Distance 22 miles
Ascent 850m
Weather: wet and windy in morning, turning warm and sunny in the afternoon
Wheatears, golden plovers, Nettles, Bracken, thistles, big moth, blumming huge Hornet, caravanning bunnies
We are staying two nights in Kirkby Lonsdale so didn't have to carry so much today, however there was quite a long walk in and out of the main interesting part.
From Cowan Bridge we walked up the lane through Leck and up, passing some small farms, to Leck Fell and Leck Fell House which is at 400m above sea level. There was a bench that we sat on and then headed up the steep grassy hillside to Gragareth, passing the stone cairns called the Three Men of Gragareth, of whom there were about six.
Gragareth is the highest hill in Lancashire at 627m. It wasn't the highest hill on our walk which was Great Coum at 687m, but this doesn't count as it is in Cumbria (and also Kirby Lonsdale is actually in Cumbria too, but shhh.)
It was cold, wet and windy on then tops, the clouds just starting to part as we had lunch on Crag Hill, sheltering behind a wall.
A wet but even path led straight down to a track where we turned left and followed some posts and a stony path over Casterton Fell. A steep drop led down to Ease Gill, where there is impressive geology. The rocks are eroded and underground waterfall took the water away down into the ground. A dry river bed continues down the valley, the water reappearing a half a mile further on. We didn't see that as we were too busy scrambling through some bracken, but we did look into some pot holes. By now the sun had come out and it was pleasantly warm.
A narrow but pretty path led down from Anneside into the valley and we followed Leck Beck back to where we joined it yesterday.
No comments:
Post a Comment