out and about - 2017
07 March 2017 ............ Shap Fells
I tried to visit the Oddendale Stone Circle in the Shap Fells, but failed - a 3.5 miles to the inch road atlas isn`t really the best type of map to use when looking for an obscure site like this.
However I did find these four cairns - I have no idea if they have any historical significance, or if someone was just playing themselves, but they are quite neat.
Interesting to note that one of them is built on stones that are of a completely different type of rock from the rest of the cairns.
Just across from the hill top I was on there is a strange sort of raised plateau - roughly 20 metres wide and maybe about 100 metres long, with escarpments along each side. This is one side of it -
There was a much longer and higher escarpment up to the north along the side of another hill, but I couldn`t get to anywhere to get a good view of it.
It was very cloudy and grey, but the cloudbase was above 3000 feet, so I did get a bit of a view across to some of the mountains down the east side of the Lake District - I am not really familiar with the mountains in the Lake District, so I am not sure, but I think that this picture is of High Street and Kidsty Pike
As I said, I have little experience of the Lake District, but many years ago I climbed Helvellyn from the west, but I didn`t go across to Striding Edge. I shouldn`t have been climbing a mountain at all, I should have been travelling back from a training course, but I sneaked it in.
It was in February, with quite a lot of icey snow on it - I should have had crampons and an ice axe but didn`t, so it wasn`t easy getting up.
However once up on the flatter top it was beautiful crisp walking, and I did notice a superb snow filled gully which looked as if it would provide some good winter climbing - I can`t remember exactly, but I think it would have been on the north side of Helvellyn, but Google lists some gullies on the east side, so I am not sure which it was.
A bit further to the north, and I think that this is Great Dodd - it looks to be quite a meaty day out as well.
website design by ron-t
website hosting by freevirtualservers.com
© 2024 Ron Turner
