Barbon Low Fell

Distance: 11 miles
Ascent: 500m
Weather: strangely warm, becoming wetter

After a bit of faffing and buying sandwiches from the Church Mouse village shop in Barbon,  we set off.

The footpath heads into park land and along a stream through woodland,  with a couple of bridges that we didn't cross but had a look from for an elusive dipper, and had a good view of a buzzard.

As we emerged from the woods, there was a heavy shower, so we sheltered (or tried to)  under trees to change coats and pack things away. Then we were out onto moorland,  with the stream below us in the valley.  Unfortunately the footbridge at which we should have crossed Barbon Beck had been damaged beyond use as a result of the recent heavy rain and there wasn't an easy crossing point nearby.  On the map there's another fb a bit farther up the valley,  so we headed alongside to find it. It is open access here, so no worries about there not being a path.

There was a fortuitous small footbridge (not marked on the map, about half way to Short Hill Bridge) so we used this and walked back along the road. The dipper made a reappearance too.

A rocky track leads up towards Bullpot Farm, then after a short while on a road,  we turned off up on to Hogg Hill. A quick visit to the top (quite windy, over a wall) and we followed the ridge along to Barbon Low Fell. Dropping down, we stopped for lunch sheltered behind a wall, and it started raining.

We returned along rocky bridleways, complete with art (rocks in tiny drystone wall enclosures) by Andy Goldsworthy and then across wet parkland with friendly sheep and robins, fighting kestrels and a deer.