Great Mountain Days in the Pennines. Terry Marsh
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Название: Great Mountain Days in the Pennines
Автор: Terry Marsh
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Спорт, фитнес
isbn: 9781849658911
isbn:
Bothy cottage just below Hartside summit, looking across to Thack Moor
The Route
The ascent to Thack Moor, also known as Renwick Fell, is very direct, barely wavering from a straight line once the open fell is gained. Start off along the road for Outhwaite, a steep little pull. The gradient soon eases, and when the road swings to the right, leave it by going forward onto a stony track. Where the ascending track divides (NY604441), keep left, and continue along a wall-enclosed track. About 100m after the left-hand wall ends, go forward through a metal gate onto Access Land and continue beside a fence.
Setting off up the track from Renwick
When the accompanying fence veers away and is left behind, maintain the same direction, briefly and steeply uphill onto the grassy top of Thack Moor, climbing through reeds for a while before moving onto the sloping summit plateau, the highest point of which is marked by a trig pillar at a meeting point between a wall and fence. The view embraces most of the northern and eastern Lakeland fells that lie to the west, while northwards the dome of Criffel beyond the Solway Firth is visible. But it is the nearer display of soft-shaped hills running to Cold Fell and, even further, to the Cheviot that really commands attention.
On the summit of Watch Hill
Now turn south-east alongside the wall. When the wall changes direction, it’s time to leave it; but take a moment to inspect the nearby sheepfold, which proves to be a useful shelter, if needed, since there is no shelter on Thack Moor. Cross tussock moorland to a stile in a fence (NY616459), beyond which a broad quad-bike track is joined, heading for Watch Hill.
There are two summits on Watch Hill, the first occupied by a pile of stones, a currick, and the other by a ladder-stile spanning a wall, with a 602m spot height just beyond. The former is slightly higher, at 604m.
Cross the ladder-stile, which has a small gate with a formidable spring. Over the stile, now head in a south-easterly direction, keeping to the high ground, devoid of useful tracks, but not unduly difficult to cross. In the distance, a ruined sheepfold and bothy cottage stand out and serve as a useful target. Nearby, another ladder-stile crosses a trans-ridge wall (NY636457), now with the whale-back of Black Fell looming in the distance. Once over the stile, keep beside the wall to a gate, where the wall ends and a fence takes over. Pass through the gate and follow a quad-bike track beside the fence, and ever onwards, since it leads all the way to the top of Black Fell, where the Pennine watershed is joined. It is a sobering thought, but Black Fell actually marks only the half-way point of the walk; the rest, however, is almost entirely downhill.
Retrospective view to Black Fell, Watch Hill and distant Thack Moor
The onward route now follows the watershed down to the Hartside Pass, variously accompanied by a fence or a wall and climbing onto Hartside Height, where a through-stile takes the route over the wall, and then down beside a fence to a kissing-gate just above Hartside summit, with Hartside Top Café (the highest café in England) directly opposite.
Turn right at the road, but leave it almost immediately for a broad stony track that takes a shortcut, crossing the A-road again, lower down. Go through a gate and forward to pass a bothy cottage with a fabulous view across the Eden valley to the Lake District fells, after which a splendid cross-fell track ensues, gradually descending to cross Ricker Gill Bridge and then on to a derelict farmhouse, just after which a gate gives onto a fenced track leading down to a surfaced lane. A short way on, cross Selah Bridge and make a short ascent.
At the top of the ascent, an alternative section of track saves about 1 mile of road walking, rejoining the road just past the cluster of buildings at Haresceugh.
Stroll along the road, which is generally quiet, largely traffic free and a delight to walk, with a fine view northwards to the summit tackled at the start of the walk.
From Raven Bridge, where Raven Beck eases through a dark ravine, a rough path offers a variant finish across fields back to Renwick, but stay on the road to a T-junction. Turn right and walk towards the village centre, and at another T-junction turn left (for Croglin) to complete the walk.
Thack Moor from below Hartside summit
WALK TWO
Melmerby Fell and Fiend’s Fell
| Start point | Melmerby NY616373 |
| Distance | 16.5km (10¼ miles) |
| Height gain | 546m (1790ft) |
| Grade | demanding |
| Time | 6hrs |
| Maps | Ordnance Survey OL31 (North Pennines: Teesdale and Weardale) |
| Getting there | Limited off-road parking near Shepherd’s Inn |
| After-walk refreshment | Shepherd’s Inn pub, Melmerby |
Melmerby is a pleasing red-sandstone village tucked into the area known as East Fellside, and it proves to be a perfect starting point for this assault on the Northern Pennines. There is a tranquillity about both the village and the fells to the east, and while navigational skills may well be needed in poor visibility, on a good day the sense of well-being that comes from striding out across spacious fell moors will refresh most souls.
Melmerby Fell from the stony track above the village
The attractive village of Melmerby is thought by some to have Danish origins, being named after a certain Melmor, who lived nearby in the ninth century. A person called Melmor, however, also appears in Gospatric’s charter in the 11th century as a landowner in Allerdale. The likelihood is that there was more than one Melmor, although the name Melmor is believed to be Gaelic rather than Danish. In the 14th century, John de Denum of Melmerby Hall petitioned Edward II for ‘help in the form of wages or otherwise until times change, because all the country around would suffer great loss peril and loss if it were taken through lack of garrison’.
The Route
Leave the village on the Ousby road, passing the Shepherd’s Inn, and turn into the first lane branching on the left (signed for Melmerby Fell and Gale Hall). Continue up the lane until it swings to the right, and there leave it on the apex, going forward onto a stony track between walls and along the edge of a plantation.
The route as it heads towards the high fells after leaving the plantation
The track leads up to enter the plantation and crosses a stream at a footbridge. On leaving the plantation, the route continues towards the high fells, bounded by fences. At another gate, it reaches Access СКАЧАТЬ