We’d decided to visit Simon before going to Ullswater for the OGA Rally on August Bank Holiday weekend. Our route there and back included several lovely days in the Lake District, Glencoe and Loch Rannoch.
Our promised ‘early start’ from Grangemill on 14 August, 2025 was only an hour or so later than planned, at 1000 and we headed west for an overnight stop at Scales Campsite near Penrith. Steve found a fantastic spot to take a break, only about 3 miles off Junction 36 of the M6, Carnforth. The Newbiggom Crags Limestone Pavements are some of the best in the UK, or even Europe, forming part of the Hutton Roof Crags Nature Reserve. It’s all open access country and there was hardly anyone about apart from the sheep.
After a lovely wander amongst the grykes and clints, marvelling at the spectacular landscape, we drove on up the M6 to find the campsite on a farm overlooked by Helvellyn. Having arrived a bit late, we rode down to the Mill Inn at Mungrisdale to treat ourselves to a pint & supper. Sadly, the food was expensive and pretty average. Good to get out on the bikes though. The hill was in the wrong direction, but uphill return wasn’t too bad. Watched the sun go down with a glass of wine from the van.
Instead of driving straight up to Dundee we went south to Thirlmere, stopping at Armboth Fell beside the lake for breakfast, another lovely quiet spot popular with kayakers and fishermen. Moving on we took the motorways arriving in Dundee 1700, parking the van up at the Roseangle Carpark. Spent a great weekend exploring with Simon, Ricarda & Esther: down to the park, a walk to the jute museum at Verdant Works and a bike ride to Broughty Ferry via ‘HMS Unicorn’.
Simon was training for his Cuillin Ridge hike and was going to do the Aonach Eagach [notched ridge] scramble high above Glencoe on Monday. Steve thought about going with him, but decided to join Bev who was ‘support vehicle’ rather than possibly slow Simon down on this pretty challenging route. According to the BMC, ‘Nowhere else on the British mainland will you find a ridge of such narrow yet epic proportions.’ We dropped Simon at the Three Sisters Carpark then drove down to the Clachaig Inn to claim a parking place for later, having a pint in the bar before taking the bikes for a ride. This was cut short when Simon called to say he’d already reached the pub, in only four hours! After a swim in the cool pools of the River Coe we stopped for supper en route back to Dundee at the Falls of Dochart, Killin. Simon and Ricarda are back at work on Tuesday so we spent the day enjoying a ‘city day’ before setting off back to the Lake District.
