I'd saved up enough brownie points to get a couple of days away up north so...
Saturday 25th October We set off from Leeds, where I'd established base camp on a friends floor,
around 8am and enjoyed an empty, frosty and hugely picturesque drive up the A65. Having made a
customary stop at Booths in Kirkby Lonsdale for butter pies and biscuits, we chose, foolishly, to
take the scenic route up the A591 to pleasure ourselves, visually, with the rather glorious autumn
foliage in the morning light.
Mungrisdale was blustery and cold and we layered up before, bravely, setting out to cover the first
km or so of the approach to Bannerdale Crags which was _off_the_edge_of_the_map! We managed not to
go astray and followed the Glenderamackin up to the junction with Bannerdale Beck. We were hoping
that it wasn't going to be too windy for a vaguely scrambly ascent up the east ridge of Bannerdale
Crags and we followed the ridge rising above the immense bowl of Bannerdale to have a look. Having
satisfied ourselves that we unlikely to be plucked from the face of the crag by the wind we set off
up the east ridge above the mine workings. There were some slidy bits and it sounded disconcertingly
hollow but it was hugely enjoyable. On reaching the top we were once again pleasured, visually, by a
fantastic view of the gnarly east side of Blencathra.
It had now clouded over and started to spit intermittently with rain with more meaningful showers
busying themselves above us on Blencathra as we made our tussocky approach. We spotted a few people
turn back from Sharp Edge and a few others make their wet and windy way up. We made our way up by
way of Blue Screes and Atkinson Pike and on reaching the top of the fell had a few smug moments as
we enjoyed a little corridor of shelter making our way down the middle of the broad top towards the
summit past the crosses and teensy tarnlet.
The smugness didn't last. The showers had decided to combine their efforts and become proper rain.
Wet rain - horizontal and stinging. We had intended to return by Scales Fell and Souther Fell but
decided to save that for another, less meteorologically challenging, day. We rushed back down below
Foule Crag as it was bothered by tempestuous swirling cloud. Visibility was now down to 100m or so
and we squelched around the northern edge of Bannerdale Crags, once again bravely striding off the
very edge of the map [OL5 1989 edition] before we found the start of the diagonally descending
sunken path down the Tongue back to Mungrisdale.
It was too wet for photos.
Sunday 26th October
After some confusion with automatically self adjusting clocks and BST/GMT we set off at either 6:30,
7:30 or 8:30 am. I am still unsure which...
It was very quiet as we made our way back up the A65 for the swift jaunt to a deserted Settle where
we made the mistake of following the comedy signs for the parking. We deposited a Mondeo in Booths
car park and set off for Attermire up the cobbled streets and lanes towards Castlebergh Plantation.
It was a beautiful crisp and still morning and as we climbed out of the valley we had good views of
Ingleborough, Pendle and the Cumbrian hills from Black Combe to Great Gable. It was also remarkable
how distinctly Hutton Roof and Farleton Knot stood out >20 miles away - I remarked upon it.
Everything was glorious, peaceful and picturesque as we made our way underneath the impressive faces
of Warrendale Knotts and Attermire Scar - a limestone escarpment along the (South?) Craven Fault. We
followed the bridleway up Stockdale under Rye Loaf Hill and towards the east-west watershed. The
birds twittered, sheeped grazed lazily, the sun beamed down on us and all was quiet apart from the
thump thump thump of our boots.
Then we were suddenly enveloped in noise. The first group of the days trail riding motorcyclists
rushed past us filling the valley with noise, our noses with exhaust fumes and their wake with
flying stones.
We walked on. Muttering.
On reaching the watershed and Kirkby Fell we followed the bridleway north eastwards towards Langscar
with fantastic views of the Malham area and Cracoe Fell to the east and Penyghent to the north. We
were increasingly disconcerted to hear more motorcycles in our vicinity and read with some
bemusement the National Park notices on a stile asking us to keep on the paths to avoid
environmental disturbance in a fragile and important area of limestone upland.
We reached the track/path marked on the OL2 2001 edition as an 'other route with public access'.
Soon we were being passed by groups of up to six motorcyclists passing at speed, spraying fans of
mud behind as they span their wheels to escape from boggy areas. The track/path spread about 75m
wide in places with wheel ruts and deep pools where boggy areas had been turned into quagmires and
then bypassed.
We watched at SD 856 658 as three motorcyclists spun their wheels for minutes trying to extricate
themselves from a boggy stream crossing. Eventually one managed to do so and sat on a dry stone wall
to wait for his friends.
In total we probably saw in excess of fifty motorcyclists using this path/track, over the course of
two/three hours.
We were glad to return to Attermire Scar and had lunch sitting near Jubilee Cave. As we made our way
down the valley south I was immensely depressed to see that some motorcyclists had recently tried to
hillclimb up the side of the valley at SD 837 654 leaving ruts and fragments of registration plate
(and mudguard?). This was not a route for which they had even a tenuous claim of legitimacy and in
the middle of hugely important archaeological landscape. I thought that it was a little
disrespectful and depressing.
It has been a very dry summer - I would hate to see what the damage would be like if the ground
were wetter.
I enjoyed my walk around one of favourite areas - the first time for over ten years I had been
there. I was however disconcerted to see the damage wrought on the area by motorcyclists, no doubt
exploiting a loophole in the classification of archaic routes.
I'm entirely happy to accept that I, as a walker (and a big (and active) one too) cause damage to
the landscapes I visit. I'm happy to stay away from problem areas where I know of them and I'm happy
to see remedial work to arrest and limit damage and erosion.
I'd also be quite happy for the loophole allowing powerful modern vehicles access to historic routes
and delicate environments to be closed.
[photographs may follow]
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