Hiley Website

Date & Time: Wednesday 1st November 2006. 11.20 am start.

Location of Start : Broad Oak, near Waberthwaite, on the A595 coast road. ( SD 113 946 )

Places visited : Whitrow Beck, Rowan Tree upper falls, Fox Crag, Stainton Pike, Rowan Tree Falls (lower falls), The Knott, Stainton Farm and back to Broad Oak.

Walk details : 7.1 mls, 1825 ft of ascent , 5 hrs 20 mins.

Walked with : Ann and the dogs.

Weather : Clear blue skies, cold to start, a cool breeze later. Sunny all day,

We parked by the pink (?) phone box. (Muncaster Castle in the background.)

The houses at Broad Oak at the start of our walk.

The large looking cairn is in fact Stainton Tower, a round tower on the hill above Nether Stainton Farm.

It is believed to have been built as a sighting point for boats entering Ravenglass Estuary.

A short uphill road walk soon gave us views of the high fells.

The thing was, they all looked different from here . . . Great Gable is the triangular one in the centre and Scafell the high peak.

Off the road and along the track to Grange Farm.

Views ahead of our walk were crystal clear in the cold morning air.

Our route now took us through this marked gate

and avoided the farm itself.

Beguiled by the wide track we followed it to its end, a shallow quarry !

The bridle way had turned off some time back

so we followed the beck and across the rough ground

in the general direction required.

Re-gaining the bridle way, but it was hardly any different from the sheep track we had been using anyway.

The views back to the coast were improving all the while.

Following the small Whitrow Beck we reached the low round wall and cairns marked on the map.

The Ordnance survey marks it as an ancient Homestead.

It had a round outer wall, a small hut (?) circle inside, and several prominent stones. Definitely ancient.

Following the bridle way across Waberthwaite Fell, we start to gain significant height.



Rowan Tree Falls with Stainton Pike behind.	The upper falls and a Rowan Tree too !

A slight diversion for me as some balloons floated across the fells nearby.

They were duly collected to try and identify them, but they were party type and not meteorological.

Maybe the owners would be interested where I found them, or even perhaps make a donation for the local Rescue Team for my litter collection efforts !

The only other person we met on the fells today was a Scottish gentleman who has been living locally in Furness for many years.

He moved here to enjoy the fells too, and today he was on his way to Whit Fell opposite.

Parting company with him, we made our way over to Stainton Pike, a craggy fell with a fine cairn.

Visibility, as I said, was excellent.

Click here or on the photo for a larger annotated version of this panorama.

White Pike, Woodend Height and Yoadcastle, with Kirk Fell, Scafell and Slightside behind.

Stainton Ling Plantation and the view down to Ravenglass, from our lunch spot on the Pike.

It was here that we got out Wainwright's Outlying Fells book and discovered his drawing of Rowan Tree Falls was nothing like the ones we had seen. He also mentioned that if we kept to the bridle way (as we had) we would miss the best part of the walk, the double falls lower down. We decided therefore to re-trace our steps and find the real Rowan Tree Waterfalls.



Back to the ravine, but lower down this time.	That's more like his picture.



The author and his faithful hounds.	Rowan Tree Fall, just crying out to be photographed as he said.

Happier now we continued on down, but decided to continue over our next planned objective, The Knott.

The ground here, as it had been on most of the way round, was extremely wet. The rough grass, the streams, the frequent boggy ground and the lack of paths meant that the pace was slow, and even slower when the fences needed to be crossed.

The Knott, from the end of the plantation.

On the high ground now, looking back at Yoadcastle (the pointed bit on the left) and Stainton Pike to the right.

Great Gable, Scafell and Scafell Pike from The Knott's summit rocks.

Sellafield Nuclear Re-processing Plant, often in the background as we walk, here viewed from Knott summit.

Ann on the third piece of high ground that makes up The Knott, with the Isle of Man in the far distance.

Slight cloud building up as we think about turning for home.

Wonderful rich browns as a result of the late afternoon sun.



A path at last, down towards Stainton Farm.	High stacks of timber from the recently cleared Intake Plantation.

Late afternoon now as the moon rises and the sun starts to set.

The walk out took us along the main farm road.

Sunset over the Irish Sea.

Lower now as we near the end of the walk.

What a fine end to an interesting walk, in an area we had up till now, only glimpsed from afar.

- - - o o o - - -

Technical note: Pictures taken with a Canon IXUS 400 Digital camera.

Resized in Photoshop, and built up on a Dreamweaver web builder.

This site best viewed with . . . a look at the guide book the night before !!

Previous walk - 29th October 2006 Base Brown - a circular walk in the sunshine

Previous time up here - New ground for us so nothing on-line.