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Keswick, Skiddaw House, Great Calva, Knott, Bowscale Fell, Blencathra, Cumbria. (4 day backpack)
Mon 23 - Thu 26 May 2011

Mon 23 May 2011

Mon 23 May 2011

Tue 24 May 2011
Wed 25 May 2011
Thu 26 May 2011

NY 2641 2419
Because I had an appointment in the morning I couldn’t set off as early as I’d have liked. I drove to Keswick and arrived around 3pm. It was an interesting drive as the wind was extremely strong. The wind socks by the M6 motorway over Shap were horizontal and the poles they were on were bending over.
I parked on the main A591 road apposite the turn off for Brundholme Rd. There were plenty of cars already parked but the road was very busy and large vehicles seemed to pass rather too close. It was gone 3pm when I set off in fairly windy but bright conditions. Earlier in the day there had been heavy rain so I was thankful that it had stopped. Walking along Brundholme Rd. I reached the stone abutment marking where the railway used to be then noticed the lane became considerably wider with plenty of room to park. I left my pack and returned to my car to bring it up the lane. Almost immediately I left the road to walk up the Spoonygreen Ln track towards Latrigg.


The path to Latrigg


The Celtic Cross

It crosses the main road by a fly-over then steeply up through the woods. The wind increased considerably and I began to have second thoughts about my planned camp on Lonscale Fell. The path is part of the Cumbria Way and there were several walkers coming down as I climbed up. They would not be walking the full Cumbria Way; they’d probably walked up Skiddaw. The track emerged on to the road and car park, though no cars were there, which I thought odd. Through the gate I turned left to follow the man path towards Skiddaw. I was now getting a very bad battering from the wind and realised I wasn’t going to get up Lonscale Fell. I had a look at the Celtic Cross monument then dropped steeply down to re-join the Cumbria Way path below.

At Whit Beck there is a ford, which isn’t usually a problem, but the earlier rain had turned it in to a torrent. Fortunately a little upstream was a fence crossing it which I was able to use to get across. The path around the base of Lonscale climbs steadily upwards and I was looking forward to it turning north up above Glenderaterra Beck and hopefully getting some shelter from the fierce westerly wind. The path narrows in places as it now has to follow the very steep fell side. At times the drop off to the river below is almost sheer. The wind seemed to have been funnelled into the valley and was now battering me with the same ferocity as earlier.


On the Cumbria Way and Lonscale Crags

Amazingly there were patches of sunshine breaking through but they gave no warmth in the wind. My problem now was finding somewhere safe to pitch my tent for the night. I knew there was a substantial stone sheepfold up ahead but when I got there the inside was full of boulders. I spotted another a bit lower and found the inside to be reasonably grassy and the walls at a sufficient height to provide some shelter. The wind wasn’t constant but very gusty with some gusts incredibly strong. I managed to get the tent up OK and had to use large boulders for a couple of the guy lines as I was so close to the wall. The tent hadn’t been up long before the torrential rain returned.