Scar Side to Tarn Moor

Stage 17 of our c2c. It was raining so we were unsure about walking but eventually we set off for Orton. We parked and set off but within 1km we had stopped to take off the raincoats. We retraced our steps to Scar Side where the c2c joins. We followed the c2c along lanes and tracks for a while. We passed a stone circle and then started walking through meadows where we passed 2 c2c'ers having a teabreak. At Tarn Moor we were stopped by someone from Natural England who was doing a survey about the area and Open Access land.We walked to the road and then left the c2c and retraced our steps for a km. We followed the bridlepath up over the limestone scars. It was lovely surroundings. We passed on to the nature reserve at Great Ashby Scar. This was a lovely path through limestone pavements. We then followed the bridlepath back to ScarSide, although they must have very agile horses here to get through the sqeezer stiles. We got back at about 5.30pm (18.7km) and went to The George Inn at Orton for dinner - cumberland sausage. There were 2 tents and a pop-up caravan in the field. The campervan had gone.

Long Mire to Scar Side

5th July 2007

We drove to Orton for our next c2c stage. We followed a very wet path out of the village and across fields where we saw some young foals. We eventually reached the Roman road going across the moor and followed it to Long Mire where we joined the c2c. The sky was really threatening all round but we managed to stay dry all day. We followed a permissive path across Crosby Ravensworth Moor but missed seeing Robin hoods grave as mentioned on the map. It was quite a good walk. We left the c2c at Scar Side and walked along very wet paths back to Orton. We had a tea and cheese scone at the Tea rooms. The walk was only 13km but I was much more tired than I should have been.

Shap to Long Mire

4th July 2007

Stage 15 of our c2c. We left Shap and followed the c2c across the M6. The terrain has changed into limestone country and we walked across our first bit of limestone pavement although we did see lots of erratic boulders 0f Shap granite which had been left after the glaciers retreated. We walked around the quarry and then left the c2c at Long Mire and followed the footpath to Crosby Ravensworth. Unfortunately the pub in CR was closed so we sat in a bus shelter to eat our lunch. We followed other paths back to Shap passing stone circles on the way. The walk was 18.3km. When we got back there was another caravan and a tent in our field, cheek!

Burn banks to Shap

2nd July 2007

After a day attempting to dry our boots -a newspaper was purchased specially we decided to walk in our spare boots!

We then set off on stage 14 of our c2c. It looked a bit dull but we walked through Shap stopping to talk to a local who said we were doing the walk the best way and that he had never known so many people giving up as this year. We followed the quite clear footpaths through to Keld, looking at the Gollgleby stone and a pretty chapel on the way.

We then walked on to Tailbert where we had to ask the farmer the way through the farm. We got to a bank and the path had disappeared in bracken but John managed to get us down the path using his GPS. The rest of the path through Swindale was easy to follow. We sat on a limestone outcrop and ate some lunch and enjoyed the sun.


We packed away the waterproofs before we set off for Naddle farm where we went on Saturday and finally joined the c2c again. The path was fairly easy to follow and was quite pretty along the river. The geology has changed and is now becoming limestone country and is very similar to the white peaks. When we were approaching Rosgill, I managed to fall over in a very muddy/manury/boggy patch! I got muck all up my new fleece and my trousers. A little while later I nearly fell off a stone stile. We made it back to Shap after stopping at Shap Abbey with no further mishaps. Another 18 km walk.

Coast to Coast, Shap

29th June 2007

We set off to Cumbria for a bit of a holiday. We are staying in Shap as we are doing some of our Coast-to-Coast in circles! We stayed at Green Farm, a Caravan club certified location. It is a nice field looking over the hills and a small compound with a cow and 2 small calves and sheep. Very peaceful even though it is close to the A6.


30th June 2007

The next stage of our coast to coast walk starts from Haweswater. We had done a stage leading to Haweswater in November and were ready to get c2c'ing again.
It was raining a bit but we decided to walk anyway. We parked at Mardale head at the bottom of Haweswater and set off in the misty rain. We walked along the shore of Haweswater until we reached the path that went over the crag. We followed that until we rejoined the part of Wainwrights c2c that we reached in November. It was very pleasant walking and surprisingly high above the waters edge. We saw lots of birds including yellowhammers and chaffinches and a large bird of prey which may have been a golden eagle but was possibly a buzzard! Lots of wild flowers too. We only saw 1 other walker all day and he was an English American who was walking the c2c from RHB to St Bees. We got to Burnbanks a strange modern village which was not in character with the area. We left Burn banks through woodland and left the c2c behind. We followed the track to Naddle farm and then followed a track for a bit longer. It said it was North West water and there was no access but we assumed that was for cars as the path was marked on the map. We started to lose the path and we were walking along very boggy, sphagnumsheep trails. Johns gps helped but the path that should have been there was non-existant. We were both very wet by now. We found our way but it was blocked by a wall, fence and gill so we had to follow the wall upstream until we found somewhere where the wall had collapsed. The gill was also a bit narrower there. We then eventually found the path again and crossed another gill. Eventually the path became clearer and we followed it back to the road. When we got back to the car we emptied the water out of our boots and wrung our socks out. The walk was about 18km and quite fun really.

Bottesford, Nottinghamshire

16th June 2007

We've had a busy few weeks with trips to Kent for dad's birthday dinner (75 years) and then back again as John's mum was in hospital.

Dad came up for a visit and we had a trip to Long Eaton for a walk along the canal -we were quite lucky with the weather but on the way home it started pelting with rain. We sat in the car for a while before we could run in doors. We later discovered that our 40ft pear tree had blown over in the wind, luckily not damaging anything except a row of broad beans.

On Saturday the weather was dreadful so we went to Bottesford in Nottinghamshire so dad could take some photos. We read about the Belvoir Angels which are gravestones which were carved by the same stonemason on Swithland slate. The gravestones are local to this area of Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire. Quite interesting and we will certainly look out for them in our rambles.