The October fell walk was one that had previously been cancelled owing to adverse weather conditions. As we drove westwards along the A66 over Stainmore, in heavy rain, low cloud and fog, hearts began to sink once again. Fortunately, on arriving at the delightful village of Dufton, with its splendid fountain on the village green, pub and tearoom (sadly closed for the off-season) the rain stopped and the cloud lifted.
With morale duly restored, we set off for a circular walk to High Cup Nick, an iconic rock formation in the North Pennines. Heading out through the picturesque Ghyll Wood and past an old quarry, we soon crossed a rather mucky farmyard (where the leader unerringly sank ankle deep in a sea of the aforementioned muck) and, with some relief, emerged onto a pleasant stretch of field paths.
A short section of quiet country lane and more field paths took us to a coffee stop beside Trundale Beck, before we entered High Cup Gill, a near-perfect, U-shaped glaciated valley, with a relatively small beck running along its length and the imposing cliff-face of the Nick at its head. We negotiated a sizeable boulder-field with care and an occasional hop, skip and jump, before starting the ascent to the top, about 100 metres above us. Hands and knees (but definitely no boomps-a-daisy) came in useful for the steepest section, after which we traversed right above more boulders to a gully and up onto High Cup Nick itself.
The view down the valley was spectacular and certainly made our exertions worthwhile. We sat for a while to have our picnic lunch, surveying the massive columns of the Great Whin Sill (a volcanic rock forced up between limestone beds around 295 million years ago and also forming High Force).
Our return was straightforward, along a well-established part of the Pennine Way, passing the unlikely pillar of rock known as Nichol’s Chair (allegedly named after a Dufton cobbler who scaled it and soled a pair of shoes while he sat on it). Having regained the village, we stopped off in Appleby for essential refreshments and the only low point of the day was a lengthy traffic tailback into Barney, caused by the closure of the A66 at Bowes. A rather tiresome ending to what had been a challenging but thoroughly enjoyable day.
Report by Peter Singer