Leave Kirkby Stephen by Frank’s Bridge and followed the path off to the right that eventually leads to the road at Hartley. Through Hartley and some woods to a footbridge up to the road. Follow the road which starts to ascend. At a quarry follow a No Through road and soon Nine Standards Rigg can be seen and does not look too far away or too high up. The road undulates a little past Fell House. At the end of the road take the Public Bridleway to Rollinson Haggs. A steady climb follows to reach a fork in the path where there are alternative seasonal routes. Becomes a pleasant grassy track that climbs up a gulley towards Nine Standards which soon come into view and once again don’t look too far away or too high up. Reach the Nine Standards and leave by heading for the nearby viewpoint. Magnificent views all around here – a hundred kilometres in all directions according to the viewpoint marker. A short distance past the trig point it becomes extremely muddy and eroded (think Kinder Scout). The path gets a bit better as the steeper descent into Whitsundale starts and eventually reaches Craygill Sike. The path follows the stream down through Whitsundale and is quite boggy in places. Eventually a few signs of civilisation appear and leave Whitsundale Beck on a stone track to reach the road at a cattle grid and farm. A bit of difficult navigation now but the view into Swaledale soon opens up and Smithy Holmeis reached. Continue along the top of Cotterby Scar to follow the road into Keld.
A good day - the climb up
to Nine Standards is not as hard as might be thought, but the erosion
at the top and the long descent can be tiring.
Accommodation
Stay in Reeth - I am staying at our cottage
For accommodation follow Sherpa Van link
Signed up for this day: David Brawn, Keith Case, Nigel Williams
Some notes on the day
Climb out of Kirkby Stephen up to Nine Standards Rigg was long but not too difficult really. Just before the top was an area of peat bog that was a little difficult. Decided to carry on despite the fact that some people were turning back because of the bogs beyond the trig point. Crossed a large number of groughs which were not actually as bad as we might have expected. Reached the other side towards Whitsundale and met a group of people at a large cairn on the way down and stopped ourselves at the next (smaller) cairn for lunch. We then followed the Geordies down the track which appeared to be going the right way but in fact led all the way down to the road in Birk Dale. We didn’t fancy climbing back up onto the moor so we took the road all the way into Keld. Birk Dale was interesting to look at but it was quite a long hard road walk. In Keld sat in the garden of the teashop and got bitten to pieces by mosquitoes. Eventually Stuart came to pick us up and take us back to Reeth.
Accomodation
and baggage transport |
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