BB2620 : The Three Men of Gragareth.  Probably.

Many years later, I contemplated doing a masters degree in fluid dynamics which might well have taken me back into meteorology.  However, I decided that specialising in statistics had a greater probability of suiting my character and hence led me in due course to become the official compiler of records for the BOOTboys.

Hence I can tell you with great confidence that today was our fifth visit to the Three Men of Gragareth.  However, for reasons you will soon discover, maybe I should have persevered with my first intended vocation.

I checked the weather forecast for Kirkby Lonsdale before Robert and I set off to meet Robin and Holly at the nice, old fashioned tea shop at Cowan Bridge.

Time 11:30.  I reckoned that by the time we had finished our tea and poached eggs, the odds were that the drizzle would have stopped and indeed that seemed to be the case when we emerged.

We then took the four mile drive up the narrow lane that ends at Leck Fell House.

At least I think that is where we were.  Strange but the weather on the hills was a little different to that in the valley.  Perhaps if I had read chapter three I might have anticipated fog.

Undeterred by the clag, we set off to find the Three Men of Gragareth.  To our credit, we were pretty accurate in our route finding.  Ahead, on the steep climb, all of a sudden there they were, laughing at such mad fools as us.  

Or were they the Three Ladies?  We decided that they probably were the Men.  I have made a note of their co-ordinates for future reference.  SD 67923 79260.

Flushed with success, I proposed that we should next find the Three Ladies.  This was more or less by instinct but, like their consorts, they popped up out of the gloom.  I meant, but forgot, to make a note of their vital statistic.

Now it was time to complete the climb to the top of Gragareth.  The fog was thinning somewhat and Robert had an app with a trail that took us unerringly to the trig point at what some folk consider to be the highest point of the current version of Lancashire, shown on the OS map as being at 627 metres.  However the map suggests that Green Hill should have that accolade as it was measured as one metre higher.  Our tests on an earlier outing had been inconclusive, none-the-less it was a logical target for us.  Or would have been if we could have seen where we were going.  Fortunately there was an outbreak of that rare thing, common sense.

What is the point of traipsing 2 miles across boggy moorland, not being able to see more than 100 yards, then having to return? None, we decided, so headed down to revisit the Three Ladies .....

..... and onwards to the farm track below where, inevitably by now, the fog was turning into mist.

A little lower and even clearer, yes, in the far distance we could see Blackpool Tower!  Just.  Tuning round, we could see the Three Men waving us goodbye.

Finding the Royal Barn required no navigational skills. By now, the cars know their own way there.  The more I visit this home of Kirkby Lonsdale Brewery, the more I like it and I particularly their "Singletrack" which is an odd name for an allegedly twice brewed beer, but there again it was seemingly designed for mountain bikers. Presumably for when the fog is too dense for them to venture forth into the hills.

The problem I now have is to determine whether the rather modest statistics for these three men (and dog) should qualify as a proper BOOTboys walk.  I think the Gragareth Three Men (and the Three Ladies) would say it should.  Probably.

Don, Thursday 14th May 2026

Confirmation-  Gragareth Is The Top:   

David W has reminded me that we discussed this topic on BB2136 and BB2137 and Gragareth had won the accolade of being the highest point in Lancashire.  He adds that he played a small part in establishing its credentials.

"It was considered to be Gragareth at 627 metres, with the OS showing a spot height of 626 metres on Green Hill, but I had a Harvey map which had a 628 metre spot height at the other end of Green Hill.  I posted this somewhere, and it was picked up by Alan Dawson, who does a lot of surveys of this sort of thing.  In 2014 he confirmed that Green Hill was indeed higher than the trig on Gragareth.  But at the same time he found that there was a point 100 metres from that trig that was higher than Green Hill.  So Gragareth was reinstated.  I think I read that he had notified the OS, who weren't sufficiently interested to change anything.  Fair enough, the trig point is the landmark."

Thanks, David, for the reminder.  Anyone interested in the full list of Alan Dawson's surveys should visit his 2014 web page: The Relative Hills of Britain.  

Comitibus:   

     Don,                   Robin (+Holly),                    Robert

Relive:  Click on the picture below for Robert's Relive of our misty mountain meander

STATISTICS

BB2620 :  The Three Men of Gragareth.  Probably.

Date:

Wednesday 17th June 2026

Features:

Gragareth

Distance in miles:

3.5

Height climbed in feet:

873

GPX track:

BB2620.GPX  

Comitibus:

Don, Robert, Robin (+ Holly)

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