High Spy and Cat Bells

The Lakes 2003, part 7
Sunday 20th July 2003

I was a little annoyed following my walk on this day. The weather forecast appeared to be for showers in the morning and heavy rain and thunder in the afternoon, so since the top of a hill is not the sort of place you want to be in the middle of a thunder storm I decided that I ought to get to Keswick as quickly as possible. I don’t know if I’d misinterpreted the weather forecast or if it was just plain wrong, but the weather was not like this, there was no thunder at all and in fact the weather cleared up in the afternoon leaving me stuck in Keswick when the weather was at its best. My plan for the day had involved climbing Dale Head, which I’d missed out on the year before when poor weather brought me down off the fells before I reached Dale Head, so instead I climbed beside Tongue Gill, past the disused Rigghead Quarries and up onto the fells. I remember that I started by walking alongside the River Derwent until I reached the mouth of Tongue Gill where I turned left to follow the stream up.

It is a shame that I didn’t use Wainwright’s recommended route from Rosthwaite that goes via the youth hostel through Johnny Wood and past Scaleclose Force. The route I took would have made sense from the village of Rosthwaite and the reason Wainwright didn’t recommend it is revealed in the original version of the guides where it is mentioned that new fences and fallen bridges had closed the direct path. This is no longer the case and Chris Jesty’s revised edition now mentions the direct route over New Bridge and up this path that I took in 2003 beside Tongue Gill. The upshot is that I have never taken the route through Johnny Wood or visited the waterfall of Scaleclose Force, which is a shame. Beyond the clear bridlepath between Seatoller and Grange a path is shown on maps and mentioned in the original editions of Wainwright’s as being a useful shortcut, but the revised edition doesn’t mention it so maybe it cannot now be found.

This is all the more reason for me to be keen on returning to this area to explore these unvisited paths. I think the only other occasion that I have been to this area was at the end of 2008 when it was very cold, but on that occasion I dodged large sheets of ice while coming down from Rigg Head before following the Quarry Road to Grange. On this occasion despite the poor weather I was able to explore the many ruined buildings of the Rigghead Quarries and even ventured a short distance into one of the levels, which proved a handy shelter from the rain, but it wouldn’t have been prudent to have ventured far. Once I reached Rigg Head I turned north and climbed up to the top of High Spy. On a couple of occasions I have climbed up to what Wainwright described as the Hinterland of Goat Crag, the wide upland area east of the summit of High Spy, but this is the only occasion when I actually reached the summit. It was raining quite heavily while I was at the top, but I had clear views despite the rain and the walk along the top of the ridge was very enjoyable.

The ridge narrows to the col and then broadens onto Maiden Moor, and I dutifully visited the summit before descending the elegant, broad ridge to Hause Gate. By the time I got to Cat Bells the sun had come out and stayed out for the rest of the afternoon affording me with tremendous views across Derwent Water and over Keswick to the great bulk of Skiddaw. By this time I was beginning to feel rather cheated by the weather forecast. Not only had I failed to walk up Dale Head two years running, but I now felt that I had been left to spend the afternoon wandering around the streets of Keswick. The route I took to get to Keswick was one I have used countless times since, through Fawe Park and the village of Portinscale, and this was the first time that I had the pleasure, but I wasn’t enjoying the experience. I spent some of the afternoon listening to the British Grand Prix on the radio, which had been an enjoyable experience the year before on the Hopegill Head ridge, but I had problems with reception while walking at the bottom of the valley towards Keswick. 

This was now the third day running on my holiday where the weather had started poor only for it to be sunny after lunchtime, but for the third day running I hadn’t taken advantage of this improvement in the weather. My poor planning was leaving me feeling both annoyed and disappointed. Interpreting the weather, including the forecast, is a skill when hill-walking and at this early stage in my experience I was still not very good at interpreting the signs properly. I was still wary of bad weather as I lacked the experience and confidence to know that I would be okay even if I was at the top of a mountain when the weather was bad. Unfortunately that would not change on this holiday.