hill, north over to Bretherdale and then walk back down Borrowdale but as we reached the top of the climb we spotted a path running east along the ridge line and this looked so inviting that we instigated Plan C - along the ridge and back up the valley bottom.  And so that's what we did.  And it was grand.

Climbing up out of Borrowdale, shortly after the dangerous bit










Despite it being a grey cold day, there were some splendid views across the M6 and over to the northern Pennines.

Looking towards Dufton Fell and High Cup Nick

The M6 south of Tebay, the Howgills and (probably) Wild Boar Fell in the far distance

The view along the 'ridge' towards the Howgills














The track, despite not being marked on the OS 1:10k was clear enough and the going underfoot was mostly short, springy grass.  Really, quite pleasant.  We came across some wild ponies who approached us expectantly, looking to scam some food but we had to disappoint them. 

Wild Ponies














We somehow walked past the bridleway which crosses the ridge and which would have taken us down into Borrowdale, so we cut down the fellside to the bottom of the valley and came out near one of the bridges which crosses Borrow Beck.  We made a brief stop for lunch of pork pie and cake and then followed the valley path back to the car.

Eastern end of Borrowdale looking west.












7 miles and 1500' (more or less)

Hutton Roof - Farleton Fell

For new year I visited my friends Nick and Anne in Kendal.  New Year's day was cold and grey and after some 'what about' around the high lakeland fells (from the comfort of the kitchen table) we opted for something completely different and headed for the M6.  I've driven past Farleton Fell many times.  It's the limestone outcrop you see from the M6 just south of the S Lakes junction with the A65.  I think it's the eastern end of a band of limestone which runs west through the Furness region of southern Lakeland.  There are no caves there (as far as I'm aware) although there are caves in Furness and there is a chapter on Farleton crags in a climbing guide for the area. 

We parked at Hutton Roof and headed west up onto Hutton Roof Crags. 

Sign in Hutton Roof

The area is short grass and low limestone crags and boulders.  On a warm summer's day it must be lovely!

Hutton Roof Crags

Hutton Roof Crags













Dropping down to the road, we crossed over to Newbiggin Crags and passed between limestone pavements up to the summit of Farleton Fell (265m).  The limestone here dips to the south east, away from the summit.

Dipping limestone pavement on Farleton Fell

On the summit of Farleton Fell. 











Farleton Crags













We had a brief lunch stop below the summit, sheltering from a biting wind and then walked along the base of the crags running along the western edge before scrambling up a couple of benches to reach some magnificent limestone pavements.  These were decorated with sizable limestone boulders, presumably deposited by a glacier in the last ice age.

Limestone boulders on Farleton Fell

Dropping down to the quarry at the southern end of the hill, we turned west and headed back to Hutton Roof, pausing only to view a couple of Ravens riding the thermals. (Thermals when it's that cold?  Well I guess it's all relative). 

There look to be a lot of interesting nooks and crannies to explore on both Hutton Roof Crags and Farleton Fell and some nice looking opportunities for mountain biking and climbing / bouldering on a warmer day.  In clearer conditions there should be some good views of the Lakes and Pennines.  As it was, we only caught a few glimpses of Ingleborough and Morecambe Bay.

6 miles and a 1000' or thereabouts.

Loose Ends

I've walked most of the paths round Redmires many times but there is one path that goes off from the upper reservoir, close to the start of the track up to Stanage Pole, that I've known about for quite a  while now (like a few years) but never walked.  I had planned to explore it yesterday but got sucked into Sheffield for the sales (I know, yuk).  I managed to get out this afternoon for a couple of hours.  It was noticeably warmer than two days ago, when I'd circumnavigated the top reservoir in near arctic conditions, and there was some very atmospheric cloud just hanging around.

End of Redmires Road

Redmires Top Reservoir from the road











The track heads southwest (ish) over some open access land on the area of the OS 1:50k map marked as White Stones.  After a bit of ascent, it branches.  East would have taken me back to the path which runs above the reservoirs on the flank of Rud Hill.  I've walked over there before so I took the western branch which after only a short distance turned down hill, back to where I had come from.  However, there are a series of sheep tracks continuing south and west, which are easy enough to follow for a while before they degenerate into alternate regions of tussocks and heather.  I suspect the open access agreement doesn't extend this far but I took advantage of the low light levels, the mist and my black 'stealth' goretex and pressed on, throwing caution and responsible hill walking to the winds. 

Redmires Top and Middle reservoirs from open access path

The open access path with the plantation and Stanage Pole in the distance













It was a truly fabulous bit of wild walking over open moorland.  I aimed for the Cowper Stone on the southern end of Stanage, which I estimated would take me 5 to 10 minutes to reach and probably took nearer 15 or 20.  Usually when it's misty I find things are often closer than they appear but I guess the tussocky terrain and the two streams I had to cross slowed me down.

Walking over tussocks towards Cowper Stone and the back side of Stanage Edge in the distance










Most of the snow had gone - such a contrast to two days ago but there was still quite a bit of ice around.

Interesting speckled ice pattern in natural (?) cup in rock on top of Stanage Edge













At the Cowper Stone, a sign dated 2005 says there is a Ring Ouzel's nest.  I guessed that even if they had returned in subsequent years, they probably wouldn't be in residence just now.  So I climbed up past the stone and headed for the trig point.

As I walked along the top of the Edge, I passed one or two folk who appeared out of the gloom and saw a couple of climbers topping out - they must have been desperate to climb as the rock could hardly be described by any sane person as 'in condition'.  I made my way along to Robin Hoods Cave area, where a track cuts over normally boggy moorland directly to Stanage Pole.  It appeared boggy today but I found that instead of sinking in, I  was walking on water - well a very thin layer of water covering a thicker layer of ice.  The mist lifted a little as I dropped down from the Pole and the clouds parted enough to show a ribbon of blue sky, which I completely failed to capture with the camera phone.

3.5 miles and about 500' of up.