Trailblazer Guide Books

Worth watching out for.
 - John Cleare

Stage 7: Kirkby Stephen to Keld    Maps 43-50

Introduction
This 14½-mile (24km, 5-6hrs via the high routes) stage is something of a red-letter day. Not only do you cross the Pennines – the so-called backbone of the British Isles on whose flanks the Industrial Revolution gathered pace 200 years ago – but in doing so you cross the watershed on the Coast to Coast. From the summit at Nine Standards Rigg all rivers, including the infant headwaters of the Swale which you’ll track for the next few days, flow eastwards to drain into the North Sea.
    You also pass from the county of Cumbria into Yorkshire, your home for the rest of the trek and finally, by the end of this stage by our reckoning you’re at the halfway point, having completed around 100 miles out of our estimated 200 (161km out of 322km). 

Yet in spite of these significant landmarks, the one thing that most walkers remember about the transit of the Pennines is the peat bogs they have to negotiate along the way. The maps point out the boggiest sections and no matter what the weather or which of the three colour-coded routes (see pp158-9) you take, it’s a good point to don gaiters, if you have them. If you do succumb to the mires, cheer yourself up with the thought that at the end of this stage you’ll be spending the night in the gentle pastoral scenery of Swaledale, the most northerly of Yorkshire’s Dales and some say its loveliest.

The route
From Kirkby Stephen you cross the Eden river at Frank’s Bridge (Map 43) and continue up to Hartley village.
    From here follow the lane uphill past the working quarry – a strenuous start to the day. At the end lies a wide dirt track up Hartley Fell where, five miles from town, the path divides (Map 45, Wpt 083): the red and blue routes head east up the hill to the Nine Standards, while the green route parallels a stone wall for a while before striking off over a flat moorland path to the quiet, B6270 Kirkby Stephen–Keld road. The three routes are described in more detail below.

The three routes over the moors  Due to severe erosion of the peat by walkers, there are three colour-coded paths across the Pennines to Keld, the exact route you take depending on the time of year or weather conditions. These three routes are marked on Maps 45a, 46 and 47 (they’re missing on the current OS OL19 map). They initially diverge at a signpost for Nine Standards (Map 45, Wpt 083) at which point boggy sections set in whichever route you take. Although there are colour-coded signposts at key points, as well as laminated maps showing the three routes nailed to the odd post, you’ll see only a few aged colour-coded waymarkers on the blue route.
    Furthermore, it has to be said that the junction where the red and blue paths separate really has been ravaged by erosion from your predecessors’ footwear and will get worse year by year; you can’t even get near the signpost without making a mess of yourself.
    If ever there was a part of the Coast to Coast path that urgently needed lining with stone slabs or duckboards, it’s here at the southern end of Nine Standards Rigg which looks like a scene from the Somme, circa 1916.
    The blue and red high routes are about the same length (4 miles from Nine Standards to the point where all three paths converge just west of Ravenseat). The low-level green route is nearly a mile longer (adding up to 151/2 miles for this stage), but with a couple of miles of road walking it takes about the same time.
    The advice seems to be: if you can’t see the Nine Standards by the Mile 5 junction (Wpt 083) due to low cloud or mist, you’ll see even less when you’re up there and may even get lost, so take the green route.
    It is possible to have your cake and eat it up here. Should you arrive at the Nine Standards and have the weather turn on you, follow a path south for three-quarters of a mile and then head west from the cairns, passing to the west of Rollinson Haggs to pick up Rollinson Gill and so the green route before it reaches the head of Rigg Beck (Wpt 084). From there you can follow the road all the way to Keld if you wish.

● Blue route (Aug-Nov; Maps 45-49; 3hrs 20mins from where the green route separates)  Weather permitting, this is the route to choose to get the full Pennine experience. Up to Nine Standards (Wpt 092), just 30 minutes from the junction with the green route it matches the red route. Heading south past the trig point (662m) and the low ruins to the end of the ridge, at the key junction marked by the mire-bound signpost (Wpt 095) this route then takes an eastern course down to Whitsundale Beck.
    Irregular and ageing posts daubed with forensic traces of light blue paint guide you east down to the Beck, but if you can’t rely on seeing them, a compass bearing of 100° or so will do the same job. Once down in the Beck you follow its winding course south to a reunion with the other two paths, and just 15 minutes from a tea and scone at Ravenseat Farm (see p160).
● Red route (May-July; Maps 45-49; 3hrs 35mins from where the green route separates)  In clear conditions this route is straightforward enough. From the boot-ravaged divergence with the blue route (Wpt 095; Map 47) things can get a little boggier still and there are no waymarkers as the route rolls south over the barely noticeable crest of White Mossy Hill.
    From here you should be able to make out a large pile of stones (resembling a ruin) to the south; once there you hope to be able to see a tall stone pillar (Wpt 106) to the south-south-east. At this point you drop south-east over a small bridge and then south down towards the green route where you turn east onto a track and, free of the worst mires, continue on to the farm at Ravenseat.
    Note that on both these higher routes it’s well worth taking your time to avoid the worst bogs by all means possible: backtracking, taking a running jump, using a pole, using your partner as a plank; whatever works for you. One Trailblazer updater got a bit blasé here and sank down over his knees. Perhaps those tales of calf-swallowing Pennine bogs were not so exaggerated after all.
● Green route (Dec-Apr; Maps 45, 45a, 48-49; 3hrs 25mins from where the route separates from the red and blue routes)  This is the simplest route and in inclement weather the best one to take, regardless of the season. Note that we found the more used path from the junction post at Wpt 083 no longer squelches pointlessly halfway up to Rollinson Haggs only to drop down again (as shown on OS maps).
        The more practical route contours above the intake wall to the moderately impressive head of Rigg Beck which meanders away down its valley (a view, incidentally, evoking the more dramatic vista at High Cup Nick on the Pennine Way).
        After Rigg Beck there follows a section of weathered limestone pavement before you join the B6270. Note too that later on, the point where the green route officially leaves the B6270 (Map 48, Wpt 087) at a right-hand bend seems to be another pointless hiding to nothing, this time up a gully on all fours. Instead, continue along the road for another minute or so (Map 48) and turn north up the farm track. The ‘official’ path soon joins it. Shortly you’ll pass the bootworn scar of the red route coming down from the pillar to join your track (Wpt 109), and soon the track ends by a grouse hut.
        From here you follow, and occasionally cross, Ney Gill as it wends its way towards the blue route junction at Whitsundale Beck just out of Ravenseat (Wpt 102). All in all, keeping below 1700ft (530m) on a rainy day the green route need not be regarded as a ‘consolation prize’. Although it’s a shame to miss out the mysterious cairns, it’s a fine moorland walk in its own right, getting lost with no landmarks is not too great a risk and the road stage along Birkdale is a fine way to appreciate the peaty wastelands without necessarily sinking into them.

Whichever way you’ve come over the moors, many readers have confirmed that by the time they get to Ravenseat Farm (Map 49; ☎ 01748 886387; : www.ravenseat.com) they’re unable to resist a sit down, a tea and a scone which Amanda offers here when she’s around. She now offers camping for £3.50pp and for £30pp you can stay in the delightful Shepherd’s Hut, a little two-bedded wagon by the river complete with woodburner and the promise of breakfast delivered to your door in the morning. Evening meals and packed lunches are also available by prior arrangement. There’s a separate shower and toilet.
    From Ravenseat the path tracks south alongside the engorged chasm of Whitsundale Beck, punctuated with some impressive waterfalls and the finely restored but otherwise unused stone barns or ‘laithes’ which are a feature of Swaledale. Passing the farmhouse of Smithy Holme (Map 50), you can join the B6270 immediately by crossing the bridge, or take the path above the riverside cliff of Cotterby Scar. (For once we recommend the road, as it allows you to visit Wainwath Force.) These two paths reunite by the bridge just by Park House and Keld Bunkhouse (see p165) from where it’s a gentle half-mile stroll to what passes for Keld village centre. The tough first half of the Coast to Coast is now behind you; let’s just hope your feet are keeping up with the pace.