Great Mountain Days in the Pennines. Terry Marsh
Чтение книги онлайн.
Читать онлайн книгу Great Mountain Days in the Pennines - Terry Marsh страница 7
Название: Great Mountain Days in the Pennines
Автор: Terry Marsh
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Спорт, фитнес
isbn: 9781849658911
isbn:
Beyond the wall, the route passes through spreads of small boulders, initially as a green trod and heading up towards a large cairn. From the cairn, continue in an easterly direction. There is an indistinct path, but choice of route will be determined by how wet the ground is underfoot. The target is another prominent cairn on the eastern skyline; this is the location of Knapside Hill, the summit of which is marked by a substantial shelter-cairn.
Looking north from the top of Knapside Hill
Melmerby Fell rises to the south-east as an unpromising moorland mound, easily reached and barely 1km distant; its top is marked by a large cairn. Return from Melmerby Fell to Knapside Hill, from where a narrow but distinct path leads northwards to Little Knapside Hill.
Pass through a kissing-gate in a fence (NY645392). Another narrow, grassy path then runs on across surprisingly firm turf (for a while). Continue down to another gate (NY644399) and fence (new, and in the middle of a quagmire in 2012). From it cross rough ground towards Fiend’s Fell, crossing an shallow ravine to gain a quad-bike track that circles around a low shoulder and leads to one final gate (NY642404), from where it is a short pull up onto Fiend’s Fell, marked by both a low shelter and a trig pillar.
Fiend’s Fell was the original name for Cross Fell, some 5 miles away, which seems possible since the name Cross Fell derives from the erection of a cross there to ward off evil spirits. That, however, does not explain why the name was transferred to an otherwise innocent location nearby.
From the top of Fiend’s Fell, a solitary stone pillar is in sight, as is the café at Hartside Pass (the highest café in England). Head down to the pillar following quad-bike tracks, and gradually the return route, a clear stony track, comes into view. Walk forward towards a fence, and then bear left to a kissing-gate when it comes into view, beyond which a short section of rough ground leads to the track. Turn left.
Simple walking now ensues, following the stony track down to cross the A686 and continuing into a walled track opposite (signed for Hazel Rigg Farm). Just after passing Hazel Rigg, join a surfaced lane at a bend. Bear right for a short distance and then, opposite a side road to Unthank, turn left onto a stony track enclosed between walls. Over a distance of about 2.75km (1¾ miles), and keeping forward at all track junctions, this track leads unerringly and agreeably, if in places muddily, all the way back to Melmerby – a remarkably pleasant concluding stretch of the walk.
The way north to Fiend’s Fell
WALK THREE
Cross Fell
| Start point | Kirkland NY645325 |
| Distance | 15km (9¼ miles) |
| Height gain | 683m (2240ft) |
| Grade | strenuous |
| Time | 5–6hrs |
| Maps | Ordnance Survey OL31 (North Pennines: Teesdale and Weardale) |
| Getting there | Limited off-road parking near the church at Kirkland |
| After-walk refreshment | Pubs and cafés in Langwathby and Penrith |
Although its summit plateau is largely devoid of features, Cross Fell remains the highest summit in the Pennines, and is worthy of a visit on that count alone. Moreover, there is a calming, pastoral beauty about the Eden valley; the villages, built from lovely red sandstone are small and isolated, and the general ambiance is quite at odds with the proximity of mountains that reach almost to 3000ft.
Cross Fell from the upper part of the corpse road
The Route
Drawing to their greatest height at the very spot where the River Tees begins its long journey to the North Sea, and overlooking the massively broad Eden valley, the Pennines form a seemingly impenetrable barrier between the Lake District and the moorlands of Cumberland and Westmorland, and what used to be the North Riding of Yorkshire.
The ascent route uses an old corpse road linking the church and graveyard at Kirkland with the distant community of Garrigill. In the 17th century, one funeral party, caught in a blizzard high on the mountainside, abandoned its burden, scurrying back to Garrigill and returning only two weeks later for the coffin when it was finally considered safe to retrieve it. The mourners then brought the coffin back to Garrigill, where it was buried in a piece of glebe land. The land was subsequently consecrated by the Bishop of Durham as a burial ground, and thus the need for the corpse road came to an end.
In fine weather, the mountain has an avuncular appearance, and seems a calm, endearing place to visit. Alas, all is not as it seems, for its repertoire of dirty tricks includes subzero temperatures on at least a third of the days of the year, rain on two-thirds, and snow often well into summer. If that isn’t enough, its pièce de résistance is a phenomenon known as the Helm Wind, a remarkably ferocious and localised gusting of the wind.
The precise nature of the Helm Wind is neatly summarised in Legends and Historical Notes of North Westmoreland by Thomas Gibson: ‘the air or wind from the east, ascends the gradual slope of the western (sic) side of the Pennine chain... to the summit of Cross Fell, where it enters the helm or cap, and is cooled to a less temperature; it then rushes forcibly down the abrupt declivity of the western side of the mountain into the valley beneath, in consequence of the valley being of a warmer temperature, and this constitutes the Helm-Wind. The sudden and violent rushing of the wind down the ravines and crevices of the mountain, occasions the loud noise that is heard.’ As for its force, Thomas Wilkinson of Yanwath, a Quaker friend of Wordsworth, describes in his Tour to the British Mountains (1824) how ‘if I advanced it was with my head inclined to the ground, and at a slow pace; it I retreated and leaned against it with all my might, I could hardly keep erect; if I did not resist it, I was blown over’.
In spite of its unappealing summit and the high incidence of clouds which bedevil the mountain, Cross Fell is a superb viewpoint, taking in the fells of Lakeland, dotting the horizon beyond the Eden valley, and extending far across the northern countryside into Scotland, and east to the North York Moors.
From the church at Kirkland, walk to the nearby road junction and turn left to follow a road and later a good track along Kirkland Beck, leading out onto the moors and gradually curving north to skirt High Cap, a prominent bump due west of Cross Fell’s summit. A little further on the route swings eastwards above Ardale Beck and starts the climb to the plateau above. The gradient, nowhere unduly steep, is eased by a few bends, and on reaching gentler ground a few old pits might be found.
Within sight of the summit plateau, the corpse road bears sharply left. Here leave it and continue ascending eastwards on a cairned and grassy path, passing ultimately around the northern scree slopes of Cross Fell to intercept the Pennine Way (NY684352) on its descent to Garrigill. On a clear day it is possible to make for the summit as soon as you feel happy about it, although this entails negotiating a broad stretch of loose scree and some wet ground. But the line taken by the Pennine Way to the summit is clear enough, although very wet underfoot as it climbs away from the descent to Garrigill. It soon dries out, and a line of cairns leads uneventfully to the summit of Cross Fell, with its shelter-cairn and trig point.
Having ascended to the highest point of the Pennines, press on across the summit plateau aiming for the summit of Great Dun Fell СКАЧАТЬ