10.10.15
Winder (SD 654 932), Arant Haw (SD 662 946), Calders (SD 670 960), Bram
Rigg Top (SD 668 964) and The Calf (SD 667 970)
Arant Haw (SD 662 946) |
The Howgill Fells form
an extended group on the periphery of the Yorkshire Dales and are sandwiched
between the M6 to the west and the flat topped moorland hills of the Dales to
the east. The group of hills which form
the Howgills are rather magnificent as they give good walking underfoot on
extended ridges with the hills being eloquent in shape.
I travelled north with
Mark and met John Kirk in Sedbergh where my diet met its match in the
temptation of a scrummy English breakfast, having tackled three sausages and a variety
of other rather lovely fattening objects that had all nestled on my large plate
and said ‘eat me’, I sat back and wondered why some people think that dieting
is difficult.
We parked the cars at
approximately SD 652 922 and walked up the continuation of the paved road and
headed up toward Winder, our first hill of the day, via the Lockbank Farm and
initially steep hillsides eased with walking on green paths.
On our way up Winder |
The day’s weather
forecast was good with rain an afterthought, and sunshine hazed with afternoon
cloud predicted. As we crested the upper
ridge of Winder the trig pillar and its accompanying topographic viewfinder
came in to view, three people were near the trig and another person was slowly
walking up the hill’s western ridge to join them. This family of Mum, Dad and two sons would
spend the day being asked to avoid the Trimble on a succession of summits and
cols as we came across them on three occasions, they happily took diversions
and laughed along with our antics as somewhere during our meeting and the
following conversation the term ‘dullness’ was mentioned and this then became a
passing joke for the rest of the day.
We planned on visiting
five hills during the day and I hoped to survey them all, the first of which is
Winder, a Four that is listed with 32m of drop.
The high point of this hill is easily identifiable and as the Trimble
gathered its customary five minutes of data I stood back, scribbled all
relevant details in my notepad and tried to regain my breath.
Gathering data at the summit of Winder |
Our next hill was Arant Haw, which is another smoothly shaped and elegant hill, between us and its summit was the critical col of Winder, we had some debate if this was on, or a few metres to the north-west, of the ridge path, deciding on the latter I set the Trimble up on top of my rucksack and waited for the five minutes of data to be collected. During this Mum, Dad and the two sons walked toward us, smiled and kindly took a detour around the survey equipment.
Beyond this col lay the
summit of Arant Haw and the slow walk up was pleasantly welcome; we rested
beside its northern escarpment edge as the Trimble gathered its all-important
data. As Mark and John ate their dinner
I scampered down the path leading to Calders and quickly set the Trimble up at
the next col. By the time data were
collected John and Mark were walking on the path just a minute or so from the
set-up position.
Winder from the ascent of Arant Haw |
The beautiful smoothed land of the Howgills |
Gathering data at the summit of Arant Haw |
As we slowly plodded our
way up the southern ridge of Calders John decided to head back as he had a meal
to prepare for this evening and we all know that food is much more important
than the hills, so off he dashed, and Mark and I plodded on.
The summit and critical
col of Calders has been surveyed by Alan Dawson with his Leica RX1250,
therefore this was not a priority for me today.
However, if time permitted I wanted to get a data set at the summit to
check the Trimble’s processed height against Alan’s Leica equipment. And if there was enough time the same could be
done at its critical col, and this was scheduled as the last survey of the day
depending on time and inclination.
The summit of Calders is
a small embedded rock on the side of the path approximately 5 metres from the
base of the hill’s summit cairn, as the Trimble did its stuff Mark went ahead
to assess the next col on our route.
This col connected to Bram Rigg Top which is listed as a Nuttall with
just 15m of drop. As this is the minimum
drop to qualify for John and Anne’s list of English 2,000ft mountains it meant
that the Trimble survey was one of the most important of the day. However important I judged this survey to be,
it had not been pencilled in prior to the walk and had only been spotted by
Mark as he consulted its drop value on Hill Bagging as we were getting our
boots on in Sedbergh.
Gathering data at the summit of Calders |
I was soon with Mark down
at the col and set the Trimble up where we judged its critical point to be
placed, this was a few metres from the gravelled path and adjacent to a
drainage pipe inserted under the path which may indicate that this is the low
point of the path hereabouts. This pipe
fed water away from a ditch which was lower than the Trimble set-up position
and which we had dismissed as being man-made.
After the allotted five minutes of data were gathered we headed up to the
hill’s summit. This hill has a small
cairn placed at or near to its high point, we both independently judged the
summit of the hill to be approximately 10 metres from this small cairn. The cairn is now placed on solid ground,
whereas our preferred high point was amongst moor grass which can be deceptive
as on occasion its height can give a false sense of elevation.
Bram Rigg Top in the background, gathering data at its critical col |
Calders in the background, gathering data at the critical col of Bram Rigg Top |
As the Trimble gathered
data Mark sauntered off toward the high point of the day, and the highest
summit in the Howgill Fells; The Calf. I
soon packed the equipment away and scampered off to join him. I’d only been to the summit of The Calf on
one occasion, in May of 1992 on a decidedly warm day. I had good memories of this walk and the
impression that these hills had left with me.
Gathering data at the summit of Bram Rigg Top |
A more expansive view of the summit of Bram Rigg Top taken from the same position as the above photograph |
The view of Calders from the summit of Bram Rigg Top |
Gathering data at the summit of Bram Rigg Top |
Once at the summit I
positioned the Trimble on top of my rucksack and away it went gathering its
five minutes of data. All that remained was
the critical col of Calders which was back the way we had just come. As the Trimble gathered its last data set of
the day Mark walked ahead and said that if I hadn’t caught up with him he would
wait beside the cairn at the summit of Calders.
The Calf from the descent of Bram Rigg Top |
Gathering data at the summit of The Calf |
The last of the day's data sets at the critical col of Calders |
By now my arms were cold
as the easterly breeze had picked up during the late afternoon, I stopped and
tried to get my one skin summer walking jacket on and had a bit of difficulty
to get my numbed fingers working to zip it up, as I pulled my gloves on heat
replenished my hands and I joined Mark on the track heading back over Calders. All that remained was to re-trace the
majority of our inward route back to the awaiting car.
Looking toward Arant Haw (SD 662 946) on our descent |
There is a soft beauty
to the Howgill Fells as their sloping ridges fall to green pastured valleys,
they evoke friendliness and hospitality with eloquently shaped profiles, and
today their beige coloured early autumnal moor grass swayed in the light breeze
adding movement to their static form.
They are a lovey hill range and one I hope to revisit again in the
future.
The soft rounded ridges of the Howgills |
Next stop Mr Kirk’s for
a yummy Paella.
mmmmmmmmm yum yum, looks good |
LIDAR summit image of The Calf (SD 667 970) |
Since the survey of these hills LIDAR has become available. The LIDAR (Light Detection & Ranging) technique produced highly accurate height and positional data that is now freely available for much of England and Wales. Consequently the numerical details for these hills have been analysed using this technique, resulting in the LIDAR heights and positions for some of these hills being used in favour of other surveying methods.
Survey Result:
Winder
Summit Height: 473.7m (converted to OSGM15)
Summit Grid Reference: SD 65401 93275
Col Height: 442.7m (converted to OSGM15)
Col Grid Reference: SD 65784 93722
Drop: 31.0m
Dominance: 6.55%
Dominance: 6.55%
Arant Haw
Summit Height: 606.6m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Summit Grid Reference: SD 66206 94629 ( Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Col Height: 550.1m (LIDAR)
Col Grid Reference: SD 66960 95333 (LIDAR)
Drop: 56.4m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR col)
Dominance: 9.31% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR col)
Dominance: 9.31% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR col)
Calders
Summit Height: 675.4m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000 and Leica RX1250)
Summit Grid Reference: SD 67070 96002 ( Trimble GeoXH 6000 and Leica RX1250)
Col Height: 641.2m (converted to OSGM15, Trimble GeoXH 6000 and Leica RX1250)
Col Grid Reference: SD 66865 96762 ( Trimble GeoXH 6000 and Leica RX1250)
Drop: 34.2m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 and Leica RX1250)
Dominance: 5.07% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 and Leica RX1250)
Dominance: 5.07% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 and Leica RX1250)
Bram Rigg Top
Summit Height: 672.9m (LIDAR)
Summit Grid Reference: SD 66830 96464 (LIDAR)
Col Height: 658.2m (LIDAR)
Col Grid Reference: SD 67034 96281 (LIDAR)
Drop: 14.7m (LIDAR, Trimble GeoXH 6000 and line survey) (Nuttall deletion)
Dominance: 2.18% (LIDAR and Trimble GeoXH 6000)
Dominance: 2.18% (LIDAR and Trimble GeoXH 6000)
The Calf
Summit Height: 676.7m (LIDAR)
Summit Grid Reference: SD 66746 97042 (LIDAR)
Col Height: 293.6m (LIDAR)
Col Grid Reference: NY 73223 00646 (LIDAR)
Drop: 383.2m (LIDAR)
Dominance: 56.62% (LIDAR)
Dominance: 56.62% (LIDAR)
For further details please
consult the Trimble survey spreadsheet click {here}
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