|
|
High Spy, Maiden Moor and Catbells
| Date of Walk: |
17/9/2001 |
| Mountains Climbed: |
High Spy, Maiden
Moor, Catbells |
| Length of Walk: |
9.6 miles |
| Starting Point: |
Borrowdale Youth Hostel, Longthwaite |
Grid Ref: NY 254142 |
| Route: |
Borrowdale Youth Hostel, Rigghead Quarries, High Spy,
Maiden Moor, Catbells, Grange, Borrowdale Youth Hostel |
To gain more experience of fell-walking
we decided to look for a guided walking holiday for our next trip
to the Lake District. We thought it would be nice to have company
and also get to know the area better, with somebody that knew the
area well. After extensively searching the Internet, we found Cloudberry
Holidays. They offered the kind of guided walking on the fell-tops
we were looking for, but they used Youth Hostels as their base.
First of all I dismissed this as an option, but after unsuccessfully
searching for a hotel-based holiday offering similar walking, David
persuaded me to give it a go.
The holiday we chose with Cloudberry was called
"Discovering Borrowdale" and it ran from Sunday night
until Friday evening, with an option to stay until Saturday. It
was based at Borrowdale Youth Hostel in Longthwaite and all 5 days'
walks started and finished there. The Youth Hostel has two-bedded
rooms, which meant we did not have to share with others, and we
were pleasantly surprised at the standard of the facilities and
food they offered. There were 9 others on the holiday, and it was
led by Nigel Vear, who lives in Kendal. On the Sunday evening we
all had dinner together, and a short meeting afterwards where the
itinary was explained to us.
Monday morning we set out for High Spy, Maiden
Moor and Catbells. The weather was lovely and the cloudbase was
high, so we were looking forward to good views for once. We walked
along the stream and then climbed up to Rigghead Quarries and Dale
Head Tarn. From here, we turned north and soon found ourselves on
High Spy's summit. |
 |
Near Rigghead Quarries |
 |
David at the Summit of High Spy |
 |
and a rare photo of me on high spy's summit |
| Maiden Moor was the next fell we got to, and it was
nice having all the unfamiliar surrounding fells of this area pointed
out us by Nigel as we went along. It made us realise how little we
knew of the area, and we determined to get to know them better. |
 |
David at the Summit of Maiden Moor |
By the time we reached Hause Gate,
several of the others were beginning to feel it in their legs, and
Nigel suggested that those who wanted to walk on to Catbells do
so whilst he waited the rest of them had a break and waited for
us to return for the descent to Grange.
Needless to say, we wanted to walk to Catbells,
and we were pleasantly surprised by the rocky climb required at
the end to reach the summit. A fine little peak! It is now one of
David's favourite fells. |
 |
David at the summit of Catbells |
| After spending a short while on Catbells,
we rejoined the others and descended together into Grange, where we
stopped for ice cream before following the footpath below Castle Crag
back to the Youth Hostel. |
|
