A great shorter evenings walk climbing Castle Crag from Grange today in good conditions with some great views.
We set off from Grange for Castle Crag a little before 6pm and headed up the track towards Hollows Farm, following the track by the campsite to Gowder Dub.
The river was very low today and many of the streams coming down to the river were dry. After a few photos of the River Derwent we took the path up by Boradslack Gill.
As we turned off the path towards Castle Crag we got a wonderful view north, down the valley to Skiddaw and Derwent Water, framed by the steep slopes and crags to either side.
We climbed up the path by the Hamer Memorial and over the two stiles to meet the zig-zag path up through the old spoil heaps and up to the quarry just below the summit of Castle Crag.
From here it was just a short walk up to the grassy summit, passing a tent. The views this evening were great, both to the north over Derwent Water and Keswick and to the South from a clear view of Scafell Pike across Glaramara to High Raise and Ullscarf. To the east we could see the Helvellyn ridge above High Tove in the foreground.
After plenty of pictures at the summit we descended back over the spoil heap to the path below, this time crossing the stile to the south and taking the path down over the eastern flank of the ridge descending to meet the Allerdale Ramble footpath by the River Derwent.
We followed the path north, through High How Woods, stopping to look at some of the caves along the way before descending back to Gowder Dub. The reflection on the water tonight was glorious and we ad a few keen photographers in the group so we spent some time taking pictures across the river. There were a few fish jumping this evening.
Following the track back towards Grange we stopped when we saw a deer over the wall, it stood and watched us for a few minutes before slowly turning around and walking away towards the river.
We were soon back in Grange after a great short evenings walk.
