Braithwaite, Outerside, Force Crag Mine, High Force, Grisedale, Cumbria. Wed 08 Aug 2007

I had a clear cool drive to Braithwaite, near Keswick, where I left my car in the small car park at the base of Whinlatter Pass. I wandered back down the road and through the village of Braithwaite, past the village shop, and up the steep lane above Barrow Gill.

Chris Jesty continues his project.

As I got onto the green path I noticed a familiar figure up ahead. He kept stopping and making notes on a clipboard making me even more sure it was Chris Jesty. When I reached him it was. I’d spoken to him briefly a couple of years ago when I saw him on the same project while descending Steel Fell. He is using a couple of ancient Magellan GPS units to check the Wainwright books and publish updates. I even saw him on the TV last Sunday night outlining his project to Griff Rhys-Jones on his Mountains TV series. We chatted briefly and I then left him while I continued up to the saddle of Barrow Door.

I could have followed the main path but thought I’d just check out the nearby summit of Stile end as I’d never been up it before. A faint path lead to a ridge up Outerside. It was away from the main path so I decided to follow it.

Crossing Low Moss to Outerside.

Looking down to Force Crag Mine.

I’m glad I did because the view down into Coledale Beck was excellent. I descended to the faint track that took me down to the main track to Force Crag Mine. I followed the mine track up above the existing buildings and continued up to the old workings just below Force Crag.

Some old mine entrances were visible but mostly they were partly buried by rubble. I headed straight up the steep narrow gulley to the higher levels. It was quite steep and a bit of a scramble but eventually I emerged onto level ground.

One of the old mines

View from High Force mine buildings.

The first thing I came across was the cut off base of one of the old cable-way pylons. These were originally constructed to carry ore down from the High Force mines to the crushing plant at the bottom. After a steep traverse I came to the old abandoned buildings of the higher mine levels. It was a nice place to stop for lunch and I even found a nice piece of baryte, which was one of the minerals mined. I crossed Pudding Beck and found a faint path up to the main path to Grisedale. On the way I came to a fenced off area with a large black hole in the middle. Peering down there was no sign of the bottom. It was one of the old workings where the miners had followed the vein down into the mountain.

As I approached Grisedale summit there were many more people about. The weather was warm and sunny and must helped to get people up onto the fells. The summit was fairly crowded and as I descended back to the car many were still climbing up. After the walk I called in to the mining museum in Keswick. It is run by Ian Tyler who I saw on the TV last Sunday. He was on the Wainwright Walks series with Julia Bradbury on Cat Bells talking about mining in the area. The museum is packed with lots of interesting stuff and needs a long time to do it justice.

Enjoying the view with the crowds.