We decided to return to the Borrowdale
Youth Hostel for our next trip to Cumbria, but unfortunately, in
spite of booking back in the winter, we were unable to get more
than three nights and therefore only two walks were possible.
The obvious walk left still to do from the Youth
Hostel was the Dale Head Range from Rigghead Quarries, so we decided
to do this on the first day. |
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The Borrowdale Youth hostel at Longthwaite |
| When we set off in the morning, the
visibility at valley level was not too bad. |
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Borrowdale |
| But as we looked back towards Rosthwaite,
we could see cloud starting to move in, so we expected the worst. |
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looking towards rosthwaite |
| The scenery as we began climbing towards
Rigghead Quarries was just as beautiful as we remembered from our
walking holiday here the previous September. |
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Borrowdale and rosthwaite fell |
And the path as we started out
was familiar, as we had started our walk to High Spy, Maiden Moor
and Catbells along the same route. |
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walking towards rigghead quarries |
| As we got closer to the Quarries,
the path became less defined, but we remembered this section, which
made it a lot easier. |
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near rigghead quarries |
| The path follows Tongue Gill to the plateau above, where
Dale Head Tarn should become visible. |
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rigghead quarries and tongue gill |
| When we reached the plateau, it was
quite boggy, and the cloud was just above us, obscuring our route
from last September to High Spy. |
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looking towards dale head |
| The way the cloud formed in the crags
on the Newlands side, gave the whole area a distinctly eerie feel. |
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Eel Crags on High Spy |
| With the cloud down, we were unfortunately
not able to look down to Newlands Valley as we had hoped, but at least
the immediate visibility was not too bad, and we were able to see
Dale Head Tarn. |
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Near Dale head Tarn |
However, as soon as we started
climbing to Dale Head, the visibility became very poor and the rain
started coming down quite heavy.
Consequently all hopes of any photographs were
abandoned until we reached the distinctive summit cairn on Dale
Head, where David had his photo taken, looking thoroughly miserable.
|
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a very wet david by Dale Head Summit |
| As we walked along Hindscarth Edge,
the cloud obliged us by lifting momentarily to allow us glimpses towards
Buttermere. |
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Fleetwith Pike from Hindscarth Edge |
This break in the weather was very
temporary though, and by the time we had diverted out to the summit
of Hindscarth, the cloud was thicker than ever, and the rain and
wind was getting worse.
Again there was no point in attempting any further photos until
the summit cairn was reached and David had another photo taken,
looking even more miserable than before. |
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david, looking even more wet and miserable at Hindscarth
Summit |
| By the time we picked up the main
path towards Robinson, we began to see breaks in the cloud, and the
rain was easing off, so we were finally able to see where we were
going. |
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buttermere and gatesgarth farm, with the lower parts
of scarth gap pass leading into the cloud |
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Looking Towards Robinson |
But the conditions behind us did
not seem to be improving.
There were still no views towards Newlands, but at least we could
now see Buttermere most of the time, although the High Stile Ridge
was remaining resolutely in cloud. Fleetwith Pike was being a little
more cooperative, being a bit lower than the High Stile Ridge, but
the summit was still not visible. |
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Fleetwith Pike from Littledale edge |
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Looking back to Hindscarth from Littledale Edge |
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Littledale Edge |
| Still, we were able to get some concept
of the route we were walking, which was more than we had been able
to do since leaving Dalehead Tarn earlier. |
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the ridge path to Robinson along Littledale Edge |
| Littledale Edge, the ridge between
Hindscarth and Robinson, seemed to go on forever, or maybe we were
just tiring... |
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Still walking towards robinson on Littledale Edge |
| Like Hindscarth, the summit of Robinson
requires a diversion to the north to avoid bypassing the summit, and
by the time we had climbed our final peak of the day, we were back
in cloud and rain, but at least we knew it was all downhill from there,
and a much happier-looking David had his photo taken on Robinson,
before heading back down again. |
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still raining at Robinson's summit, but david is smiling
at the thought of being out of the rain before too long |
| Back on Littledale Edge, we were back
out of the cloud and were able to look down on Buttermere and along
the Edge towards Hindscarth. |
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buttermere |
| Our original intention had been to
either go via High Snockrigg, or at least follow the path down to
Buttermere, but the miserable weather and the constant wind in our
faces had made us tired and we decided to cut straight down over Lambing
Knott to Gatesgarth Farm, and hope that a bus would come along to
take us back to Longhthwaite. |
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Descent to Buttermere |
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buttermere from the descent |
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Bilberry |
| It seemed a long way down to Gatesgarth
Farm.. |
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Buttermere |
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looking towards haystacks |
But when we looked back up the
moorland, it was incredible how much ground we had covered already.
As we descended to Buttermere, as usual, the cloud started to lift,
and we could finally begin to see the High Stile Ridge, one of our
future projects. |
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Buttermere and Crummock Water |
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high crag now visible across buttermere |
| When we got to the road, we found
a refreshment van in the car park, where they informed us that the
bus back to Longhtwaite was imminent, so we sat down on a convenient
wall and waited a short while, before the welcome sight of a small
Stagecoach greeted us from the direction of Buttermere. |
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Waiting for the honister rambler at gatesgarth |
We nearly did not
make it onto the bus, however, as I only had a £10 note and
the driver had no change. A kind passenger must have seen the sorry
state we were in and searched her purse, finding enough coins to
change my note and allowing us on the bus after all. We enjoyed
the views over the Honister Pass and Seatoller, and before long
we were back at Longthwaite.
By now the weather had improved
and we had good views of Rosthwaite Fell as we walked back up the
road to the Youth Hostel, enjoying the spring flora along the side
of the road. |
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Cuckooflower |
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Welsh Poppies |
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Greater Stitchwort |
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looking towards stonethwaite and Greenup Gill |
The Youth Hostel was a welcome
sight, and we were happy to be greeted by the local sheep merrily
grazing outside. |
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herdwick sheep at borrowdale youth hostel |
| In spite of the weather, this had
been a superb walk, and the only slight disappointment was the lack
of views, which we had been told were stunning on a clear day. |
