Wednesday 3 May 2017

Marilyns Either Side of the Border......Sighty Crag and Larriston Fell

Making the best of my new 4 day week (although this week is a 3 day week, due to a Bank Holiday!) I headed North this morning. I was heading for "The Flatt" in the Bewcastle Forest, it's a maze of minor roads once you leave the A7. Harder map reading than he walking!....

It was forest roads for the first part of the ascent

Lots of trees hereabouts, although they have been and are presently felling a lot of them

Once out of the trees it was pathless deep heather and bog!
This area is known as the "Debateable Lands", I debated if I was Mad :-))

The summit of Sighty Crag. It is a great viewpoint on a day like today

This is known as the "Hewn Block" although is could be natural?

Then it was back into the forestry, a bit of bushwacking and back to the car.
After a bit of map studying I decided to make the journey more worthwhile by adding Larriston Fell to the day. It was only 12 or so miles to the North.

I parked on the Steele Road beside the Liddel Water near Dinlabyre

Up through the trees (again) on forest roads which made for easy progress as far as....

....the radio mast.

But then it was back to bashing through the heather and bog, picking up feint paths where I could.

Larriston Fell looking North to Peel Fell.

I'm not sure where they found the stones to build this cairn?
Back to the car the same way, the weather had been outstanding.
Two more Marilyns bagged!

4 comments:

  1. Well done. I had to look at the map because I hadn't heard of these tops. Nightmare road system but great weather.

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  2. Fantastic weather Alan, I was a bit done when I got to the mast on Larriston Fell to find that the track marked on the 50,000 map didn't exist! It isn't marked on the 25,000 map. I only found this out when I got home and looked online last night!
    The cartographer is probably laughing his head off somewhere :-)

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  3. I remember meeting a SOTA chap on Dodd Fell Hill who shuddered as he told us about the man-eating bogs he encountered on his way to Sighty Crag.

    I'm not sure I'm going to be approaching that one with my usual enthusiasm!

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    Replies
    1. I was surprised that there wasn't at least a thread of a path....anywhere!
      My advise if you ever do it Gayle would be to pick up the fence ...which runs kinda Northwestish!...and return the same way.

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