An Afternoon Walk up Thack Moor

Friday 26th September 2014 

An afternoon walk in the North Pennines up England's shortest 2000ft peak 

Distance: 8km; Ascent: 390m; Dry, sunny and windy; Solo

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After my lunchtime walk up Cold Fell earlier, I drove around the western side of the Pennines to reach the village of Renwick, where I parked on the road near the church.  I set off walking again at around twenty past three this afternoon, and headed up the steep little minor road towards Outhwaite.

Trees on way up from Renwick

A few hundred metres up the road, where the road takes a sharp right, I continued straight on along a reasonable stony vehicle track heading straight for Thack Moor, with good views SE towards Melmerby Fell.  The track allowed me to reach an altitude of around 500m pretty quickly, where the track ended.  From here a faint path led onwards up the steep grassy slopes to reach the moorland ridge above.

Track heading for Thack Moor

Melmerby Fell from southern slopes of Thack Moor

At twenty past four, around an hour after I set off walking, I reached the the trigpoint on summit of Thack Moor (Nuttall), where it was quite cold and exposed to the still bitter wind.  I nipped over the wall to visit the true summit of the hill, which is an unmarked area of grass on the north side of the wall.

Thack Moor trigpoint

Grassy summit of Thack Moor

On this side of the wall I was able to shelter from the wind and hence stopped for a short break to admire the excellent expansive views out over the North Pennines and the Lake District, although the sky was pretty hazy in the direction of the latter so it was hard to pick much out.  I also spotted what looked like a wooden nesting box in the base of the wall, which seemed like a strange spot for it - I wondered what it was for?

Nesting box? on Thack Moor

Returning to the southern side of the wall, I headed SE along the wall with excellent views towards Watch Hill and Black Fell.  The ridge onwards over these moorland hills looked quite enticing this afternoon, but it would have to wait for another day as it was now late in the afternoon and I doubted there would be enough daylight to complete the circuit!  Plus I'd already arranged to give Andrew a lift from Penrith down to Stockport.

Black Fell from Thack Moor

Watch Hill & Black Hill

I followed a fence SSE down the slopes of Renwick Fell to pick up a wet and muddy footpath, which gradually improved as it headed SW back towards Renwick.  Around two kilometres after joining this path, I rejoined my outward route and retraced my steps back towards Renwick.  I arrived back at the car at around half past five, a little over two hours after I left it and headed for Penrith station to pick Andrew up.  It had been a pleasant day's walking in the North Pennines, and I now had only 12 English 2000ft peaks left to climb!

Black Fell

A Lunchtime Ascent of Cold Fell

Friday 26th September 2014 

A short circular walk up the most northerly 2000ft peak in the Pennines 

Distance: 9km; Ascent: 430m; Dry, sunny and windy; Solo

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I had booked the day off work today, with the intention of going out hill-walking so I was quite pleased to discover that the weather wasn't forecast to be too bad :-)  I therefore decided to return to the North Pennines for the day to climb another couple of my outstanding 2000ft peaks in that area.  This entailed a drive north up the M6, stopping at Tebay for coffee and a Cumberland sausage roll, to reach the RSPB's Geltsdale car park at Clesketts, from where I set off walking at around quarter to midday.

The track up through the bracken above Howgill Beck

It was warm and sunny as I headed along the vehicle track towards the hills, and I soon reached Howgill from where the ascent proper began.  A grassy track aided my progress up the bracken covered slopes of the NE side of the Howgill Beck valley, past the RSPB's Bruthwaite viewpoint and on towards the moorland above.

Ruined building above the Howgill Beck valley

The track became fainter and wetter as I ascended further, and soon I reached a broad col to the north of Cold Fell itself.  From here I headed up the slopes to the south, whilst trying to avoid the worst of the peat hags!  At 1pm I reached the the trigpoint on summit of Cold Fell (Nuttall, Marilyn), where it was lovely and sunny but quite cold in the biting wind.

Summit of Cold Fell

I stopped for lunch in the windshelter, whilst admiring the expansive views out over the northern Pennines, Northumberland and southern Scotland.  I could also make out the Lakeland Fells to the SW, but they were quite hazy in the September sunshine.

Currick on Tindale Fell

After ten or fifteen minutes on the summit, I decided that I'd better get a move on as I still had a second walk planned for today, up Thack Moor to the south of here.  To vary my route I decided to head to the prominent tall currick on Tindale Fell that's pretty much due north from Cold Fell.  From here I began to descend steeply northwards, with excellent views down to Tindale Tarn and on over Hadrian's Wall country.

Looking down to Tindale Tarn

Tindale Tarn from the northern slopes of Tindale Fell

After a steep descent, in places through tall grass and bracken, I reached the valley floor at a vehicle track junction near the SW corner of Tindale Tarn.  A short ascent NW along the track lead to Thorn and then back to the car at Clesketts, where I arrived shortly after half past two after a pleasant few hours walking.

A Misty Friday in the Eastern Lakeland Fells

Friday 4th April 2014

A circular walk up High Street from Troutbeck 

Distance: 24km; Ascent: 1290m; Misty with light winds; with Martin

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It had been a while since I'd last been walking in the Lake District, so I made plans to head up to the Eastern Fells today in the company of Martin.  We set off walking from Church Bridge shortly before 10:30am and navigated (mainly successfully!) our way through a holiday park to reach a bridlepath, which ran roughly parallel to the main road on the other side of Trout Beck.  After a number of kilometres of reasonably level walking, we crossed Hagg Gill and ascended steeply into the mist to reach the summit of Troutbeck Tongue (Wainwright, Birkett).

Jesus Church, Troutbeck

Cairn on Troutbeck Tongue

A reasonably level ridge led northwards for around a kilometre and a half, before we picked up the line of the old High Street Roman Road and soon became to ascend steeply.   Around half way up the 500m ascent we took a short break for lunch in the mist before continuing on up to the summit of Thornthwaite Crag (Nuttall, Wainwright, Birkett).

We decided to detour northwards to visit the trigpoint on the summit of High Street (Nuttall, Marilyn, Wainwright, Birkett), before following the wall back in a SSW direction.

Thornthwaite Crag beacon

On the summit of Thornthwaite Crag

By the trig point on High Street

By the trig point on High Street

After almost re-ascending Thornthwaite Crag, we followed the ridge southwards in the mist to reach the summit of Froswick (Nuttall, Wainwright, Birkett).  It was relatively quiet on the fells today and so far we had only seen a handful of other walkers.  We stopped for a quick break on Froswick before continuing on to the twin cairns on the summit of Ill Bell (Nuttall, HuMP, Wainwright, Birkett).

Cairn on Ill Bell

Now we just had one 2000ft peak left for the day, and we soon reached the summit of Yoke (Nuttall, Wainwright, Birkett).

On the summit of Yoke

Descending the south slopes of Yoke we soon dropped out of the cloud :-)  We estimated that the cloud base was now at around 500m, having risen from below 300m when we set off walking this morning.  A pleasant walk across the Garburn Pass brought us to the summit of our next hill: Sallows (Dewey, Wainwright, Birkett).

Looking south towards Sallows

On the summit of Sallows

We followed a wall around the head of the Wardless coire with good views back to the cloud covered eastern fells.

Looking back north towards the High Street fells

Heading for Sour Howes

After a slippery stile crossing we reached the summit of Capple Howe (Birkett), our penultimate hill of the day.  A walk of a few hundred metres NW brought us to our last summit of the day: Sour Howes (Wainwright, Birkett).

On the summit of Sour Howes

Windermere from Sour Howes

We descended across Applethwaite Common with good views over Windermere to reach the Garburn Road, which we followed back down to the main road, emerging a short distance to the south of Church Bridge.

On the Garburn Road

It had been a good day's walking despite the low cloud.  Many thanks to Martin for the company; his somewhat more prompt account of today's walk can be found here.

TGO Challenge Spring Gathering 2014

Saturday 8th March 2014 

A walk over the moorlands of the Dark Peak, passing several aircraft wrecks 

Distance: 22.5km; Ascent: 780m; Dry, but misty at first; with lots of other TGO Challengers

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Martin had kindly agreed to give me a lift over to the Snake Inn for today's TGO Challenge reunion walk in the Dark Peak.  We set off walking at around 10am and headed up Lady Clough to reach the start of the Doctor's Gate path, which we followed up into the mist.  The cloud didn't last for long though and soon we were descending down into the upper part of the Shelf Brook valley with good views over the nearby moorland.

In the upper part of Lady Clough

Heading down Doctor's Gate towards Glossop

Shelf Moor from Doctor's Gate

After a break for lunch we began our steep ascent of Ashton Clough, past various bits of aircraft wreckage in and around the clough.

Some of the C47 Skytrain remains in Ashton Clough

The upper part of Ashton Clough

After topping out onto the moorland above the clough, we came across further aircraft wreckage nearby on James's Thorn and from here we headed east across Shelf Moor.

Further remains of the C47 Skytrain above Ashton Clough

A few remains of a Lancaster on James's Thorn

Shelf Moor

Soon we reached our high point for the day at the summit of Higher Shelf Stones (Nuttall), where I stopped for a few minutes near the trigpoint to admire the views.

Summit rocks of Higher Shelf Stones

From the summit rocks of Higher Shelf Stones we made our way across the moor towards the Pennine Way, passing further aircraft wreckage in the peat.

Group approaching the Superfortress remains

Some of the Superfortress remains near Higher Shelf Stones

More of the Superfortress remains

Soon we reached the junction of the Pennine Way with the Doctor's Gate path, from where most of the group retraced our outward route back to the pub.  However a small group of us decided to have a bit more a walk given that there were still several hours of daylight left to enjoy.  Therefore we followed the Pennine Way across the top of the Snake Pass and on across the moorland to reach the summit of Mill Hill (Dewey), our second and last summit for the day.

Looking towards Kinder from Mill Hill

Before descending, Graham took us on a short detour to visit the crash site of a fourth aircraft on the western slopes on Mill Hill, which I had previously walked past one evening last August.

Some of the Liberator remains on Mill Hill

More of the Liberator remains

At the path junction between Mill Hill and the NW edge of Kinder, we left the Pennine Way and headed down the pleasant Ashop Clough, pretty much all the way back to the pub. Later that afternoon Lynsey arrived and we had an enjoyable evening in the pub in the pleasant company of many other TGO Challengers.

Footpath junction near Ashop Head

In Ashop Clough

Martin's somewhat more detailed and prompt description of the day's walk can be found here, together with more details of the various different aircraft wrecks we encountered during the day.

Mynydd Graig Goch - My Final Welsh 2000ft Peak!

Sunday 16th March 2014 

A misty day on the western hills of the Nantlle Ridge to climb my last Welsh Nuttall 

Distance: 11km; Ascent: 660m; Misty on the hills; with Colin

See tracked route in new window

After yesterday's two walks in the Arenigs and the Glyders, I now only had one 2000ft peak left in Wales that I hadn't yet climbed: Mynydd Graig Goch in western Snowdonia.  Therefore today we set out to rectify that with a pleasant walk along the western section of the Nantlle Ridge, to visit not only Mynydd Graig Goch, but also two other nearby peaks that Colin had yet to climb.

We set off walking from a small carpark just over half a kilometre NW of Llyn Cwm Dulyn at around quarter to eleven and headed along the access track to the reservoir, before gaining the NW spur of Mynydd Graig Goch and ascending up into the mist.

Approaching Llyn Cwm Dulyn

Heading for the NW spur of Mynydd Craig Goch

Frog (or toad?) spawn

Soon after midday we reached the rocky summit of Mynydd Graig Goch (Nuttall), where we spent a short while identifying by GPS which one of the many rocky outcrops was actually the true summit.  Once we had found it we stopped here for lunch before enjoying a celebratory dram whilst reflecting back on the large number of excellent days hill walking I've had climbing all the Welsh 2000ft peaks since 1997.

Celebrating with a dram on the summit of Mynydd Graig Goch

Summit rocks of Mynydd Graig Goch

After feeling suitably refreshed, we headed east over moorland to eventually descend out of the cloud as we reached Bwlch Cwm Dulyn.  From here we picked up a well worn path for a few hundred metres before concluding it didn't ascend the next hill; therefore instead we headed up the rough ground into the mist to reach the trigpoint and summit cairn of Garnedd-goch (Nuttall).

The cloud cleared as we descended to Bwlch Cwm Dulyn

Summit of Garnedd Goch

From here it was a pleasant, if misty, walk along the ridge to reach our highest point of the day at the summit of Craig Cwm Silyn (Nuttall, Marilyn), where we met the only other walkers we saw all day.  After a short break at the summit we retraced our steps for around three quarters of a kilometre before taking a traversing line westwards around Garnedd Goch towards Llyn Cwm Dulyn.

Descending out of the cloud towards Llyn Cwm Dulyn

Llyn Cwm Dulyn with Mynydd Craig Goch beyond

We soon dropped out of the cloud as we descended and there we good views down towards Llyn Cwm Dulyn and across to the hills of the Lleyn Peninsula in the distance.  Lower down we picked up a faint path down a bit of a ridge to reach the outflow of Llyn Cwm Dulyn, from where we followed our outward route back down the access track.  We reached the car shortly before half-past three after a pleasant walk, and headed back home along the A55 happy that I had now completed one of my many hill bagging aims :-)

Looking back to Craig Cwm Dulyn