Saturday - 9 July 2005
Left Cambridgeshire around 1:40pm, then headed north on the A1 followed
by A66 and A685 to Kirkby Stephen. Pitched the tent at Pennine View
Caravan Site (campsite) by 5:30pm. Drove to Outhgill via Nateby on the
B6269. Just south of Nateby noticed that people appeared to be camping
on common land, not sure if this is official or unofficial but may be
useful in the future? After leaving the car at Outhgill headed
directly towards High Seat using a relatively easy to follow path.
Once the slope starts to increase headed towards a well built cairn.
Due to the weather conditions, very warm with some cloud cover,
reaching the cairn up the very steep slope was hard, sweaty work. After
the cairn the ground slopes very gently to High Seat. As seems the
case with flattish summits any number of cairns could be the actual
top, however the biggest, best made cairn definitely isn't! My guess
is that the true top is the small cairn about 200 metres south-west-ish
of the biggest cairn. An easy stroll on grass in a southerly direction
brought the 'summit' of Archy Styrigg. As before the true top was not
the large cairn but a smaller cairn 50 metres north.
As time was marching on, plus I was absolutely starving, decided to
head back to the car. Instead of reascending towards High Seat
contoured around that hill. In bad weather this area would be a bit of
a nightmare as in perfect conditions it was very difficult to locate
the cairn that marks a safe way up/down Mallerstang Edge. In fact the
cairn only came in view when I was within a few metres of it!
Back to Kirkby Stephen and the fish and chip shop I had spotted on the
way through the town was shut!!! Luckily the fallback Chinese takeaway
was open, so back to the campsite to scoff the meal as dusk gradually
descended.
2 Nuttalls, ~7 Km
Sunday - 10 July 2005
The plan was to walk to Garsdale, well the Moorcock Public House at the
intersection between the B6259 & A684. As I had to make the 2:45-ish
train out of Garsdale to get back to Kirkby Stephen decided to make an
early start. Also to get a head start parked the car at Croop House
farm. Followed the old roman road by the River Eden south for many
kilometres passing Pendragon Castle (noticed even more campers at the
previously mentioned common land(!)). At Hazelgill farm planned to
take the footpath towards Wild Boar Fell. However the farmer had
kindly filled the field that the path goes through with Bulls plus
cow's 'n' calves. Retraced steps north and noticed another way under
the railway which enabled rejoining the path higher up. After the low
level start to the walk through hay meadows it was nice to get onto
higher land and the wide open spaces. The path to Wild Boar Fell
elects to take easy gradients so that the edge protecting the fell is
attained with ease. Walking along the edge provides great views, not
only towards the Eden Valley but also Cross Fell in the north, the
Howgills immediately west and I'm sure Blencathra's outline could be
seem in the north-west. Once away from the edge the walk degenerates
to a very easy stroll over grass to the trig point (that has had the ID
plate removed (!). From the trig point headed south-east towards the
fence and then down to a small tarn (that is marked on the o/s map) at
the col between Wild Boar Fell & Swarth Fell. At the summit of Swarth
Fell there is another tarn, about the same size as the previous tarn,
but it isn't marked on the o/s map!
As the weather was fantastic I was able to make a beeline for Aisgill
cottages after walking along the edge of Swarth Fell. The main reason
for heading towards Aisgill cottages was to visit the waterfall at
Hellgill and although the gill wasn't in spate it was still impressive.
From Hell Gill Bridge followed the old roman road, Lady Mary's Way (?)
to High Dyke (this contours very impressively between 400 and 425m).
Then down to the Moorcock pub for some well deserved liquid
refreshment. After being suitably refreshed short walk to Garsdale
railway station to catch the train back to Kirkby Stephen. The fare
being a steal at £2.40!!! Another short stroll from the station to
Croop House farm to be reunited with the car and a long drive back
home!
2 Nuttalls, one also being a Marilyn, ~28km
....67 summits this year
65 (36 Marilyns, 25 Nuttalls, 29 Wainwrights, 1 Outlier, 4 Swiss)
2 repeats (1 Marilyn, 1 Nuttall, 1 Wainwright)