THE TEBAY GILL
HORSESHOE in the HOWGILL FELLS,
from TEBAY VILLAGE
Summary
Date - 14th February 2010
Distance - 6.5 miles
Ascent - 1040ft
Map - OL19
Start point - Mount Pleasant,
Tebay (NY 619045)
Summits Achieved
Name
Height (ft)
Height (m)
Grid Ref
Roger Howe
1034
315
NY 6173 0303
Powson Knott
1227
374
NY 6192 0214
Blease Fell
1556
474
NY 6237 0045
Hare Shaw
1548
472
NY 6274 0130
Knott (Tebay Gill)
1280
391
NY 6309 0228
Weather Hill
1132
345
NY 6308 0319
Preface
Allen strolled in with
Little Eric who had hitched a ride in his rucksack, to find
Shaun and Tetley, pouring over some listings.
"What are you
looking at?", he enquired.
"Dad has found
time to analyse our Howgill Fells challenge. So now we know which
fells each of us need to climb to catch up with Dad",
replied Shaun.
"He has said too,
that he will take us to all these before doing the ones that he
has not climbed, so that we can all finish them together, like we
did with the Outlying Fells last year", went on Tetley.
"How many walks
does it involve?", asked Allen, eager to know all the facts.
"Of those in the
main Howgill massiff, five in all. Two on the north side, one on
the west and two on the south", replied Shaun, after
consulting the lists.
Continuing on the same
theme, Tetley added, "there is also the matter of the
Whinfell Ridge, that just Shaun and I have done. It was a
substantial walk , as besides the five tops in the ridge from
west to east, there is then the matter of returning through the
Borrowdale Valley. In this regard, Shaun and I have been looking
at Dad's copy of A. Wainwright's 'Walks on the Howgill Fells'.
This details a number of walks that do the ridge in parts that
will actually make it more interesting, as doing it this way we
will visit areas we have not been to before."
"Sounds good",
replied Allen. Then after gathering his thoughts for a moment,
"that will make seven or eight walks in total."
"Yes", said
Shaun.
"By the way,
where's Grizzly?", asked Tetley.
"Watching some
sci-fi programme on television with some of his pals and Dad",
replied Allen.
However just then he
trotted into the room.
"Did you enjoy it?,
asked Tetley.
"Sure did",
he replied. "I also have good news too. Now that Dad has
worked out the Howgill Fells we have to climb, he is eager to get
on with ticking them off for us, so our walk on Sunday will be
from Tebay doing the round to Blease Fell."
Consulting the lists
again, Shaun interjected, "that is good news for you Allen
and Little Eric, as they are on your individual lists, and five
tops will be ticked off."
"Great",
called out Allen, doing somersaults round the room!"
The Walk
It was not a long distance to the
start, just north along the M6 to Junction 38, so Dad decided
that we did not need to set off too early.
When we heard Dad loading his gear,
Grizzly called out, "come and let me put our picnic in your
rucksack, Allen"
"Coming" he called out in
reply".
That done we dashed out and settled
on the front seat of the car ready for the off. The motorway was
quiet and we got to Tebay without any delays.
As we drove along the slip road,
Little Eric asked, "which way are we going at the roundabout
today?"
"To the right towards Kendal,
and when we get to the sharp bend at the top of the hill, we park
just along the narrow road on the left", replied Dad. This
was in fact the original road to Kirkby Stephen, prior to the new
road being built on the old railway line", he added.
So, before we set off here is a map
of our route -
From Tebay the route
was south along the ridge above the Lune Gorge to Blease Fell.
The M6 shows up clearly to the left. After enjoying the view from
Blease Fell, we turned north along the ridge to the east of Tebay
Gill to return to the start. Within the bounds of the route, the
ravine of Tebay Gill, is clearly visible.
Between the buildings,
a narrow road climbed up splitting a few times to lead to the
scattered buildings. At the third fork, our route was to the left
towards the building called Tebay Ghyll, indicated by its name
painted on this stone boulder.
Looking back the
village of Tebay lay below, with the M6 motorway sweeping north
into the mist beyond.
A group of horses were
unconcernedly munching away at the grass, totally ignoring Dad. A
small group we thought of the many wild horses that roam freely
on the Howgill Fells.
As Dad finally put his
camera away, Shaun piped up, "come on Dad, we had better be
getting on or we will never complete the walk."
"OK",
replied Dad striding purposefully on up the hill.
The rough track
continued past Tebay Ghyll and skirted below the first summit
Roger Howe. We needed to climb to this summit, so Dad struck off
half right over the thick grassy terrain to accomplish this. The
top is a wide flat area, but from a previous visit Dad had the
grid reference for the spot height marked on the map. We all
hopped out and settled amongst the grass, so that Dad could take
our picture for the record. Then on ahead and left to regain the
cart track. The map indicated that this ended before the next
summit, but we could see clearly that it continued well beyond
and in fact all the way to Blease Fell our furthest point south
today. So striding the track, the ground rose ahead to the summit
of Powson Knott. Another unmarked grassy top, where we settled
again for our picture.
As Dad strode on, we
could see away to the right over the Lune Gorge, the pretty and
unspoilt valley of Borrowdale (in Westmorland), not to be
confused with its more dramatic and beautiful namesake near
Keswick, in the Northern Lakes.
Visibility was not
brilliant today, so the ridge to its southern side is rather lost
in the mist, the summits in view being from left to right,
Whinfell & Castle Fell. The valley heads due west before
swinging north west below the hills.
"It was
absolutely idyllic walking through that valley", remarked
Shaun.
"I agree",
replied Tetley. "It is seven years ago too. How time flies."
After a last lingering
look, Dad strode off again, heading on south along the cart track,
descending slightly at first, before climbing on to our ultimate
goal of Blease Fell. The track had been dry and run straight and
true, but we encountered a rather boggy section on the final
ascent.
"Look there is
the cairn", called out Allen, urging Dad to head to it.
"Hold on a minute",
replied Grizzly. "That is the viewpoint, but not the summit,
which is amongst that bog and long grass to the left."
Using the GPS, Dad
cast around to find as near as possible the position of the spot
height on the map. Again the summit area was a large flat expanse,
so actually deciding the highest point was a little difficult.
After a minute or so Dad stopped and declared, "this will do".
We were getting rather fed up of the fact that there were no
cairns marking the summits, so a little grumpily we hopped out
and settled on a large grassy tussock for our picture. Jumping
into the rucksack, Dad then took us to the cairn, where the view
is quite dramatic.
Unaffected by human
intervention the River Lune, carves its way through the valley on
its route to Morecambe Bay. Man's influence can be seen with
first the Victorians who built the railway - part of the main
line between London and Scotland. In the 1970's following a
similar line but higher up the hillside the civil engineers built
the M6 motorway. It is tiered on its passage through the gorge.
This lessens the impact on the landscape, and helps to prevent
closure in severe snowy conditions. The narrow road to the left,
starts from the A685 Tebay to Kendal road, at Low Borrowbridge
and runs under the west side of the Howgills eventually to
Sedbergh. Part of the first section, known as Fairmile Road, is
in fact on the course of a Roman Road, there having been a fort
near Low Borrowbridge.
"Time for lunch,
so get the sandwiches out", said Shaun.
"OK",
replied Allen taking his rucksack off.
Dad got his sandwiches
out too, and we all sat munching away, enjoying the lovely view
before us and it was with some reluctance that we packed up and
settled in Dad's rucksack for the return leg.
A clear path was
followed that seemed to be curving round to the north, but then
it started descending and turned more east, not the direction we
wanted to go. So this was abandoned and Dad altered his heading
north across the rough boggy trackless ground.
Suddenly Little Eric
called out, "look there are the group of wild fell horses we
saw from the other side as we approached Blease Fell."
They were making their
way in that direction now, but we wanted Dad to try and get a
picture. However they were totally unconcerned about us, and not
for posing for Dad, but he did manage to get this shot of the
last one as it walked slowly away. It makes plain too, how deep
the tussocky terrain was.
Hare Shaw was clearly
in view ahead, and finally a track materialised that we followed
to its summit.
As we approached Allen
let out a cry, "at last a cairn for us to sit on for our
summit picture."
The track led on down
and then up the gentle slopes of Knott, where we deviated a
little to its summit. This is in fact one of three summits in the
Howgills called Knott. For us all to complete this challenge, Dad
will have to take us to the summit of all three! Continuing north
we could see ahead the modest rise that is Weather Hill and after
a further walk of about half a mile or so its flat unmarked
summit was attained too. Pictures were taken but we think there
has been quite enough of us on this walk already. A very gentle
descent soon brought us to the bridleway and the sadly forlorn
and neglected buildings of Waskew Head. Turning left the
bridleway was followed down eventually crossing Tebay Gill Beck
by a stone arched bridge, the south retaining wall of which was
in need of considerable repair.
"The stream with
its rocks looks like it might make an interesting picture",
remarked Tetley.
"OK, we'll have a
look" replied Dad, as he clambered down the bank and lined
up the camera.
Strolling on along the
track, we soon reached the junction where we had walked up past
Tebay Ghyll this morning. Just a short stroll along the road and
we were back at the car.
We settled in the car
to have the rest of our picnic, while Dad went in search of
refreshment. We expected him to drive to Junction 38 services,
but as we had parked this morning Dad had noticed the Old School
Guest House & Tearoom, just a few yards away, so he decided
to go here today.
The building was as it
says the old school, and is owned by Steve & Joanne. They
bought it some years ago and operated it as a guest house, but
last year they opened the tearoom, in what was one of the old
classrooms. It is very nicely appointed, homely and welcoming.
Dad had a lovely bowl of soup, then a nice roast pork dinner,
well deserved we agreed after his efforts today. There is a wide
range of food on offer, and the tearoom is open every day. For
more information click the following link - www.theoldschooltebay.co.uk.
Suitably rejuvenated
all that remained was for Dad to drive us home, going along the
old road to Kendal, and then to Low Sizergh Barn farmshop, where
we bought some delicious Oaties biscuits, to take home for Uncle
Brian. They are his favourites.