" Rosthwaite & Millican Dalton's Cave "

Date & start time: 15th March 2012 m start.

Location of Start : Rosthwaite Village car park, Borrowdale, Cumbria, Uk ( NY 258 148 )

Places visited : New Bridge, riverside track, M.D. Cave, Broadslack path, back by riverside.

Walk details : 3.5 mls, 550 ft of ascent, 2 hrs 40 mins.

Highest point : Above Millican Dalton's Cave, 560 ft - 172 m.

Walked with : Pat & Mike, Ray & Jackie, Ann and the dogs, Harry and Bethan.

Weather : Low cloud and drizzle on the fells but better in Borrowdale Valley

We had friends up for the afternoon and we needed a smaller walk somewhere locally, but the weather has been poor in the valleys

despite some clearer (but very unpredictable) "inversion weather" of late on the summits.

We drove up to Honister to try and climb out of the gloom but the weather just got worse

so we stayed in the car and drove down the other side to Rosthwaite in Borrowdale where conditions were slightly better.

It was 3pm and in the time available we decided on a riverside walk around Castle Crag, the wooded fell opposite.

Walking across the valley to New Bridge we were able to admire the new flood prevention work

which has involved re-building the riverside wall, re-laying the track and filling in the washed-out sections of the fields.

The "yellow brick road" extends right down to the bridge from where, looking back,

we had a rather misty view of Eagle Crag in the Langstrath Valley.

A meeting of people and dogs on the old bridge . . . confusingly called the New Bridge.

Time for a quick photo call . . . Ann, Mike, Pat, Ray and Jackie.

Harry has his own photo call when he went for a swim just downstream from the bridge.

Still to cold for mere humans . . . and will be for months I would imagine.

This section is known on the map as High How Woods, where the path runs more or less parallel to the river.

A mighty rock sculpture in glorious technicolour too !

This is the bottom workings of the Lower Castle Crag slate quarries.     When we introduce a person into the frame the scale of the whole structure becomes apparent.     Mike leads the way into the cave.

The slate rock band extends diagonally up the fell side across the face of Castle Crag

as you may be able to make out from the series spoil heaps rising up the slope.

We pause (wee paws ?) on top of the middle spoil heap in the last photo.

The top quarry workings have become famous as they were home to a certain Millican Dalton, "Professor of Adventure"

who used this top cave as his summer home during the 1920's.

The "Cave Hotel" was dry apart from a rather damp entrance.

Ann takes a break on a stone set back in the cave.

In the upper part of the workings there is an inscription attributed to Millican Dalton and accompanied by his initials.

The words read "Don't waste wor(r)ds . . . . Jump to conclusions . . . . MD

[ Someone has recently made a rather amateurish attempt to make the inscription a little more readable ]

We follow a path up the through the woods . . .

. . . and are rewarded with a view down Borrowdale to a misty Derwent Water for our efforts.

[ We also had a brief sighting of a red squirrel in this part of the woods but he moved too fast to photograph ]

The old bridle way down the back of Castle Crag was our route back down to the river.

Following the River Derwent upstream now, heading back to Rosthwaite.

The road through the "Jaws of Borrowdale" is on the other side of the beautifully clear river.

The path undulated as we walk back through the woods, but it is never far from the water.

There's a dog . . . we'll go this way . . .	. . . Oh no there's another one . . . we'll go the other way.

With all these people, it's getting too crowded . . . we're off !

[ Mrs and Mr Mallard for those looking to name the breed of duck ]

Our guests were offered the choice of re-crossing New Bridge or taking the stepping stones.

These two chose the safe option . . .

The other four of us took the more unusual and more daring alternative.

The river is not to high so the stones were clear . . . but it has been rather damp of late !

Mike is looking a little unbalanced . . . .

Will he fall in . . . .

You'll never know for certain . . . as this is the last photo of the day !

- - - o o o - - -

Technical note: Pictures taken with either Ann's Fuji Finepix Compact or my Canon G10/1100D camera.

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

This site best viewed with . . . a spare pair of socks waiting in the car . . . just in case !

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Previous walk - 6th March 2012 Knott Rigg / Ard Crags

A previous time up here - 9th December 2007 Castle Crag on a cool winter day

Next walk - 17th March 2012 Dollywaggon Pike