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| Date & Time: Friday March 2nd 2007. 11.30 am start. Location of Start : Seatoller Village Car Park, Borrowdale, Cumbria Uk. ( NY 244 139 ) Places visited : Seatoller, Old Toll Road, Rigghead Quarries, Wilson's Bield, High Spy and return. Walk details : 4.5 mls, 1925 ft of ascent , 3 hr 30 mins plus lunch. Walked with : Ann and the dogs, Harry and Bethan. Weather : A cool overcast day getting windier, damper and colder as a cold weather front approached. Harry and Bethan with Castle Crag in the background |
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The village of Seatoller stands at the head of the main Borrowdale Valley road at the point it starts it's climb of Honister Pass. For us, approaching from the west, it is the first village you get at the foot of Honister Pass as you enter Borrowdale. Are you following ?
Before the days of the motor road over the pass, the old toll road took a wider sweep away from the river as it entered the village. It was this old track way that we walked up for the first part of the climb.
Honister Pass and the Slate Quarries at the top.
We cut right and walked the outake wall path parallel to the valley but half way up the fell side. Harry found a fine rock on which to stand / pose.
Wainwright illustrated his diagram with a large letter 'A' where we should leave the main path and head up the short cut to the quarries. We found the junction, but couldn't find the letter 'A' no matter how hard we looked. ( NW Fells Book 6 - High Spy 7 )
The old quarry house has been saved and is now a climbing hut, but is closed today. Perhaps it's a bit early in the walking / climbing season.
Topping out from Tongue Gill, the gradient lessens and walking becomes easier. Most rewarding as it's amazing how a month or so absence from fellwalking has made us both rather unfit.
Over the top we get a great view of Dale Head. Our route would take us up the grassy slopes to the right, as we started our climb towards High Spy.
A large cairn adorns the summit, testament to someone's hard work in days past.
We stopped for a quick lunch, but made sure we found a sheltered spot with a view. This is the Newlands Valley side of Dale Head. It's crags are also known as Great Gable crags - a famous name on a relatively unknown group of rocks.
A small patch of snow adorns the summit of Sail Fell. Grasmoor in the distance to the left is clear of the cloud.
Looking south to the central fells, Great Gable, the real mountain, takes pride of place.
Best foot forward as we make our way down after a short lunch stop. Ann is dressed against the cold wind. The weather has taken a turn for the worse, but visibility is still good so hopefully the really bad weather will hold off. We retraced out route down to the quarries via Wilson's Bield slightly closer to Borrowdale side of the fell than on the way up.
"Hey it's those people we saw earlier. You know, the one with the two golden retriever sheep"
Back down through the quarries, we took a slightly different path and saw more of the quarry workings on the way down.
Retracing our route, we rejoined the outake wall and headed back to Seatoller.
On the way Harry found his rock again. ( I think this is where we came in isn't it - and yes - the rain did hold off till we go home ! )
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- - - o o o - - - Technical note: Pictures taken with a Canon G7 Digital camera. Resized in Photoshop, and built up on a Dreamweaver web builder. This site best viewed with . . . Tea and a slice of rather nice Carrot Cake at the Yew Tree in Seatoller. © RmH.2007 # Email me here # Guest book (on the front page) Previous walk - 1st March 2007 A local Scale Hill walk on our return A previous time up here - 7th June 2006 Maiden Moor, High Spy and a swim Next walk - 7th March 2007 Barrow from Braithwaite
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