Rosgill Swindale

Tuesday 19th August 2025

After plotting this route I used Google Earth to find suitable parking. To my surprise, at the furthest north point on my map below I found a huge car park. This is an isolated situation on the road which drops down into Swindale eventually terminating as a cul-de-sac at the end of the dale, although there is no parking beyond Swindale Foot where my wslking route eventually remerged. I arrived at the car park about 9:15 and as expected there was no one else there. As I was having a quick coffee another car arrived and parked unreasonably close to me considering the huge empty car park. After a few minutes another car arrived, and then a procession until the area was almost full. Obviously a walking group, perhaps one of the  few days in a year when that car park is so used. I tried to chat to a couple of these guys but they were not friendly. I decided to get off as quickly as possible hoping they would not be following the same route as me.

A wide track lead off the road climbing steadily with splendid views all the way, the advantage of starting at a relatively high altitude. For the first quarter of an hour I kept looking back anxiously to see if I was being followed by the herd, but I didn't hear or see them again until the end of my walk when I arrived back at the car park to find they had mot yet returned. 

After a mile or so I had to leave the friendly wide grassy track to take a narrow but well defined path leading down into Swindale. There were sections quite overgrown with bracken and one or two rocky bits on the descent, but all in all a useful linking route.There were good views of Gowther Crag on the far side of Swindale where there is good climbing, unfortunately I never c.imbed there.

Emerging at Swindale Foot theere is parking for a few cars and I chatted with a party of three who were just setting off. They soon disappeared ahead wlking faster than me.

A rough path lead off the road to gain the path I wanted to climb up to Tailbert Farm. I couldn't find that patth as marked on the map and spent ages thrashing through bracken. In retrospect it would have been better to walk further down Swindlale and take the good path I know of which emerges on the unfenced road just short of Tailbert farm.

From Taillbert a another good linking path took me down to the "Concrete Road" marked in orange on the 1:25 OS map. That plunged down an elaborate bridge over Swindale Beck, then a long climb back up to my starting point where thankfully the cars were still parked and I left without being involved further with them.

The concrete road is I think owned by  United Utilities as part of their infrastructure. Perhaps it is private. I had arrived from Shap nnd then Rosgill on narrow lanes. I decided to give the concrete road a go. The UU road is shorter and would take me all the way to join the public road to Wet Sleddale just short of where it joins the A6 and only a short stretch to get back to the M6, thus avoiding Shap and the narrow lanes. The concrete road alternates with concrete and tarmac and for the majority of its length is well surfaced, but care is needed to avoid a few quite serious potholes, but it is a welcome short-cut gift.

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Problems with  black underlining captions again Whatever I try Blogger insists on having them.

More arrived after I made myself scarce

This ideal walking track lead off only a hundred yards from the car park

Leaving the wide track for the narrow but well defined path eventually dropping down to Swindale Foot

Looking down into Swindale Foot. and...

...across to Gowther Crag

Swindale

A short section on the Swindale road before branching left on the rough path before the climb to Tailbert

Gowther Crag. Thr main climbing is on the lower prominent buttress. I am not sure if there is any on the higher crag.

The high ground ahead is the ascent to Tailbert where I floundered in the bracken

One of Alan's own

Perhaps a bit more rare?

Arriving back at my start. Those cars were double parked nose to tail

Start and finish at furthest north. My route overlay obscures the orange of the concrete road on the U shaped section of my route back to the car park. You can see it continuing right on its way yo Wet Sleddale. See map below.
The blue zig zags are my spproximate bracken floundering.
The blue extension at Tailbert was a navigation error  (there and back.)

You can just see where the concrete road emerges south of Shap on the A6, bottom right corner