Participants - Just me
Where - Ellson Fell, 537m/1,762', Sub-2K Marilyn, Map 79, NY 410985
The first rule when visiting a hill in a previously unvisited area is to take a map. Mine was on a shelf in my living room where I had put it the night before so as not to forget to take it.
At least I had researched the starting point- about a mile off the A7 on the side road that went to Hermitage castle. There was plenty of space to park at a cattle grid. The south-west ridge of Ellson Fell was straight in front of me, it looked rather steep......
It was just a case of plodding up following a 4WD track. There was a good view back to the valley of the A7.....
and as I got higher I could see the Lake District Fells on the horizon. At the top of the steep bit, which apparently is called Castlewink, the ridge narrowed considerably and I could see a high point ahead left.....
There was a lower top with a substantial cairn which I subsequently discovered was named point 494 on the map. This is looking to the main top (left).....
This was where the map would have come in handy! After the highest point, which didn't have any marker, the ridge descended a bit then curved round towards a higher hill that I could see.....
Uncertainty crept in. I knew that it had to be a different range of hills, probably those containing the Graham, Caldcleuch Head, but...... There was obviously a substantial dip between the ridge that I was on and this other hill but I couldn't see how substantial so, to be sure, I carried on round the ridge for a bit before deciding that the top that I had just left was indeed the summit of Ellson Hill. However, it was a nice wee ridge and I got this picture of Ellson Fell and another Marilyn, Wisp Hill (right) from it......
The first thing I did when I got home was look at the map and confirm that the higher hill that I had seen was, in fact, a Caldcleuch Head outlier and that I had indeed reached the top of Ellson Fell. So all was well. I would have been ever so slightly miffed having travelled all that way to have got back and found that I had not reached the top!
1 comment:
Visited Hermitage Castle once on the way to a bothy. Very impressive
structure. Although its large its got no frills whatsoever: just a gaunt cube for defence with a tiny crouching entry hole and a flat surrounding area for killing the enemy. You could almost smell the centuries of blood soaking the grass around the walls. No other castle in Scotland quite like it for grim, practicality of purpose.
Looks like you got a nice day for the hill Neil. You're fairly ticking them off at a steady rate.
Post a Comment