Date & Time: Sunday 16th February 2008. 11.15 am start.

Location of Start : The St John in the Vale Church, Threlkeld, Cumbria, Uk. ( NY 306 225 )

Places visited : Youth Centre, Tewet Tarn, St John's Church, Sosgill, Low Bridgend Farm, Wren Crag, Long Band, High Rigg summit and back. (Castlerigg on the way home).

Walk details : 5.5 mls, 1500 ft of ascent, 4 hrs 30 mins.

Highest point : High Rigg 1,163 ft ( 357m).

Walked with : Dave and Ros, Terry, John, Ann and the dogs, Holly and Rosie, Abbey, Polly, plus our Harry and Bethan.

Weather : Blue skies all the way - again !

Parking beyond the Youth Centre at the top of the hill

 

David and Ros chose High Rigg as one of their planned walks during their Lakes visit and we were kindly invited along.

Someone said we knew the way. If the truth be known, we left all that to John - he's the real local for this one !

A kind of mini OFC Meet today as we're joined by Terry from Egremont and his Lakeland Terrier Abbey, here waiting to cross the first stile.

High Rigg is behind us but we make our way north to Tewet Tarn.

We plan to leave the main summit till the end of the walk.

The vegetation, some surface ice and a gentle breeze give the tarn it's differing shades of blue.

Blencathra stands proud beyond Tewet Tarn.

Great Calva in the gap between Lonscale Fell on the left and the slopes of Blencathra's Blease Fell to the right.

The top summit of Skiddaw is hidden behind the apparent highest summit, Skiddaw Little Man.

The distant peak above the wall is in fact Carlside.

The North Western Fells through the distant haze.

It's been beautiful winter walking weather with all this sunshine

but the night time temperatures have brought heavy frosts.

Water on the path is frozen

and there's still frost on the ground

next to the Youth Centre annex.

 

The delightful Church of St John in the Vale.

   
Bridge House catches the strong sunshine below us.
Bram Crags form a fine background for this winter tree.

Panning out, our view extends from Clough Head across to Bram Crags and the ruins of an old barn at Rake How.

Across the field, it's the same prominent tree as in the previous picture.

The other half of the old Rake How farm buildings - ripe for development ?

   
Another fine tree silhouetted on the next rise.
Looking back, the same tree looks quite different in the direct sun.

Castle Rock to Helvellyn - the shades of colour changing as the distance increase.

Low Bridgend Farm tearooms . . . unfortunately closed till March 1st . . . no carrot cake today.

The dogs enjoying St John's Beck.

They've been chasing sticks.

From here the path climbs upwards, traversing the steep slope underneath Wren Crag.

Castle Rock in full view now as we turn the corner and start climbing the southern end of High Rigg.

The winter bracken takes on an deep orange colour in the bright sunshine. The dogs lead the way up.

Another fine tree, this time a Scots Pine, with the afternoon moon rising over the slopes of Threlkeld Knotts behind.

Having turned the corner it was time for lunch. We found a sheltered spot in the trees out of the slightly cool breeze.

Polly on the lookout in case there are any additional offers of food.

On the top of the fell we get a fine view down the Thirlmere Valley.

The darker central fell is Great How and the straight edge of the lake to it's right is the dam wall for the reservoir.

Long Crags along the eastern side of High Rigg. We are aiming for the high point at the far end.

Looking over the top of the ridge across to Brown Crag with Helvellyn on the right.

The path to Sticks Pass rises from the valley below and leads upwards to Raise Fell behind and to the left of Brown Crag.

Rosie waits on the stile for David and Ros to catch up.

Ann and John are deep in conversation on the other side.

At the next stile there's canine confusion as we meet another group of walkers with their own young hound.

Sunshine and shadows add an apparent third aspect to this two dimensional photo.

A group photo before we leave the summit of High Rigg, our objective reached.

It's just a short but steep walk down to the cars at the end of this afternoon's walk.

- - - - o o o - - -

Extra to the walk . . .

As it was such a fine day Ann and I stopped at Castlerigg Stone Circle on the way home

to see the stones bathed in the late afternoon sun.

Long shadows across the grass, Helvellyn in the distance.

Clough Head above the central stone enclosure.

The temproary blue cord does nothing for the atmosphere but does protect the newly re-seeded grass.

Blencathra seen from Castlerigg this time, not Tewet Tarn as earlier.

Tricky to catch a full photo without any people on such a fine day.

Castlerigg Stone Circle

- - - o o o - - -

Technical note: Pictures taken with my Canon G7 or Ann's Ixus Digital cameras.

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

This site best viewed with . . . winter sunshine.

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Previous walk - 15th Feb 2008 Red Screes with Jill and David

A previous time up here - 20th Oct 2007 Low Rigg, High Rigg & Carrot Cake