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BB1323
: Yoda and the Three Ladies
Thursday
27th June 2013
Well, “Poo to Ireby” is all I can say on the matter. We wanted to give them the benefit of Stan’s
car’s presence and, had they had a pub, would no doubt have followed it up with
custom at the bar. But the Irbeyites
clearly do not welcome visitors so, instead, we made for the much more accommodating
Masongill. Pity they don’t have a pub either
so that that village could have been rewarded.
They do have a library, however.
One of the more imaginative
uses of an old phone box. And remarkably,
it is solar powered.
Also,
Masongill is the home of the Donnay bird as we can vouch,
having found one of its eggs.
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Masongill
library
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The
Donnay egg
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What is more, they have Mason Gill Fell Lane which provided
the route for us to tackle Gragareth (it sounds best in a Welsh accent which is
not surprising- see BB1025) on a day that
threatened rain. There was no such problem
as we walked up the road. We
were a little concerned by a posse of what seemed like
off road motor cyclists but they were driving very carefully
and caused us no problem.
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The
posse
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A
fenced off sink
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Ingleborough
Below
us was Kingsdale
into which we dropped in order
to reach the lower end of Yoda’s Cave. We discovered his
front door and explored the
entrance area. The strong evidence of a large quantity of running
water could be heard but without a powerful torch we were not equipped to press too deep.
As he says:
"Hard to see, the dark side is"
Then I realised. It wasn’t Yoda's cave at all.
It was Yordas Cave. He wasn’t in either, or at least, not as far
as we could see which, as you have realised, far to see, the not is.
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Yordas
Wood
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Yordas
cave entrance
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The gully above presented an interesting scramble though the
greasy rocks prevented John and I from completing the ghyll climb. Stan, who worries not about such matters, did
emerge, to our relief, at the top.
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The
gully above Yordas Cave
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The
stream feeding the cave
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It was now starting to drizzle as we commenced the climb up
Gragareth. Also a cold wind was
blowing. Perhaps we should have taken
lunch at the Sheepfold but the really steep area lay before us and I, at least,
prefer to get the hard work out of the way before eating. Don’t I, Tony?? !!!
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The
steepest part of the ascent
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And steep it was.
Similar in slope to Steel Fell albeit much shorter.
Once this was out of the way, we took shelter
from the rain and increasingly cold wind behind a wall.
After butties were gone, we crossed over the
plateau and quickly found the summit trig point.
From there, it should have been easy to drop down to the
Three Men Of Gragareth but the mist had gragathered and we were now in cloud.
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We thought we saw them but then they
disappeared. And then we did find them. Only, it wasn’t them, it was the Three Ladies
of Gragareth. As the Men couldn’t see what we were doing, we
gave the Ladies a cuddle for the team photo then moved on.
Comitibus
: With
the Three Ladies
It didn’t take long to find the Three Men, blissfully unaware
of the liberties we had taken.
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The
Three Men of Gagareth
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The
leafy track
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The excitement for the day being over, we dropped to
the road that leads down to Leck but, at Fellside Beck, turned south down a really
nice leafy track that leads to, cough, Ireby.
From here it was just a short stroll across a few fields to the much
more welcoming but still publess Masongill.
Instead, we visited the Sun Inn in Kirkby Lonsdale where we
raised our glasses in honour of the Three Ladies.
Don,
27th June 2013
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Missing
Missiles
Brother
Alan took one look at last week's photo of the Blue
Steel
missile and pronounced that it was not a
real one.
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I
assured him that the photo had been obtained from what
was believed to be a reliable source but he stuck to
his guns.
Or
should that read "stuck to his rockets"?
Apparently,
there were very few real rockets made and they were
seldom put on public display. However, there were
dozens of fake missiles produced to be paraded up and
down the land, whether to impress the Russians or the
Brits being an open question.
He
thinks that other Cold War protagonists were playing
the same game.
Rat-a-tat-tat!
Excuse me,
I hope that knock on the door that I hear is not someone
from MI5 !
Or
SMERSH ?????
| STATISTICS:
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BB1323
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| Date:
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Thursday
27th June 2013
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| Distance
in miles:
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10.7
(Garmin gps)
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| Height
climbed in feet:
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2,141
(Memory Map / OS)
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| Wainwrights:
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-
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| Other
Features:
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Gragareth
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| Comitibus:
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Don, John H, Stan
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BOOTboys
routes are put online in gpx format which
should work with most mapping software. You can follow
our route in detail by downloading bb1323
To
discover 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.
Photos
have been gleaned from many sources although mostly
from me! Likewise written comment. Unless stated
otherwise, please feel free to download the material
if you wish.
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would be appreciated but not essential.
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