BOOTboys

BB1127 : Four Lords a-Leaping

Thursday 15th September 2011

Time constraints for some of us meant that we had to be back by lunchtime. To our surprise, Tony opted out as such a walk would be too soft for him! How times have changed! However, the promise of a Jack Reacher novel that he hadn't read caused a re-think. He can be bought!

Perhaps times haven't changed at all!!

I was poring over the map to find a suitable stroll that we, or at least I, had not done before and thought I had come up with a good one, starting at Crosthwaite and visiting Lord's Lot.

I then googled Lord's Lot to see what I could find about it and what did I find? Almost exactly the walk I had planned! It is one of Valerie Harrison's Damson Country Walks that is now to be seen on-line on the Crosthwaite and Lyth website.

See Lord's Lot for better instructions than this report will provide!

Valerie Harrison made the distance 9 miles. To be fair, she published her book in 1999 in pre gps / pc mapping days. I plotted it crudely on the computer and made it about 7 miles. Which would prove the more accurate? An important point given the limited time available.

Another reason for planning to stay local and low was the weather forecast. The MWIS, a few days ago, predicted that:

The remnants of hurricane Katia will bring storm force winds to many mountain areas with winds gusting over 100 mph at times across higher tops....... prolonged rain or showers......resulting in very high levels of burns, rivers and lochs as well as increasing the risk of landslides.

Lovely! And it has blown hard this week as proved by the big branches brought down on our drive. However, on the actual day, the Met Office forecast had changed to sunny intervals and a midday wind speed of zero. Yes, you read that right! Zero! Nowt! Nil! Ziltch! Bit of an anti-climax, really. Katia had presumably passed through quicker than previously expected. Or is this just the calm in the centre of the storm? The Met Office is talking of heavy rain and winds gusting to over 30 mph over the next two days. MWIS says 50 mph on the hills. This changeability of forecast has been a feature of this erratic year.

Given the long range forecast, I hadn't expected to get a good photo of our climbing objective, Lord's Lot. So, when I found on the Crosthwaite and Lyth website this photo taken by Martin Casson from his High Adventure balloon days, I took the precaution of asking Martin if we could use it. He kindly agreed.

It is looking north-west over to Lord's Lot from high above Underbarrow. The sun was directly behind him as you can tell by the shadow of the balloon. The angle of the sun plus the frost on the ground is a good clue that it was taken on a fine winter's morning.

Lord's Lot from balloon over Underbarrow

Actually, today proved to be a beautiful morning. However, time being of the essence, it was something of a setback to arrive twenty minutes late at Stuart's thanks to a combination of scheduling and navigational misunderstandings plus a stop to get a today view over to Lord's Lot.

Looking over to Lord's Lot from Scout Scar

So the planned route was under pressure from the outset. Nonetheless, we set off from our parking place by the River Gilpin in Crosthwate to head up onto Lord's Lot, disturbing a grazing deer en-route.

A disturbed deer

Comitibus: Four Lord's a-Leaping

None of us had previously been to the summit of this modest hill and it really is a fine view point in all directions. A place to leap with joy!

Looking west from Lord's Lot, click for panorama

Whinfell from below Lord's Lot

Our one serious climb of the day out of the way, we headed off to Low Fold then worked our way round easy paths and tracks to Birk Moss and the fine old building that is Bulman Strands. This is where Valerie Harrison suggests that those wishing to curtail the full walk should head south. We, however, continued north to Crook Foot and Thorneyfields before turning southwest to meet the main Winster Valley road. Sadly, time had slipped away from us so rather than carrying on down Crag Lane, we braved the traffic on the A5074 for a while until taking the minor road that climbed the hill towards Crosthwaite.

It was noon and therefore Tony lunch time so we took advantage of the shortened route to allow him to eat whilst we tried to work out what the converted van was at the far end of the field (see photo below). We failed. Can anyone tell us?

It was then a short downhill stroll back to the car, to return home in good time for our various commitments.

We had seen many interesting things en-route:

The steps (sadly partially obscured by seats) from which to mount your horse at Low Fold, once owned by the Duke of Buccleugh's molecatcher.
The tower of what had been St Catherine's Church at Crook
The serrated skyline from Crinkle Crags to the Langdales
Heysham Nuclear Power Station
A mysterious stone structure, presumable for items to be place on carts
Stuart multi tasking- picking conkers whilst telephoning
Bulman Strands
Winster House in the distance
A mysterious van

The molecatcher's steps

St Catherine's tower

Crinkle Crags, Bowfell and the Langdales

Heysham power station

The mysterious stone structure

Stuart multi-tasking

Winster House

Bulman Strands

The mysterious vehicle

This was new territory for most of us and the full walk would be a very enjoyable, not too challenging outing. One day! Or perhaps we will try another of Valerie Harrison's Damson Country Walks. Thank you Valerie.

Don, 15th September 2011

STATISTICS:

BB1127	Thursday 15th September
Distance in miles:	6.4
Height climbed in feet:	1,210
Wainwrights:	-
Other Features:	Lord's Lot
Comitibus:	Don, Stan, Stuart, Tony

BOOTboys routes ares now being put online in gpx format which should work with most mapping software. You can follow our route in detail by downloading BB1127.

To see which Wainwright top was visited on which BB outing see
Which Wainwright When?

For the latest totals of the mileages and heights see: BB Log.

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2011 Outings

BB1101 :
Wasnfell Revisited
Tuseday 11th January

BB1102 :
Recuperation Scar!
Thursday 17th February

BB1103 :
A Promenade of Pensioners
Thursday 24th February

BB1104 :
The B Team
Thursday 3rd March

BB1105 :
A Little Bit Of Wind
Thursday 10th March

BB1106 :
A Linthwaite Round
Thursday 17th March

BB1107 :
Home From The Pulpit
Thursday 24th March

BB1108 :
Taking The Brunt
Thursday 31st March

BB1109 :
Up The Spout
Wednesday 6th April

BB1110 :
Not The Royal Wedding
Friday 29th April

BB1111 :
Kentmere Parts 1 & 2
Thurs 5th, Saturday 7th May

BB1112 :
Five Unknown Tarns
Wednesday 11th May

BB1113 :
Gurnal Dubbs Revisited
Thursday 19th May

BB1114 :
A March Through The Mist
Wednesday 1st June

BB1115 :
Brief Encounter
Wednesday 8th June

BB1116 :
Extraordinary and
Lesser Mortals
Wednesday 15th June

BB1117 :
Farewell David Daw
Wednesday 29th June

BB1118 :
West Side Story
Thursday 7th July

BB1119 :
East Side Story
Wednesday 13th July

BB1120 :
All The Way From Barrow
Wednesday 20th July

BB1121 :
Suitable For The Guests!
Thursday 28th July

BB1122 :
Graylings In Flagrante
Wednesday 3rd August

BB1123 :
The First Indecision Outing
Wednesday 24th August

BB1124 :
The Second Indecision Outing
Thursday 25th August

BB1125 :
The Tale of Tony's Triumph
Wednesday 31st August

BB1126 :
The Gunpowder Trail
Wednesday 7th September

BB1127 :
Four Lords a-Leaping
Thursday 15th September

BB1128 :
Heversham Head and Mhor
Thursday 22nd September

The Way Of The Roses
12th - 14th September

Click on the photos
for an enlargement
or related large picture.

Wainwrights

To see which Wainwright
top was visited on which
BB outing see Which Wainwright When?.

To download a log of heights and miles and which Wainwrights
have been done by which BOOTboy in the"modern" era, i.e. since the advent
of BOOTboys
click on BB Log.