Monday 21 July 2014

Coniston Fells


Coniston Fells

June 2010 and this weekend was needed more than most, after the loss of  my father to old age, that was two weeks ago, now here I am back in the lakes with my father's ashes on a solo mission and I was so looking forward to getting out into the fells, so after finding a campsite just outside Coniston village on a lovely evening I was on my first mission of exploration, new for this mission was the use of Alfred Wainwright's Outlying Fells book, this book just gave me the bigger picture of the area I wanted to explore.




Beacon Fell. 26/6/2010 

2 miles 

From the small car park on Brown Howe I set out on this lovely evening walk a steady climb through woodland, has the trees were left behind for more open ground of bracken and juniper scrub with some nice boggy areas,  with a rich display of flowers such as Bog Asphodel Narthecium assifragum and Heath spotted orchid Dactylarhiza maclata.



Bog Asphodel
Bog Asphodel is a perennial flower, it produces creeping rhizomes from which it is able to spread by vegetative reproduction.
Found in boggy areas on acid soils in uplands, it is also pollinated by a range of insects.
Heath Spotted Orchid

It was only a short climb to the top of Beacon Fell and there I was on a lovely summers evening sat on the summit with the Coniston Fells in front and the full length of Coniston Water. I repeated my journey back down and back to the car.


Beacon Fell  summit 

Coniston ridge walk 27/6/2010

8 miles circular 
I parked the car up in the village of Coniston this morning with a lot on my mind, all to do with the loss of my father; I had his ashes in my rucksack with the plans of leaving them in Leavers Water.   The weather was good on this sunny morning, so I set off out of the village on the track up to the youth hostel, from the hostel I took another path up to Leavers Water, passing through areas of industrial activity of mining, upon arriving at Leavers Water I found a rock to sit on and took out my dad's ashes out and had a few moments of thoughts about my dad and then threw the ashes across the water, I hope he enjoys his final resting place. 



Leavers Water
Leavers Water is another tarn created by the Ice Age it sits high up. So this must be cirque or corries which have been shaped into deep hollows by the erosion of a glacier.
I left Leavers Water and made my way up onto Swirl House and onto the Prison Band for the third time, once in winter and again in spring; I stopped for lunch on the Prison Band in the shelter of some rocks with views over to the Helvellyn Range.
After lunch, it was a small climb to reach the summit of Swirl How 2630 ft, 802m and the start of the ridge walk to the Old Man of Coniston.
I aimed south along the plateau for Brim Fell, a mile and half of ridge walking first How Crags and then the descent to Leavers Hause all on a sunny afternoon with plenty of other walkers on the fells. Only one disappointment the long distance views to the pennies were very poor with haze. I made my way to the summit of Brim Fell 2611 ft, 796m and the cairn and stopped to take the view and then it was a short stroll to Old Man of Coniston at 2633 ft or 803m, a half a mile walk to the large cairn summit and a busy one for this sunny afternoon I stopped for a break and to take in the views.



Old Man of Coniston summit
The descent was the tourist path through the quarry workings passing Low Water and more workings to Miners Bridge and back into Coniston and the end to a good day of fell walking.



Grey Friar 2536 ft, 773m. 28/6/2010

6 miles circular 
Sunday morning and my last day here with intentions of driving home later, I had it planned around the World Cup as England was playing Germany today, so if I hit the motorway at kick off I should have the motorway to myself.
So I packed up my tent and my stuff for a short walk and drive to the Wrynose Pass summit and there I was ready to start this circular walk and not a soul about on this lovely sunny morning with no path to follow I set a compass bearing for the top of the ridge to meet the path coming down from Great Carrs a steady climb it was through the short grass to the ridge and the road I left was getting smaller in the distance.
Grey Friar stands aloof from the main spine of the Coniston Fells, so has I approached Great Carrs I took a compass bearing to Grey Friar and picked up a path to cross the grassy area of Fairfield and then a short climb to the summit of Grey Friar and in all this time on this sunny day, not soul about. Grey Friar has two summits, checked with the Southern Fells book and Wainwright says ‘where two rocky outcrops 40 yards apart, each bearing a cairn, are slightly elevated above the plateau; the one to the southeast is the true summit’ I reached the rock summit and passed the true summit and went to the other cairn for the better view, time for a break and a spot of lunch while enjoying the views to the Scafells.


The two summits of Grey Friar
After lunch, I took another compass bearing to take me into the Duddon Valley and onto Cockley Beck where I picked up the road and followed it to the summit of Wrynose Pass a nice bit of easy road walking to finish my walk.




And that is it for another great weekend of fell walking and myself feeling de-stressed and feeling better now that all the hassle what comes with death brings to the family, I was the one to sort it out, now I can put my mind to rest, my blessed father who I shall miss.


Tuesday 15 July 2014

Yewdale


Yewdale

Spring time 2010 and my second mission to the Lake District National Park, and the continuation of exploring the south-west. This was going to be a weekend to look at the geology and the glaciation of the area.
I and two other friends Chris Fox and Paul Dial travelled up to the Lakes on a Friday evening and found a wild camp spot on the shores of Coniston Water.
The next morning we packed up a left nothing of are signs of camping, but for flat grass and took the car to Tilberthwaite and found a car park there.  The weather was cloudy but dry.

Holme Fell and the Yewdale walk. 

2/4/2010/ 9 Mile circular

From the car park, we had planned a circular walk of two half’s  the first section was using the Wainwrights Southern Fells book and the chapter on Holme Fell and then match it up with a Cumbria Rigs walk, a little booklet I found in Coniston last time I visited the area. Holme Fell sits at the head of the valley of Yew Dale.

We set off along the road to High Tilberthwaite looking for a footpath, We found the footpath what took us across fields to Holme Ground and then a track up into the woodlands, and into the woods, we could see signs of industrial activities such as quarrying. The woodlands here are a mixture of silver birch,  yew, hazel and oak, as we left the woodlands into the open countryside, we had a steady climb up, the vegetation changed to heather, bracken and juniper, this last one is a new species for me. 


Juniper shrub.
And then we found the path up onto Holme Fell to the summit at Ivy Crag 1040 ft, 317 m. From the summit, you could see Coniston Water, the higher Coniston Fells you could not see for the low cloud was covering them.
Coniston Water from Holme Fell
We left the summit after a break and headed for Uskdale Gap and the way down through yew and juniper scrub to the artificial tarn of Yew Tree Tarn and then onto Yew Tree House and Shepherds Bridge and the main road.

Wainwright quote
‘If the district was without lakes and mountains, it would still be very lovely because of the great wealth and variety of its trees. .

Here, almost opposite the Hodge Close road Junction, I searched for a solitary Scots pine that Wainwright had admired’. From AW Southern Fells book. But sadly it has gone today. We crossed the road to the next footpath and the second part of the walk the Yewdale Walk.
  

This walk was going to help me in understanding the basic geology of the area I was exploring and to put this into context with the bigger picture of the national park, for me to understand the natural history of the area I like to know the basics of the  geology of any given area, because these are the bones of the landscape.  To look at the landscape find out why it is, (in this case it's glaciations)  and its understanding these last two that helps in understanding the fauna and flora of the area.  It's like a puzzle, I see myself as a landscape detective putting the pieces together.

The next footpath across the flat valley floor of Yewdale took us along a nice line of yews and an interesting fence known as a Shard Fence made of upright stone slabs of calcareous siltstone from the Coldwell Formation.


Holme Fell from Yewdale.
This flat valley floor is the result of the last great glaciation of the Ice Age, the late Devensian (26,000-10,000 years BP) had an important effect on the scenery of Yewdale. Between 18,000 and 14,500 BP, a major glacier flowed south through the valley into the Coniston Trench and was fed by two ice streams. One flowed from Langdale and the other from the slopes on the eastern flanks of Wetherlam via the Tilberthwaite valley. Yewdale was heavily eroded by these glaciers.  

Back on the walk, we passed through Low Yewdale and along a track, and then we took the path across some fields to Guards Wood, looking back you get a good view of the Yewdale Valley.
An important geological boundary can be traced across Yewdale, and it has a dramatic effect on the scenery. The Ordovician Borrowdale Volcanic Group rocks, the eroded remnants of ancient volcanoes, from the high ground to the NW, and are overlain by sedimentary strata of the Ordovician the Dent Group and the Silurian Windermere Supergroup, Brathay Formation and the Stockdale Group which from the rolling low hills to the SE.
Cross section of Yewdale

The next section of the walk took us through some great areas of woodland, The Yewdale Valley has plenty of Yew's to be seen on this walk, Guards Wood is one place where we had a long break looking at the trees. When we came out of Guards Wood into a small valley we were greeted by a nice view of Coniston Water as we headed for the Boon Crag Farm. 
This small valley is the Coniston trench deepened by glacial erosion to carve out the lake basin on its way to Morecambe Bay to create Coniston Lake, a ribbon lake at five miles long, and half a mile wide.

We had come full circle on the Yewdale walk a figure of eight, so now the top section was to pass Tarn Hows a National Trust site, Tarn Hows is lovely area of woodland and water as passed the tarn and then picked up a track what took us down to the A593, we crossed the road and took another track on to Oxen Fell and onto Hodge Close, a heavily quarried area in  the woodlands, at this point in the walk we have come full circle now,  back at Holme Ground we retraced our steps back to the car park after doing this interesting walk. 

Tarn Hows



Walk two, 3rd of April.

Wetherlam, Swirl How and Great Carrs. 7 miles

After a night’s wild camping at Tarn Hows, it was back to Low Tilberthwaite car park and days fell walking planned. 
With grey skies, and a dry morning we started the climb of Wetherlam a two-mile ascent; we followed Tilberthwaite Gill up to the copper mines and then to a flat area is this cirque? 
Formed by glacial activity, they are usually like a top half of chair with two arms and a back and the seat in the basin is usually a tarn.
If this is a Cirque, it was known as Dry Cove Moss, it looked like a tarn once existed here, but now silted up to a become a bog, as in its name moss and in its shape cove.
It seems so unusual to climb so high up and come across these flat areas known as Cirque; I look forward to seeing more of these cirques. 
The next section of the walk took us up to Birkfell Hause and onto Wetherlam Edge and into the cloud, we reached the summit the views were cut off because of the cloud, but we stopped for a break.
Wetherlam 2502 ft, 763m, it stands apart from the spine of the Coniston Fells, the connection being via the east ridge of Swirl How and that was now our direction we came out the cloud with nearly one-half miles ups and downs to reach Swirl How on the way we passed Swirl Hause with memories of the Christmas mission came back to me, as we climbed the Prison Band not as much snow on it as there was last time. 

Prison Band
 As we came to the summit of Swirl How we had a brief hail storm, then the views opened up around us again.
Swirl How summit is 2630 ft, 803m and it sends out ridges to the four points of the compass, each leading to further fells, it also feeds the headwaters of four valleys.

Swirl How summit cairn 

The next section of the walk is the ridge northwards to Great Carr's passing a site of a wartime air crash, the site now is of the undercarriage, together with a wooden cross and a memorial cairn.

Great Carrs 2575 ft, 785m

We had good views from the summit, with Coniston Old Man, Brim Fell, Dow Crag, in view, but it was the view down the Greenburn Valley that did it for me, such a great view.



Greenburn Valley

From the summit, it was onto Little Carrs and the West Side Edge with views down to Wrynose Pass. This next section of the walk was a lovely grassy ridge path down Rough Crags and then into the Greenburn Valley, we then crossed a beck and then we had a steep climb up to the Great Intake and the final section back downhill to the car park at Low Tilberthwaite and the end to another good walk. 

Langdale Pikes





And that is it, to the weekend in the lakes and what an interesting weekend it's been with some good wild camping done, and three fells done from Wainwright's Southern Fells.



Wednesday 9 July 2014

Lake District




The South West.


The study and exploration of the landscape bJames Anderson


Introduction

I had been thinking a lot recently about the Lake District National Park, since finishing off discovering Snowdonia National Park, now I need a  new place in my journeys of exploring the  British isles, so I had planned a one week summer holiday in the lakes.  Using a borrowed book, The Best of Wainwright Walks and a couple of OS maps, and I and a friend Chris Fox were off for our first visit to the lakes.

This turned out a great weather week also; we arrived in Coniston and climbed the Old Man of Coniston, then moved onto Great Langdale and climbed Crinkle Crags.  And then onto the Borrowdale valley and climbed Scafell Pike, Great Gable and Castle Crag all with top views.
And I was sold, so over the next few months, I did my research and planning of how to tackle the Lake District. what guidebooks should I use out of the numerous books there is on the Lake District, Mark Richards is an author I knew very well for his three volumes of the Peak Districts walks, and it was through him I discovered Alfred Wainwright and his seven volumes on the Lake District fells. 
My main interest was to use the Wainwright books in my discovery of the fells, but my other interests in such things like natural history and prehistory that would change the way I would explore the Wainwright fells over the coming months. and open up the rest of Cumbria to explore.
So this blog is taken from my notes and diaries I made while exploring the Southern Fells in the early days, it was and still is a journey of discovery, I wanted to share the way I look and how I explore the countryside  but having a background of poor education, I struggled with grammar but I enjoy my love of writing. But we will see how this project will develop over time, as I work my way through the first of the seven books. 

Wainwright's southern fells 


The Coniston Fells.

December 24th, 2009. Months earlier, I had booked a camping barn for Christmas, for me and my friend Chris Fox, so when it came to going, the snow had come early this winter, the main roads were open, so when I took the car up the motorway and turned off the main roads for the small country roads for the camping barn are troubles had started, snow and ice, slow going but we made it to the last mile and had to park up, the track up to the farm was deep in snow, so we had to carry most things, the farmer and his tractor took everything else.

.
Fell End camping barn

At the camping barn, we used the rest of the day setting up a home, getting the wood burner stove working to warm the place up so we could have our first night in some comfort and do some cooking. And plan what to do tomorrow.

View from the camping barn.


Dow Crag:        alt 2555 (ft), alt 779 (m) 

8-mile circular walk.

Christmas day and our first mission planned Dow Crag from Torver. Stepping outside the barn this morning to a beautiful cold, sunny morning with the view of Dow Crag from the barn. So we packed up for a day's walk and set off from the barn back to the farm and down to the car.
I found the car and de-iced it and set off slowly till we got to the A road for Coniston, once on the A road it was easy going. We found a parking spot in Torver village and set off out into the countryside into a winter wonderland.
The snow was not bad where others have walked before, but deep in others parts, with clear blue skies and the view of where Coniston Water should be in the valley, but was now filled with mist making a lovely view,  we stopped for a coffee break at Cove Bridge with views of Dow Crag now in view.

View from the Walna Scar road.
Back on the walk with a steady climb, with sections of deep snow on the Walna Scar path, low cloud was coming in also by the time we got to Brown Pike the views were getting worse, the higher up we went, we passed over Buck Pike into the cloud with a brief glimpse of Goat’s Water from Easy Gully and Great Gully, we made it to the summit with no views. It was a steady climb down to Goats Hause where we stopped for a lunch break with a nice view down to Goats Water.

Goat's Water from Goat's Hause

It was down to Goat’s Water and onto the Walna Scar track, looking at the bare rock cliff face of Dow Crag, remembering the last time I came this way in summer after coming down from the summit of the Old Man of Coniston, then I stood there watching the climbers on that cliff face of Dow Crag on a nice sunny afternoon. From the Walna Scar path, we retraced our route back to Torver and the end to a good walk






              

Swirl How;    alt 2630 (ft) alt 802 (m)

6.49 miles

26/12/09,  Boxing day and for the next walk we took the car to Coniston a lovely village and parked up for the day and set out on another cold crisp sunny morning, with a three and a half mile walk to the summit.
Swirl How is part of the Coniston Fells and geographical is the centre of the group and it’s the only one of the group that sheds water into the Duddon Valley.  
Out of the village we went walking along the Levers Water Beck upstream with all signs of industrial activity from copper mines such as spoil heaps, we passed the Youth Hostel and a steady climb up through the snow to Levers Water, the snow was deep in places as we made our way up to Swirl Hause, it was tough going through the snow, but it improved once we arrived at Swirl Hause, and now the climb up the section called the Prison Band to the summit, on the way up the weather had started to close in so we lost all visibility by the time we reached the summit. 
And it was at this point also I had a big dispute with my friend, but I will go into this, but this is where this walk ended. 



Swinside Stone Circle.

6 miles.

27/12/09, After a night of sorting out, are problems and putting things to one side, we was back out again and it was a nice dry, crisp winters day. This walk is different from the others because it was not one of AW fells, but it was to do with prehistory,  so I put this together myself so to visit a stone circle of interest. I can not visit an area without showing my other interests in other things.
So we took the car to Duddon Furnace and parked up in the lay-by and started the walk passing Duddon Furnace and heading up into woodlands and then out into the fields, we met up with a family out walking, but soon left them behind, passed an interesting cave, must look into these, because these are not natural caves but man made.
We made our way around Swinside Fell and came to Swinside Farm and then to the circle.Swinside Stone Circle must rank as one of Cumbria’s most magnificent monuments, besides Castlerigg, what I visited on my first trip to the lakes in the summer. Swinside is an almost perfect circle, with a diameter of 87 feet, 51 stones.


Swinside stone circle

We stayed a good hour here soaking up the ambience of the stones, standing proudly in the snow. Even the sun came out briefly and shone on the stones.
It was time to move on towards Knot Hill, We went along the farm track to the main road and across the fields and back into the woods and the end to a good day of walking.





Hodbarrow Nature Reserve.

28/12/09, The last day of the holiday, and another interest I have is natural history, so I and my friend went to the small town called Millom to visit this nature reserve; we had a couple of hours here at the RSPB Hodbarrow Nature Reserve, a former industrial site of iron workings.
View of the Coniston fells from Hodbarrow


A nice walk around the site on this cold winters day with the fells looking pretty in the distance. Hodbarrow has a lagoon and it is the largest coastal lagoon in north-west England and is managed by the RSPB. We walked the outer wall of the lagoon checking what bird species to be seen, there were only the odd gull and some oystercatchers to be seen, and we then took a steady stroll back to the car, checking the shrubs for birds on the way.
And that’s it for being the first adventure in the lakes, looking forward to the next one, this first mission has given more question than answers, so next time I will be more prepared, some research into the archaeology of the area, the geology and the natural history will help next time as I have discovered on this trip there is much more to this area than Wainwright's fells.