Great Mountain Days in the Pennines. Terry Marsh

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ valley in northern England, displaying grey-blue dolerite crags of the type that also form High Force and Cauldron Snout.

      Here the walk leaves the Pennine Way, which presses on eastwards to Cauldron Snout and into Teesdale. To continue to Backstone Edge, about-face to ascend the easy grassy slopes north-east of Narrowgate Beacon, which has overlooked much of the route thus far and is crowned by a large cairn.

      From the beacon there are two choices: one (shown on the map) to pursue an intermittent gritstone edge around the lip of the high moors; the other to tackle a section of bogs, giving way eventually to heather and tussock grass. A clear day in winter, when the ground underfoot is frozen in its grip, may well be the best time to tackle these featureless moors; following prolonged rain is certainly the worst.

      The immediate objective of both routes is the trig pillar west of Seamore Tarn, a lonely sentinel in an austere landscape made auspicious by its position on the watershed of Britain, for here the waters of Little Rundale Tarn gush westwards to the Eden and on to the Solway, while those of nearby Seamore and Great Rundale tarns empty to the North Sea. The highest point of Backstone Edge lies a short way north-east of the trig, marked by a cairn of large boulders.

      Hidden from the summit, the return route follows the deep valley of Rundale, which sports a broad track that descends from the col with High Scald Fell along the line of Great Rundale Beck to Dufton. Quarry workings are shortly encountered, relics of the search for barytes.

      Wild and rugged, and despoiled by man, Great Rundale is less open than High Cup Gill, the view westwards restricted by the pyramid of Dufton Pike, one of a number of distinctly different little summits dotted along the western side of the Pennines here. These are actually formed from older, Ordovician (formed 495–440 million years ago) and Silurian (440–415 million years) Lake District rocks, which elsewhere have been overlaid with those of the Carboniferous period (350–290 million years old).

      But for all the damage that has been done in Great Rundale’s upper reaches, the lower valley is quite a charming end to the day. On approaching Dufton Pike, pass south of it on a broad track, finally to regain Dufton not far from the starting point.

      Dufton Pike: the walk concludes along the track across its base

WALK FIVE

      Cauldron Snout and Widdybank Fell

Start point	Cow Green Reservoir NY811309
Distance	13km (8 miles)
Height gain	145m (475ft)
Grade	moderate
Time	4–5hrs
Maps	Ordnance Survey OL31 (North Pennines: Teesdale and Weardale)
Getting there	Weelhead Sike car park
After-walk refreshment	Pub at Langdon Beck and along the B6277 to Middleton-in-Teesdale, where there are also cafés

      Anyone who visualises the Pennines as dark, gritstone-bound uplands of peat bog and bleakness will be heartily surprised by this circuit of Widdybank Fell. It lies within a spectacular National Nature Reserve, one of great importance, and is a delight to explore. The walk takes in the powerful falls at Cauldron Snout, and then uses the Pennine Way alongside the River Tees, and these treats offset the hard-surface walking that concludes the walk.

      Cauldron Snout

      The Route

      Once a remote corner of the North Riding of Yorkshire and part of the ancient Forest of Teesdale in which deer roamed freely, the landscape this walk crosses is now embraced within the Moor House–Upper Teesdale National Nature Reserve. Apart from a little awkwardness scrambling down beside Cauldron Snout and a few short sections crossing boulders, the walking is easy throughout.

      From the car park overlooking Cow Green Reservoir, way up on the moorland of Widdybank Fell, an undistinguished summit that the walk encircles, walk back along the road to a signed path on the right for Cauldron Snout (NY813308) and here leave the road. When the path intercepts a track, turn left briefly to a gate on the right giving into the Nature Reserve.

      Stretching across the upper reaches of the River Tees, the Moor House – Upper Teesdale National Nature Reserve comprises 8800 ha and embraces an extensive range of upland habitats typical of the North Pennines. These include hay meadows, rough grazing and juniper woods, as well as limestone grassland, blanket bogs and summit heaths on the high fells. What makes Upper Teesdale so important is that nowhere else in Britain is there such a diversity of rare habitats in one setting.

      The reserve is renowned for the plants that originally colonised the high Pennines after the last Ice Age (about 10,000 years ago) and have survived here ever since. There are also rare rock formations, such as outcropping sugar limestone and the Great Whin Sill.

      The diversity of wildlife and plantlife is quite remarkable. Spring gentian grows here, the only place in England, while the country’s largest juniper woodland is here, too, in great abundance near High Force (see Walk 6), but also growing alongside the River Tees in a few places. An early morning visit is necessary to spot the black grouse, but at any other time there is a wealth of birdlife – skylark, lapwing, curlew, snipe, red grouse, redshank, common sandpiper, dipper, golden plover, pied and yellow wagtails, and ring ouzel – all of which tends to contribute to slow progress.

      The River Tees below Falcon Clints

      The ongoing track (surfaced) speeds on towards the dam of the reservoir.

      Cow Green Reservoir is 3km (2 miles) long and was built between 1967 and 1971 to supply the industries of Teesside. The reservoir acts as a river regulation reservoir, releasing water into the River Tees during dry conditions so that it can be abstracted further downstream.

      The reservoir, which rests against a backdrop of Dufton Fell and, further to the north-west, Cross Fell and the two Dun Fells, lies within the North Pennines AONB and European Geopark. The AONB was designated in 1988, and it became Britain’s first European Geopark in 2004.

      Walk down from the dam to the bridge spanning the Tees as it gushes from the base of the dam wall. Now, joining the southbound Pennine Way, take care descending the eastern side of the river for a fine view of Cauldron Snout, more a long cataract than a waterfall, and at 180m reckoned to be the longest waterfall in England. The awkwardness is short-lived, but care is needed while traversing slippery rocks until the level ground beside the river is reached.

      Once below the falls, at the confluence of the Tees and Maize Beck, turn eastwards below the impressive crags of Falcon Clints, the southern escarpment of Widdybank Fell. A clear path leads on, parallel with the river, the worst ground spanned by boardwalks, but with a few sections where care is needed traversing boulder downfall. Cronkley Scar on the other side of the river combines with Falcon Clints to create the narrow defile known as Holmwath.

      At the approach to Widdy Bank Farm, a gated stile gives into an enclosure, then go shortly left at another stile, beyond which a grassy path runs on above the river. As the river swings to the south-east, the path bears away across rough pasture and a few walled fields before heading down to Sayer Hill Farm.

      Here, turn right, using the farm access to walk to Saur Hill Bridge, which spans Harwood Beck. On reaching the СКАЧАТЬ