Nine Standards Rigg, Hartley Fell From Kirkby Stephen we crossed the River Eden at Frank’s Bridge and headed for the wood south of Ladthwaite Beck and Ewbank Scar, its cliff visible through the open canopy of early April. Fallen trees lay across the muddy path, diverted where the bank had eroded. A wood of adventure and promise, with primroses and white flower buds of wood sorrel. On a mossy trunk of the woodland floor there was dog lichen fringed with filaments of white. Bluebells and ramsons were in leaf and will be spectacular.
Low cloud and mist as we climbed toward Nine Standards Rigg through a chorus of larksong with curlew and lapwing. Eroded ground with lichens, mosses and crowberry. Too much mist for vistas from toposcope or trig point but as we returned to the stone cairns of Nine Standards a curlew sang and the sun broke through the mist to give an evocative light.
All the while I listened for golden plover. But the Coast to Coast route from Kirkby Stephen to Keld takes in Nine Standards and there's a map and a notice urging walkers to help protect habitat and ground nesting birds.
All the while I listened for golden plover. But the Coast to Coast route from Kirkby Stephen to Keld takes in Nine Standards and there's a map and a notice urging walkers to help protect habitat and ground nesting birds.
Our planned route was ‘ a good ten miles’, and longer. Now came the real navigational challenge as we headed off-piste to the north west of Nine Standards. Thank heaven for friends who are orienteers and hill walkers with years of experience. And for sunlight which improved visibility, needful across rough moorland of low features. We came down by Bastifell Bog where a flock of over a dozen golden plover took wing and alighted, golden-green plumage in tussocks of winter grasses, mosses and peat bog. Once more they took to the air below heather and outcropping rock. The magic of it! The solitude of this desolate moorland is perfect for ground nesting birds- Standards Haggs, Standards Mire, Sheepfold, Swallow Hole, Bastifell Bog, Quarry (Dis). We stopped at a disused quarry for refreshment, to ponder on golden plover and to plot our course across blanket bog and a sweep of moorland. Greyrigg Pits Area of disused shafts, High Greenside, Low Greenside, Shafts (dis) Area of disused Shafts, High Greyrigg, Middle Greyrigg, Quarry (dis) , Area of disused shafts and so to Fell Lane ( track) and terra firma and the song of curlew. A thrilling day and a sense of achievement. The essence lies in the experience. I still see that flock of golden plover rising from the heather- too fleeting for photographs.
This moorland solitude contrasts with how it would have been when quarries and mines were active. There are no tracks to the sites of disused quarries, they are lost to the bog.
This moorland solitude contrasts with how it would have been when quarries and mines were active. There are no tracks to the sites of disused quarries, they are lost to the bog.
Today blanket bog, two days later Foulshaw Moss and lowland raised mire- different types of peat bog.
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