Carlisle & District Rambling & Fellwalking Club

Walk & Event Reports

Sunday 31st July 2016

B Walk

Skelfhill Pen

8 Miles Grade 2

Leader: John McKay

Report & Photos By John McKay

Only three set off from the Sands on a lovely sunny morning. Heather, Mike and me drove up through Langholm and arrived at the starting point to find Ken and Stephen waiting for us. We set off along the forest road and after a mile it was time to turn into the trees. There was a path there at one time I assured the party , I think they had their doubts but I was right, it was very overgrown but we managed our way through and emerged on the other side on to open fells. It was then a long steady climb towards our objective, Skelfhill Pen, then a short, steep pull to the summit. The views were brilliant. Down the other side we went on to open fells again. The going was tough, there was no path and it was very “tufty” and muddy in parts. There was a path at one time when I first did this walk but being a seldom visited area it had grown over and was no longer visible.  We walked along this “tufty”, boggy terrain, I was just a few yards in front of Heather, I heard a cry and turned round to investigate, Heather had vanished, she was nowhere to be seen. She had fallen down a narrow ditch and was flat on her back, wedged tight in the ditch. Thankfully she was unhurt (Moira will be delighted) and was laughing at her predicament, she was well and truly stuck. I couldn’t resist a photo before we pulled her out. She emerged unscathed though rather wet in places. We carried on and the going became easier but we did have to cross an electric fence which I discovered was very definitely switched on, a shocking experience. We managed to get everyone across without any further mishap. It was turning out to be an eventful day as we had another problem to deal with, a very heavily pregnant sheep was stranded flat on its back, its legs in the air. It was extremely heavy but Ken and I managed to roll it over and get it back on its feet. It ran off without as much as a bah of thanks. It was then back into the forest and best of all a proper path, which took us all the way back to the cars. We then had a lovely surprise, Ken invited us all back to his house for tea and coffee, he did phone the boss first for permission. We arrived at Ken and Anne’s and found tea coffee and biscuits waiting for us, well done Anne. A lovely end to a lovely day. Many thanks to everyone who came along. Special thanks to Heather for falling down the ditch, it was so funny, once we realized she was ok and laughing, and special thanks to Ken and Anne for their hospitality.

John