Croglin, Newbiggin and Croglin Fell
| Start/Finish | The Robin Hood, Croglin (NY 574 472) |
| Distance | 16km (10 miles) |
| Terrain | Good firm tracks and paths lead onto and off the moors, but there are a couple of river fords and a climb up a rugged moorland slope. |
| Maps | OS Landranger 86; Explorers OL5, OL31, OL43 and 315 |
| Refreshments | Pub in Croglin. Pub off-route in Newbiggin. |
| Transport | Very occasional buses link Croglin and Newbiggin with Penrith and Carlisle. |
There are no rights of way over Croglin Fell, but plenty of shooting tracks, and the whole fell is designated access land. Apart from a couple of river fords and one rugged moorland slope, most of this route is easy underfoot. The start and finish is at Croglin, but it could easily be restructured to start and finish at nearby Newbiggin. Croglin is a very quiet little village, but in the 19th century it was terrorised by the vampire-like ‘Croglin Bat’.
Start at a crossroads in Croglin beside the Robin Hood pub. Follow a road past St John’s Church and continue until the tarmac ends. Turn left up a steep and stony track to reach a house. Turn right, then almost immediately left to follow another track uphill and through a gate. Follow a fence straight ahead and turn left at a junction to walk up through another gate.
A broad, walled track rises and falls like a gentle roller coaster as it crosses the hillside, while views stretch across the Vale of Eden to the Lake District, Solway Firth and southern Scotland. Suddenly, the track starts to descend steeply, and if you were to follow it downhill it would lead off-route to the village of Newbiggin.
When the steep and stony descent begins, however, turn right to climb through a gate. Follow a grassy path uphill beside a valley, eventually reaching a clear, stony track on a broad moorland gap over 360m (1180ft) near Cumrew Fell. There are ruined limekilns some distance away, as well as a shooting hut still further away.
Turn right to follow the track roughly northeast and keep straight ahead down a grassy track. The track narrows and becomes a rather rugged path as it approaches New Water. There used to be a stone bridge here, but it collapsed long ago, leaving only a single abutment. Fording the river will result in wet feet if there has been a lot of recent rain.
Climb up from the river and go through a gate, brushing past vegetation to continue along a much clearer track. Watch carefully for a right turn where timbers are embedded in the ground, then follow another grassy track up a slope of grass and heather on the lower slopes of Middle Top.
Pass above a sheepfold and continue along the side of a valley, watching carefully to spot a point where a fence crosses New Water. Go down to the river and ford it just above a waterfall, caused by an outcrop of the hard doleritic Whin Sill.
There is a gateway in the fence nearby. Go through it and climb up the rugged moorland slope, avoiding deep heather by walking over surprisingly firm areas of moss and rushes. It might be worth drifting left at a higher level to pick up a vehicle track, but this can be rather messy, especially in wet weather, as it has been worn through thick black peat.
The track leads to a stony turning area, where a left turn leads along a track passing through a gap in a wall. There is a trig point just to the left, at 591m (1939ft) on the summit of Croglin Fell. Views take in the nearby moors, the East Fellside stretching away to Cross Fell, the Lake District beyond the Vale of Eden and Criffel in southern Scotland.
An outcrop of the Whin Sill causes a waterfall on the course of New Water
The track snakes invitingly ahead across the broad and bleak moors, but walk only as far as a junction of tracks, and turn right to go down through a gate. A broad and obvious track runs downhill, through a couple more gates, before being enclosed on both sides as it passed above Fieldhead.
When a house is reached at a junction, it should be recognised as the one that was passed earlier in the day. Simply turn left, walk down a steep track, turn right at the bottom and follow the road back through Croglin to finish.
Twenty years before Bram Stoker unleashed Dracula on an unsuspecting world, vampire attacks were taking place at Croglin and were reported in the Gentleman’s Magazine as chilling fact. In 1875 an Australian family took the tenancy of Croglin Low Hall, where one member, Amelia Cranswell, was attacked in her bedroom. She described a demonic figure, reeking of decay, clad only in a black grave-shroud. It burst in through her window, bit her face and neck, and left immediately. A doctor pronounced her injuries to be the work of a beast.
The family packed and took a holiday in Switzerland, but later returned to Croglin and took a number of precautionary measures. By all accounts, the Croglin Bat was at large elsewhere, judging by rumours around the area, but it eventually returned to Croglin Low Hall, where it was pursued and shot. It escaped down into an old crypt, which was later opened by well-armed villagers and found to contain a decomposed body with blood-stained fangs. The Bat’s heart was promptly pierced with a stave of rowan, a magical tree, and for good measure the coffin and its contents were burnt.
CHAPTER 2
THE EAST FELLSIDE
A small dam near Haresceugh (Walk 5)
In its fullest extent, the East Fellside is the name given to that formidable flank of the North Pennines that rises from the gentle, agricultural patchwork of the Vale of Eden. The highest Pennine summits rise one after another, with few breaches between them, either for roads, walkers, or even the weather. The nature of the slope gives rise to the peculiar Helm Wind – the only wind in Britain with its own name (see the section on the Helm Wind in the introduction to this guidebook).
Six walks are described in this chapter, and every one takes in one or two of the red sandstone villages crouching at the foot of the Pennine scarp, and each features the broad and bleak moorland crest above. Take note of the villages, which were all originally tightly built around broad greens, so that crops could be safely guarded and animals herded inside for the winter months, safe from border reivers and other raiders.
Cross Fell dominates the East Fellside, and the Pennine Way National Trail is encountered from time to time on these walks, between Cross Fell and Dufton. Two walks, one along Maiden Way and the other over the Knockergill Pass, run from the East Fellside, across bleak moorlands to South Tynedale (see Chapter 12).
The Settle to Carlisle railway line runs through the Vale of Eden and allows access to the East Fellside from Appleby and Langwathby, but connections with local bus services are very limited. Fellrunner bus services link some of the villages with Penrith and Carlisle, while Robinson’s bus services link some of the villages with Penrith and Appleby. Some East Fellside villages have a small range of facilities, while others offer nothing at all for passing walkers, beyond interesting vernacular architecture and expansive central greens.
WALK 5
Hartside, Black Fell and Renwick
| Start/Finish | Hartside Top Café (NY 646 418) |
| Distance | 17.5km (11 miles) |
| Terrain |
High moorlands, boggy in places, with few paths. Walls and fences can be used as guides. Field paths and tracks are used
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