Sat 23 Jun 2018
For an index to my other walks please click here
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| The Three Men of Gragareth in 2005 |
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| The Three Men in 2018 - wearing quite well |
I picked Andrew up at
eight for our first walk since Baugh Fell on 19 May. The weather forecast was
for grey sky, but we had a fair amount of sunshine and a warm enough day. I
recall doing this walk some years ago (Saturday 3 September 2005).
We parked
in Ireby, where there is space for perhaps three cars, and set off along a
stony lane where on my earlier visit I had gathered a boxful of blackberries. After reaching the tarred road we could look over to our left to see
Brownthwaite Pike on Casterton Fell, the site of our walk on 15 March last
year.
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| Casterton Fell from the Gragareth Road |
When reached Lost John's Cave and went to look at it.
After several weeks of dry weather there was no water running into it, and the
few cavers we talked with back on the road said it made exploring the
underground passages much pleasanter and safer.
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| Lost John's Cave |
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| Dry on top, dry below |
There was a rather cool breeze on Gragareth, and I was disappointed to
see that the Three Men appeared to be much reduced in stature compared to AW's
drawings of them, but not too different from my earlier photos.
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| There are several 'men' - stone and otherwise - on the fell |
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| The seat is still there, but with a different occupier |
It was quite a plod over the rather featureless grassy summit, and Andrew forgot to perform his
ceremony when we reached the trig column. It was very comfortable behind the wall out of the
chilly wind and we sat to eat our lunch. We both felt like remaining there
for longer, with a great view over Kingsdale with Whernside to our left and far
over to Ingleborough to our right, but I didn't photograph them. Why?
After our snack we set off down to where there are now two
stiles: I am sure these were not there when I first did the walk and it
had been necessary to climb over the wall. These stiles allow walkers to descend by the old
County Boundary Wall.
I think AW made one of his rare mistakes by showing a stile in the
boundary wall between the second and third walls across our path: it is between
the third and fourth. It took us on to a path leading to The Cavern, a small
opening in a large shakehole.
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| The Cavern (2005) |
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| Same view 2018 |
I didn't venture down to get a closer look but Andrew did. The picture in the
guide book in no way resembles the actual place. I found later that I had
been down and taken photos in 2005, but had no recollection of doing so! My memory is getting really bad... Most of today's photos turned out to be rubbish so I am using some from the first visit.
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| Way in! We found it easy to resist exploring... |
After this there was a long and rather tedious trek downhill over tussocky moorland to Ireby
Beck. This flows in a deep hollow, which I remember photographing on my last
visit. In my memory it was a scene with a few cows under the trees, like one sees on many Victorian paintings. Today there were no animals. At home I found the photos: the cows had been sheep!
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| Sheep - not cows! |
Eventually we crossed the dried stream bed and after
passing by the rather imposing and well-maintained mansion of Over Hall, now
almost hidden by trees, reached Ireby and my waiting camper.
