For newcomers

At the bottom of each post there is the word "comments". If you click on it you will see comments made by followers, and if you follow the instructions you may also comment and I always welcome that. I have found many people overlook this part of the blog which is often more interesting than the original post!

My blog nick-name is SIR HUGH. I'm not from the aristocracy - my middle name is Hugh which relates to the list of 282 hills in Scotland compiled by Sir Hugh Munro in 1891. I climbed my last one (Sgurr Mor) on 28th June 2009

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Thursday 28 April 2022

Blease Fell - Tebay

 Wednesday 27th April 2022 - Blease Fell from Tebay

It is 8:15 a.m. I have just arrived in Tebay wearing shorts motivated by a balmy, warm spring day yesterday signalling time for me to put long trousers into hibernation  but  I have been sandbagged. My car gadgetry tells me it is only 2 degrees outside. There is no hurry and I remain cocooned in the comfy warm car and steal a cup of coffee from my flask at the risk of depriving myself later.

I am here to break new ground on a venture into the northern edge of the Howgills and see what I can see. The Old School is opposite my car and I wonder about its history because of a blocked up arch in the gable end.

Back home I have just Googled hoping for some academic treatise on that architecture. I find that this is now a guest house and it has more first page entries from every accommodation website anybody has ever heard  of, and after five pages I gave up - no mention of its potentially interesting erstwhile life.

Off I plod up a tarmac lane climbing steadily. At  the farm of Tebaygill there is a significant example of corrugated iron architecture in the shape of a barn with a curved roof. Skilful use of that material can produce characterful buildings - this one is only hinting at that possibility, but enough to catch my attention. They are obviously much prone to rust which I guess is a problem for their owners, but something I find attractive with that vibrant colouration.

The tarmac gives way to a rough rocky old lane and the surrounding terrain is that of tussocky pale green and fading yellow grass. No heather on this upland, and as I branch off on a quad bike track to follow the high ground walking is easy. The gradient is steady allowing for non-stop ascent so that when I eventually stop to look behind the view is surprisingly dramatic. I am looking down the long undulating slope back to Tebay, and off to my left I can see the M6 threading through the Lune gorge. The cars are like ants and I wonder if their journeys are more purposeful than those of the industrious insects.

Further on I get a  new elevated view looking up the whole length of Borrowdale (not the Lake District one) and I can even see through to the  old A6 Shap road. Borrowdale is one of my favourite locations. I discovered it years ago by chance rather than recommendation from elsewhere. One's own discovery from exploration is  part of the raison d'être for for this business of walking and absorbing the landscape.

My furthest south finds a jolly little cairn of white stones on Blease Fell, located to obtain the best view of the Lune gorge with it eponymous river, the railway and the M6 all fighting for space. Further to the left I am looking into the heart of the Howgills with Carlin Gill prominent and the deep cleft of Black Force. That was the scene of an exciting day with Bowland climber in September 2019 CLICK HERE 

I spend a while looking at the contrast of timeless hill country against modern intervention thrusting and intruding. I move to slightly higher ground following my GPS eventually having its cursor  over the Ordnance Survey spot height on the map ( 474m.)

Quad bike track has to be vacated for a cross country trek over mildly tussocky terrain to soon join another track leading to Hare Shaw (472m.) Once one has gained height in the Howgills many subsequent summits can be visited by gentle ascents.

From Hare Shaw it is downhill all the way back to Tebay, but I stop halfway for a sandwich, coffee and nibbles. Up until then my hands have been cold even with a pair of modest gloves but at last the sun has made some impression, so much so that I find I have extended my lunch stop by nodding off for a while. There has been nobody about all the way - all is peace, and the only sound comes from the odd skylark.

Well that's some more new and worthwhile ground explored and my early start has left  time to make a long promised visit further north to my friend Gimmer, who comments here, we have known each other from schooldays, I shy at saying exactly how many years ago!


The Old School (guesthouse now) with the record number of accommodation first page entries in Google I have ever come across, I gave up after five pages.



Corrugated iron splendour.
 Blogger is havng one of its tantrums and will not let me dispense with the underlining despite using "clear formatting" which when I tried deleted the photo as well. I have better things to do than spend the rest of the day trying to sort it.

Ty[ical of much of hill country scenery. Perhaps the advent of quad bikes has reduced the need for storage facilities and the like in the more remote parts of these sheep rearing hill farms

Extensive tree planting in Tebay Gill

The quad bike track now left for a less well defined version

Walking was on an easy gradient and I was feeling fit and it was longer than usual before I stopped to look back at my outward route surprising me by its extent


Borrowdale. The light was dingy. This could be a better photo on a day of more amenable weather

This unsightly stuff carried on over a few hundred yards. If it had been effective for the quad bikes I suppose it might have some justification but it was apparent that such was not the case.


This and next - the  Lune Gorge and the M6, Blease Fell cairn in the foreground, and next but one looking to the left...


...into the heart of the Howgills - Csrlin Gill and Black Force. This one for BC

On the way back. That must be the Solway in the distance



18 comments:

  1. Well done Conrad that's a good plod. The school was built in 1863 and closed in 1960 then converted to a Band B.

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  2. Alan R - Thanks for your comment. I am having problems with Blogger not allowing me to use my blog name (Sir Hugh) and when I try to comment on other Blogger blogs I am being described as "anonymous". I think I have now got it to use my real name but will not be sure until I have posted this reply to see what happens.

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    1. I need no reminder of the Spout.

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  3. Your comment section seems to have changed and become more complicated.

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  4. Borrowdale is lovely, it forms part of a Dent to Windermere backpack I have done a couple of times with friends.

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  5. Andy- This is Sir Hugh (ConradR.) but Blogger won\t let me use that name which I have done for all the years of this blog. Anyway, welcome to my blog if you haven't been here before. New commenters are most welcome. I like the sound of your back packing trip - must be perfect walking all the way.

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  6. After Googling the problem I have enabled all cookies and I am back up with my blog name. I'm not sure if it is advisable to have all cookies enabled. Any thoughts on that would be welcome.

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  7. See if it works for me.

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  8. That last comment was from me,afootinthehills, so something odd is going on.

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  9. From afootinthehills. The ‘Google Account’ option is not selectable on my blog either Conrad. Google havre obviously messed things up.

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  10. I am not sure about cookies. My gut feeling is the less you allow intrusion the better but I just enabled all cookies which seemed to let me comment again as Sir Hugh instead of anonymous. I wonder if you have cookies enabled or not?

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  11. I allowed cross-site tracking on Safari so this comment will hopefully appear as me!

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  12. Well done. All this computer jargon is incomprehensible.

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  13. Nice one, Conrad, but a shame that Blogger is messing you up. Perhaps I'm lucky not to have done much blogging recently. This text is larger than usual - I wonder whether it will post like that?
    M

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  14. Phreerunner - Well it looks as though everybody is commenting again with their appropriate names so all is sorted (for the moment.) I notice also that the type is larger wen typing the comment and there is some alteration to the layout but if it works...

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