Yorkshire Dales Walks

Nateby Common & Nine Standards Rigg

Date: 23rd February 2008
Distance: 10.2 miles
Ascent: 2123 feet
Time:4 hours 45 minutes
With: Matt
Start Grid Ref: NY773088

Walk Summary:
Remarkably our second visit to Nine Standards Rigg resulted in even worse weather than our first visit.

Route Summary: Kirkby Stephen - Ewbank Scar - Ladthwaite - Nateby Common - Nine Standards Rigg - Farady Gill - Hartley - Kirkby Stephen

Pictures:

1. Ladthwaite Beck below Ewbank Scar

2. Birkett Hill

3. Matt by the summit cairn of Nateby Common

4. One of the Nine Standards

5. Emerging out of the cloud

Walk Detail: This was the first walk Matt and I had done together in nearly a year and we picked a real stinker of a day for it. While we remarked the weather couldn’t be any worse than the previous we had been up to Nine Standards Rigg in fact it was. It rained almost non-stop and the wind, particularly on Nateby Common and Nine Standards was horrendous. Added to this there was virtually no visibility of 450m.

The only real highlight of the day was the early walk along Ladthwaite Beck and the fantastic water shoot below Ewbank Scar, an unlooked for but fantastic feature.

The climb up to Nateby Common was fairly uneventful, apart from the weather, but I think we were both a bit disappointed that what looked to be substantial rocky slopes on the map turned out to be nothing but grass. We found the cairn on Nateby Common without a problem but nearly got misdirected by a large but unmarked track on our way to the head of Dukerdale.

The path as far as Rollinson Gill was fairly clear but from then on we had to press on through the peat hags in the wind and rain with Matt taking compass bearings regularly. Eventually I pulled out my GPS which pointed us very accurately to the summit of Nine Standards Rigg.

By this time the wind was truly horrendous and we ended up taking shelter in a stone fox hole near the northernmost standards (all of which had clearly been rebuilt since our last visit). Following lunch we had to really fight our way into the wind until we were considerably down Faraday Gill. In fact we were barely able to exchange words until we had nearly reached the road.

At the road it was a straightforward walk back to Kirkby Stephen and we at least had some views of the two Birkett Hills and Long Rigg Scar. This really was a throw back to our early walking adventures when Matt and I regularly slogged about the Dales in poor weather.

Maybe one day it will be third time lucky on Nine Standards Rigg.

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