Foaling Around on Walla & Blaeberry

I’ve recently re-discovered Walla Crag as an after-work walk (I hadn’t been up it for years) after I went up Cat Gill which was a completely new route for me.  Of particular interest to me though were two craggy-ended hills I could see from Keswick which I suspected were a trespass but wanted to bag!  This round has become a favourite of mine – not totally because of the mountains as you’ll see towards the end of the post…

The distant ridge of Dodd Crags

All photos:
my Olympus Trip35 film camera (which is having a focusing problem I think) and my digi point-and-shoot

On my first visit via Cat Gill, I found the route to Walla Crag was pretty short, very steep, beautiful and very enjoyable.  Strange that I never went up that way before but I’d previously only done Walla Crag a couple of times…

Cat Gill is a pretty engineered route due to erosion and its steepness on the upper half is stone pitched and some of it fenced (heath & safety at work).

Where the path leaves the gill you get nice views across the declivity…

an atmospheric shot of Raven Crag above Derwentwater

Three digi shots showing the gill head…

From here the rate of climb slackens as you head towards Walla Crag…

On my first visit I just did Walla Crag as it was early in the year and I didn’t think I had time to do Blaeberry as well.  The path along the edge of the crag for the return to Keswick is both scenic and moderately exciting as it is very near the edge and there are many gullies which you edge around the top of.  If you don’t like excitement though, there are plenty of paths further away to reach Keswick… Here are some photos from the more exciting path…

View from the summit along the edge where the exciting path goes

the digi-camera made a nice job of this shot – lovely light

around a gully top

Derwentwater

From the back of Walla Crag, a path leads back across the moorland to Blaeberry Fell.  I remembered this path as a wet and grassy one but it’s been improved a lot so you can now keep your feet dry on the next couple of miles…

There is a cute pointed peak to the right of Blaeberry Fell which I just had to go up.  I suspected there was a path but, by the time I was half-way along I hadn’t found it so just bashed up steep rocks and heather on the side.  Of course, when I reached its little summit, a beautiful path headed away along the ridge – at least that was a nice route back to my Blaeberry path.

The final ascent of Blaeberry fell used to be eroded, steep scree but has also been improved by stone-pitching…

I puffed my way up to the summit…

From here there is no real path or route to my next objective – the ridge of Dodd Crags which has a spectacular end!  I made my way following bits of very wet path by the fenceline until I reached the start of the ridge.  There is a wall across the start but it is broken down so easily crossed at the low bits…

It was a nice, dry and grassy walk along the ridge which narrowed on the way to the end.  There was a herd of deer on a parallel ridge stalking me on my latest visit…

Deer on the ridge – I found very many more below the crags

I neared the craggy ridge end, went for a look and then searched for a route down.  There were plenty of alternatives – I first used a grassy rake between crags straight down the side – this was steep but safe.  Later studying of the ridge-end showed a more interesting rake halfway down which I now use…

On reaching the foot I took quite a lot of photos looking back at the splendid crags (unfortunately, my Olympus camera seems to be having trouble with the focus settings so all the photos from it are very unsharp).

plenty of grassy rakes for descent

looking back along the long ridge

Delighted to have achieved a visit to this craggy ridge at last, I had a quick sit in the sun admiring the view and then continued on a path by a wall towards my other craggy-ended objective, Pikes… There is a very wet gateway en-route at which point the walkers’ path turns to a vehicle track…

After a final look back and photo (which unfortunately finished my film), I headed away from the vehicle track to stay on the top of the ridgeline for Pikes.  There are a couple more walls to cross – one easy, the other fenced and not quite as easy…

Soon, I was romping across almost level grass to the steep and spectacular end of Pikes…

Pikes from the campsite below – the top is steep and craggy on the front

On my last couple of visits I found, to my delight, fell ponies with their foals from the farm below on Pikes.  The first visit was when I had run out of film which was a shame as the foals were very playful – prancing and rearing at their mothers.  The second visit, I’d taken my digi-camera to work for a revisit to see them…

Just on my way to see them, I collapsed a section of wall on myself – a huge boulder came crashing down towards me.  I couldn’t get away quickly due to being on loose stone and it hit me soundly on the shins – luckily only causing a graze and bruising.  It did completely fell me though!  I rebuilt the wall and continued to see my friends.  The mares had been very friendly on my last visit and had brought their foals to see me!  I sat on the grass and they again all came to visit 🙂

The above foal was very curious about me and my camera!

who are you and what are you pointing at me?

After letting a pregnant mare rest her head on my shoulder for quite a while, I continued on towards the end of Pikes where there is a lovely, rocky ridge which goes steeply down towards the wall… From the foot of this I followed the wall left to rejoin the vehicle track back to the farm.

The farmer is obviously a general horse enthusiast as well as a fell pony breeder and he also had this dapple grey cob which I really liked.  I must get to speak to him sometime as I couldn’t figure out whether this was a Welsh Cob or a Garron (Scottish).  The very dark, flared and large nostrils suggest Welsh to me.  Beautiful anyway…

Welsh Cob? Garron? let me know what you think

With so much of interest and so many friendly fell ponies, this is definitely a walk I want to do regularly!

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