Little Town octet, a Newlands double horseshoe
Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2017 3:25 pm
There's more than one excellent horseshoe route available from Newlands. The most well known is the circuit of the valley from Catbells to Hindscarth and Scope End. Another is the Keskadale round traversing Newlands Hause, from Robinson to Ard Crags, a walk I did with pamfox last year. Usually I've done these rounds clockwise, to take Scope End downhill for the views, and to take High Snab Bank (Robinson) uphill. The double horseshoe I'd planned omitted these two sections, so I went anti-clockwise for variety. On a pleasant sunny day, this proved to be a perfectly doable walk.
I parked at Little Town, and made the short road walk to Rigg Beck, and took the path towards Ard Crags.
It was a nice climb over Aikin Knott and onto Ard Crags to get the circuit started.
Moving along to Knott Rigg, it was still quite early, and these hills were very quiet. Coming down towards Newlands Hause, I first began to encounter people.
As might be expected, a sunny Saturday was making Lakeland very popular. There's still no need for a pedestrian crossing at Newlands Hause, though, and soon I was ascending near Moss Beck.
I made the detour to High Snockrigg. This is a flat-topped, grassy hill, but with good views.
Buttermere Moss was now directly between me and Robinson. A few other walkers were also having fun with this notorious marsh, but before long it was painlessly crossed. Then came the final pull up onto the Wainwright called Robinson.
The third Wainwright summit of the day was reached, with quite a number of other people around to chat to, before setting off for the journey to Hindscarth.
Wainwright number four was duly reached, and the main circuit of the Newlands Horseshoe joined, as I moved around towards Dale Head.
The day's high point was reached, and I had plenty of company. Conditions were ideal; clear with pleasant sunshine, but not too hot.
Next I set off towards Dalehead Tarn, down the path that's a bit of a slog when doing the horseshoe the other way round.
On reaching Dalehead Tarn it was apparent that the weather had really brought out the crowds. I made the turn left and uphill towards High Spy. At nine years old, this had been the first 2000 foot mountain I'd climbed.
It had also been a clear, sunny day on this summit back on that first visit with my dad. I could still remember some of the views from then.
High Spy's big cairn was left behind and a detour to another cairn, on Blea Crag, was made. This is always worth doing on this route when the view is there to be had.
A detour is also necessary from the main path to visit Maiden Moor, even though it is a Wainwright, and the views from the escarpment thus followed are good ones.
Moving on from Maiden Moor's flat top, I headed down towards Hause Gate.
It could be seen from a distance that the summit of Catbells was thronging with people. It is a lovely little hill, and you can't blame all those folk for wanting to be there on a day like this. There was still room for me to touch the highest point when I arrived to claim my eighth and final Wainwright of the day.
Then it was time for the last descent of the route.
Eventually I was back on the road in Newlands Valley, and it was clear that you don't always have to be on the tops for great scenery.
Back at the car park, I put the loose change in the honesty box; something I'd forgotten to do in the morning. It's a good job it wasn't a ticket machine.