Led by Pat

Nineteen LDWA members (12 from the Cumbria group, 3 from Lakeland, 2 from North Yorkshire, 1 from Wessex and 1 unattached) met in Kirkby Stephen on a cold but bright morning.

Leaving the car park the route skirted round to the west of the town, encountering a flooded section at Westgarth where some members took a (slightly) drier route over the field, before heading south-west to meet the Coast to Coast National Trail at Greenriggs farm (photo). Here the route entered the Yorkshire Dales National Park while staying in Cumbria.

Following the C2C the route climbed up onto Smardale Fell with the Howgills a fine sight against the clear blue sky. The historic Smardale viaduct lay hidden in the deep gorge to the north though the modern day viaduct on the Settle to Carlisle line could be seen easily nearby. Here the route left the C2C to head South over the moorland of Ash Fell, punctuated by a very welcome coffee-break and short section of verge walking alongside the busy A685 before passing some old lead/copper mine workings to reach the farm at Lytheside. The route passed a substantially sized but un-named tarn here and the enigmatically named Lady Lowther's well (a resurgence cave), before meeting and following the Tommy Road down towards Pendragon Castle, one of many properties owned by Lady Anne Clifford.

The castle ruins could be seen low down to the right but the route turned left (North) to follow the river Eden downstream on Alfred Wainwright's Pennine Journey and Lady Anne's way (photo). Although this very good track was signposted BOAT we never did see a ship on it. Lunch was taken next to the ruins of Lammerside Castle (a 14th Century Pele Tower) before resuming the northward journey along the Eden. Before long the route went past the impressive 15th Century Wharton Hall (photo) with Nine-Standards Rigg beyond. At Nateby the route left the National Park (group photo) before following the river back into Kirkby Stephen, finishing just before 3pm.

Walk Stats: 14 miles (21Km) with 1,900ft (580m) ascent. A gpx file of the walk is in the walks database https://ldwa.org.uk/lgt/new/walks-database/select-via-list.php?club_id=7