The miserable weather continued. This was my last day and I had to judge the best time to take the tent down in the windy and snowy conditions. When there seemed to be a lull I managed to get the tent wrapped up and I was off. The most difficult section was the steep descent back down to the road at Newland Hause.

Camp above Moss Force

I was certainly relieved to get there but even then the conditions weren’t easy and areas of road were covered in hail stones and quite slippery. The descent by Keskadale Beck was quite miserable but when I reached Keskadale Farm the conditions improved a bit.

Bawd Hall

After about 1.5miles I reached a junction I hadn’t visited for a while. It’s just before Rigg Beck and I remembered an old and empty wooden house a strange colour of pink and purple. Now there was nothing except a new wall. I looked over to see a futuristic new house a little further down the field. I pressed on to the right fork down into Stair.

Birkrigg in the rain

Futuristic house near Birkrigg

The site used to be occupied by this house.
A picture from 2006

Practically all the houses are now second homes and many lie empty most of the time. The rain had now returned and was falling heavily. Crossing over the bridge I could make out a 1905 date and name but poor light prevented further identification. Heading up to Swinside I remembered back to around 1970 when I was here on a College Surveying trip. We carted heavy and bulky survey equipment across the fields to make various observations. Approaching Portinscale I saw the entrance to Derwent Bank which was the hotel we stayed in. The rain was now torrential and I stopped briefly by the café and shop to shelter. I reached the B5289 via the footbridge but decided to stay with the road as the rain would have made the path I used on the way out even wetter. The A5271 was closed to traffic as they were raising the flood barrier but it was OK to get through on foot. I reached the car OK and was glad to get out of the rain. As I set off to drive home the rain stopped!