BB2136 : The Old Men at Coniston

Wednesday 2nd November 2021

If you were to ask Uncle Google for the highest point in Lancashire you would receive an answer along the lines that it is Green Hill,  

"... a Mountain or Fell in the North West England. Its summit is 628 metres above sea level. It is located above Cowan Bridge, Lancashire, near Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria, and Ingleton, North Yorkshire. Its summit is about 4 kilometres almost due west of the summit of Whernside."

 In other words, just along the ridge from the much more interesting Gragareth.

It is Coniston PowerBoat week and fortunately the weather today was rather better than when we visited three years ago BB1837.  Or indeed, three days ago.  We were expecting an exciting display.

There were also people stood on the pier hoping that there would be some action from the Powerboaters.  Eventually the odd one did venture onto the water but somehow it didn't seem very exciting for onlookers.  No doubt it would be if you were riding one, bobbing up and down on the water at 100 mph.

In contrast to 2018, we decided to head along the waterlogged path.....

..... and around the north end of the lake where it was obvious the extent to which it had risen....

..... then walk down the east side.  

Mostly this was not as close to the water as would have been the case opposite but at Brantwood (Ruskin's house) .....

..... we descended through his garden to the steamer pier.

It now being November, the steamer was no longer in action (indeed we could see it anchored up on the other side of the lake).  Our jetty was substantially underwater but we did find a dry(ish) seat on which to sit and eat our butties.

A little further on, our plan was to climb up through the woods to emerge into the open and return to the head of the lake.  Unfortunately, what we hoped would be a pleasant woodland trail had been transformed and not for the better.  There had obviously been a lot of heavy machinery passing through for logging purposes and the recent torrential rain had turned their deep racks into quagmire.  The photos don't show it at its worse- I was just concentrating on trying to avoid slipping into the mire.  Our half hour wading through mud was a grim glimpse of what the men on both sides must have suffered in the Somme for months on end.

We gave up, descended and found a lower, much more sensible path that led down to the road from which we could see occasional boats making their timed runs.

Consequently our return to Coniston was more-or-less the way we had come.  The first, appropriate, variant was to visit Donald Cambell's grave.  The second, inevitable, variant was to visit the Black Bull where several old men were enjoying their Coniston Bluebird beers.  Three more old men joined them.

Don, Wednesday 3rd November 2021

Let's Hear It For Gragareth

My comment about Green Hill being the highest point of Lancashire has been challenged by long-time BOOTboys follower David W.  He writes:

May I correct you (I think).  The roof of Lancashire is actually Gragareth, and I can claim a very small part in establishing that. 

Ten or fifteen years ago we visited Green Hill, and I had noticed that the Harvey map had a spot height at the southern end that was higher than the supposed summit at the north. 

On the ground it looked plausible, I posted it on some relevant website and Alan Dawson, who I think invented Marilyns, expressed an interest.  Some years later I read that he and others had been up there and surveyed it. 

I can't remember what the answer was, but while they were there they had another look at Gragareth and found a point some distance from the trig that was marginally higher than Green Hill. 

David couldn't find the actual report but has supplied a link to a report of the report: The Relative Hills Of Britain.

Personally, I'm delighted for Gragareth.  It's a salutary lesson that not all that Wiki tells you is necessarily true.

STATISTICS

BB2136 : The Old Men At Coniston

Date:

3rd November 2021

Features:

Coniston Motorcycles and Powerboats

Comitibus:

Don, Mike B, Tony

Distance in miles (Garmin):

9.4

Height climbed in feet (Memory Map)

1,011

GPX track

BB2136.gpx

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