- Causey Pike via Rowling End -

Date & Time: Thursday 18th Oct 2007. 12.40 pm start.

Location of Start : Stoneycroft, Newlands Valley, Cumbria, Uk. ( NY 232 215 )

Places visited : Stoneycroft, Rowling End, Causey Pike, Scar Crags, Sail Fell, High Moss, Outerside, Stoneycroft Gill Miners Track back to the car.

Walk details : 5.5 mls, 2675 ft of ascent, 4 hrs 55 mins.

Highest point : Sail Fell 2,530ft ( 773m )

Walked with : Ann and the dogs, Harry and Bethan.

Weather : Very sunny to start but high cloud later kept the temperature down.

Roadside parking at Stoneycroft at the start of the walk

 

Parking at the bottom of the Stoneycroft Gill path but starting off along the road towards Rowling End would give us a round trip up to Causey Pike, Sail and back via Outerside and the old miner's track.

The delightful Birch tree at the start of the walk has managed to change colour without losing it's leaves.

   
Stoneycroft Bridge and it's attractive lower cascade.
The bridge and farm from above as we start our climb.

Rowling End can be avoided with a diagonal path which takes a direct line to Causey Pike

but we've chosen this route up to keep the view over to Catbells and beyond all the way to the top.

It's quite steep and includes a short scramble over a rocky section but it's well worth the effort.

Harry is relaxing here near the top. Behind him can be seen the old Yewthwaite Mines and the start of Maiden Moor.

Here's the view I was talking about !

( l to r ) Lonscale Fell, Blencathra, the distant Pennines, Clough Head, Great Dodd and the start of the Catbells ridge.

Keswick and Derwent Water are in the middle distance and Swinside is the wooded fell to the left of the prominent white building (The Swinside Inn)

Zooming in on Catbells summit - it seems a popular place today.

We were not totally alone over here today but there were far less people on this side of the valley.

The complex valley geography at the head of the Newlands Valley.

The three major tributaries are bounded by High Spy, Hindscarth, Robinson and Ard Crags

In the good visibility today we can see through the gap to Bowfell, Esk Pike and the High Stile Ridge to the right of centre.

   
The best way up Causey Pike . . .
. . . is straight up the front - it's rocky but an easy scramble.

Normally I might consider a summit photo with just the dogs providing a foreground

but today they seem to have made friends with this school group from Ipswich High School who are up on a week's adventure holiday.

They've been enjoying a week of activities including Gill scrambling (walking up waterfalls!) yesterday and fellwalking on this, their final day.

They really seem to have enjoyed their time here.

Lunch with a view is always a good idea - this is Keswick and Derwent water from our vantage point on Causey Pike's second summit bump.

Scotland, and in particular Criffel, seem to be enjoying unrestricted sunshine over there across the Solway.

This must be the clearest we have seen these hills in all the time we have been up here.

Down below us is Force Crag Mine, which John Paterson and I visited in July this year

Our visit then, made sense of these lines on the fell side that Ann and I can see today.

These are the upper levels and workings of the same mine complex.

The sky has clouded over now but the breeze is gentle and the walking temperature good.

We leave Causey behind, and head for Scar Crags.

The dogs have the time and energy to have an enthusiastic play while we catch up.

Steady there Dracula !

Scar Crags, the second Wainwright Fell of the day.

Ann's got the camera again !

Two wide, eroded paths - one down from Scar Crags and the second up Sail Fell.

The shale rock and turf are very fragile and they suffer badly from all the passing feet. Once the soil is damaged the rain does the rest.

Sail summit cairn is memorable for the fact that it stands on a virtual island in this small summit pool.

It is also memorable for the fine views it commands of the fells around.

Ann in boots, Harry in Wellies at Sail Fell summit.

A slight detour to the edge gave me this closer view the head of the Coledale Valley and those upper mine buildings that we saw earlier.

Zooming in there appears to be several old buildings and a mine entrance down there.

Turning for home - there's a bit more blue sky now and the Helvellyn Ridge is in sunshine again.

What were the names of those first five fells Jo ?

Rather than retrace our steps all the way we took another old path down under the Scar Crags summit

and headed for our next peak Outerside, the closer one of the two below us in this photo.

Outerside Cairn, Barrow, Derwent Water, Walla Crag, Clough Head, Great Mell Fell and over to Cross Fell on the Pennines.

Not bad for a long distance view.

Leaving Outerside we make our way over to the Stoneycroft Gill path and head down towards the car.

   
The long track is still rough despite some remedial work recently . . .
. . . but the sky provides us with a wonderful distraction while we descend.

Back to the Newlands road at the end of a fine afternoon's walk, almost five hours including lunch on the top today.

 

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Technical note: Pictures taken with a Canon G7 Digital cameras.

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

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© RmH.2007 # Email me here

Previous walk - 14th Oct 2007 Dodd Woods and an unexpected Sunset

A previous time up here - 22nd November 2005 Up and Away - Temperature inversion on Causey Pike

Next Event - 18th Oct 2007 Backstage "Theatre by the Lake"

Next walk - 20th Oct 2007 Low Rigg, High Rigg & Carrot Cake