Carrock Fell without a Cairn

We've heard a rumour that the massive cairn on Carrock Fell has been demolished (thanks Maggie). I have pictures of me as a small child standing beside the cairn, so it's been there for a good half century and probably a lot longer than that. There is one way to find out if the rumours are true.

One of the less popular routes (but in my opinion most interesting) up Carrock starts behind Mosedale. We parked down at Swineside and headed back up the lane to divide the roadwork between the start and finish of the walk - this way we get chance to walk in a bit before we start to climb too. Virtually traffic free along here so Breeze gets warmed up too.

We start to climb and very soon the first posing stone of the day appears

The heather has really suffered in the heatwave up here

Looking down to Mosedale below as we climb. Jay is with us today

One of the reasons I like this route is that the ground changes constantly. Grass and bracken, heather, scree

boulders.....

and every now and then you come across a sheepfold. Breeze uses the walls of this one to watch her Dad climbing up to join us

The summit has been in cloud all the way up and if anything it's getting worse! Further up on less stoney ground the heather has faired better and is coming into flower

Someone loves bouncing through it

and posing

Through the derelict walls of an ancient forte, I suddenly spot a lek of Grouse in the mist

We are turning away from here, so we make our way quietly past them trying not to disturb them. These dozen or so would be the first if 3 leks we see around the summit - Breeze found the other two before us so they were both flying. One lot must have numbered close on 30!

Approaching the summit, it is very obvious that the information Maggie had heard was correct. The summit cairn is no more. Possibly mindless vandalism? we couldn't really come up with a feasible alternative explanation.

 By now we are in thick cloud, getting very wet (we do have waterproof coats on), it's blowing a hooley and we are all ready for something to eat. There is nowhere much to shelter - unless you want to sit in the summit shelter and get even more wet - and the cloud seems to have dropped lower than it was. So, as we carry an emergency storm shelter, we decide we might as well put it to use!
A few minutes later and three people, 3 rucksacks and one wet dog are all squeezed into the shelter. Warm, drier than we would have been without it and I'm sure raising an eyebrow if anyone had walked past - not that we had a clue whether anyone did or not!!

I had always thought that I would have to drag Breeze in here if ever we used it, but she popped in as soon as we got it set up and sat perfectly happily for the duration of our lunch stop!

The camera remained packed away for the next bit of the walk as we headed down towards Poddy Gill. Thankfully we know this area like the back of our hands as visibility was zero.

Finally we drop out of the cloud  and make our way down Poddy Gill to join the road - a lesson in how different it can be on the fells to the valleys - and this is only a little fell

A quick dip in the Caldew as we make the gentle stroll back to the car.

6.5 miles with a bit of everything today - except snow!