Tuesday 27th May 2025
So after a jaunt over to Windermere and Grasmere on Sunday afternoon and a stroll around Kendal on Bank Holiday Monday, Mark dropped me back to Kirkby Stephen late afternoon.
I had decided to abandon the idea of camping over the next few days, sending all my camping gear back to Chorley with Mark. My plan now was to make use of hostels and b&bs as it would only be four nights. This meant that I would be able to cover more miles in a shorter time and have a comfortable night’s sleep, without having to worry about weather and pitching and packing up each day. It made perfect sense.
So I spent Bank Holiday Monday night in Kirkby Stephen hostel. Wow, that was an amazing place! I had booked a bed in the ladies’ dorm, but I was the only one booked in for the night, so I had a six bed dorm with an en suite all to myself! What a result!
I had a great night’s sleep and was up early, had my porridge, blueberries, raspberries and a banana, washed down with a couple of cups of tea. Having the luxury of a kitchen, I made myself a flask of hot chocolate for the day’s hike. A quick nip into Tesco Express and I picked up a meal deal for the day, chocolate, more fruit and a smoothie. Nicely stocked up for the day. My plan was to head to Keld, but because I was on the trail by 7.45am I managed to go a lot further. Read on to find out where.
So my first destination for the day was out of Kirkby Stephen and up to Nine Standards. A four mile climb and something I have been looking forward to. Nine Standards Rigg is the summit of Hartley Fell in the Pennines. It lies near the boundary between Cumbria and North Yorkshire. No one knows who built them or why they are there. Quite fascinating really. They certainly look awesome from a distance.
There they are in the distance. The paths that have been laid have made a huge difference to this walk. It can be quite boggy, however, this has made it far more pleasant.
This isn’t one of them, it’s just something on the way up.
And here I am at The Nine Standards, a fabulous walk up, especially since I wasn’t carrying a 12kg pack. I had dressed up quite warm, but had to stop and switch out leggings for shorts but needed my warm jacket on when I got here as it was quite windy. This place lived up to my expectations. The mystery adds to the experience, what are they for?
Look at that view!
There is a lot of work going on here, laying out paths. This area is so boggy that there are signs in place highlighting three routes, red blue and green. It is recommended that different routes are used for different routes. However, this new path that is being laid negates the need for that and there will only be one route going forwards, the red one. It is the middle path shown on the map image above. This must have cost a fortune, the slabs are brought up by helicopter. Each pile of slabs waiting to be laid has a marking on it stating the weight and how many metres of pathway it provides. Pretty clever. I will be coming back to do this walk again at some point, it will be good to see it finished.
A plover, very noisy!
The rain started to come down just after here. Light to start with, but it gradually got heavier. Nothing that my waterproofs couldn’t contend with though. This random hideout appeared out of nowhere, I stopped and had a look but didn’t hang about, I just wanted to get on. The land here is very close to Ravenseat, which is of particular interest to fans of The Yorkshire Farm TV series, as this is it. It is something I have only caught glimpses of, but it was still interesting.
Even though it was raining, persistently, I was still enjoying this section.
This walk just keeps on giving, I can’t begin to explain how exhilarating it is. At times it is lonely, but the solitude has a special quality all of its own. The solitude is something I wanted from the walk, definitely, but there were times when it would have been comforting to have seen someone to say a brief hello to. Don’t worry, I did later, in abundance!
It is a time for reflection, being at one with nature (cheese alert!), realising that none of this just happened, it could not have, it’s too perfect and too complex – there was a designer behind it, and what an awesome designer that was! I must have a word with him though about some of the jumping across streams I had to do a little further on from here!
It also occurred to me that so many of us get worked up about the amount of immigrants to the UK, the drain on the economy, the infrastructure, etc., and yet, we have all this space. We can build new towns, not just to house immigrants because they would become ghettos, but new towns for everyone are clearly needed. So much more land could be given over to agriculture, extra crops to feed everyone. This in itself would provide jobs, it is too easy to assume that new folk coming to our lands want to be idle and live off the state. We are caretakers of all this, we do not own it, and maybe as a nation we could try to be more compassionate. I don’t know, just my musings and not intended to cause offence to anyone.
The next group of photos are back to front, but they are mainly of the same thing so I am not fiddling about to swap them around. This is going into Ravenseat country, home of The Yorkshire Farm. There was a sign at the gate to say they were not serving cream teas as they were busy with lambing. I did see some people later in the day who said they had knocked on the door, completely ignoring the sign. Baaaad form! The lady of the house told them they were not serving today. That may have been quite annoying I am guessing.
Wow, lots of pictures, lots to write about and this is just one day, but it was an epic day. Lots of miles! Lots of steps!
So the paths went on, lots of those “holiday cottages in the making” buildings, they were everywhere here. The next destination was Keld, but it was not the final destination for the day. The rain had stopped, for now. And then it started again!
Final pictures for the stretch from Ravenseat to Keld, as it was raining I wasn’t taking my phone out much. The pictures are in reverse order again, sorry.
Keld! And the heavens opened! I took refuge in a cafe, and although I didn’t really want anything because I had all that I needed, I ordered a cuppa and sat and enjoyed it. This was where I met the couple who told me they had knocked on the door at Ravenseat, the cafe was full so I said to come and sit at my table.
I googled Yorkshire Farm and discovered the family are renovating a building, this was not far from Ravenseat so I wondered if this was it. I hadn’t see any other likely candidates along the way.
This had signs all over saying Keep Out, Private etc. I’d like to think it was to prevent someone getting injured. In complete contrast, just a few yards away was a lovely cottage with flower boxes and welcoming signs, I resisted taking a picture because the occupants were about.
So, after a 20 minute stop in the cafe at Keld, I was back on the trail and heading for Reeth.
There was a choice of paths, high or low. The high route looked incredibly interesting because there were industrial remains, dating back to the lead mining era, and it was something I had read ahead about and wanted to see. However, again common sense prevailed and with the threat of severe weather, I decided on the safer option and walked through the Swaledale Valley. This was incredibly beautiful, God’s country without a doubt. It just kept on giving. Lots of sheep again.
A waterfall, heading out of Keld and then into the Swaledale Valley, just incredible.
Looking back towards Crackpot Hall, which I would have visited if I had taken the high route. Interestingly, the rain had passed now, and I would have been fine going over the top, but as a solo walker, if I had fallen, it could have been risky. Just not worth it. Next time!
This is one of the little things I like to do – take photos of very old postboxes. This one dates back to Victoria reign – old old old!
This is the youth hostel at Grinton. Weird how they are called Youth Hostels because all ages of people stay in them these days. Anyway, I was walking towards Reeth and saw signs for Grinton and decided to follow those because I knew that was where the youth hostel was. I emerged from the footpath into a residential street and asked a lady where the youth hostel was. Up there at the top of the hill she said! Pfffft! It’s only about a quarter of a mile, final push, you can do it. Well, lady, it was half a mile, at least!
I was so glad to finally get here. Today I walked 25 miles, nearly 60k steps! A personal best, well since I counted steps that is, years ago I walked 28 miles in one day. I was younger then, today’s walk was gruelling. I shared a dorm with three other ladies, two of them snored! Not funny!
Over halfway on the Coast To Coast, a reason to celebrate, and I did with a small glass of wine.
Kirkby Stephen to Grinton – 25 miles, almost 60k steps