Parkgate Plantation

We walked southwards down a forestry road through the plantation and then had to backtrack when I realised that I'd missed a footpath leading into the woods. We found the unsigned path eventually and started making our way through the trees. Unfortunately the Tree Troublers had tactically nuked some of the areas and one of the footpath posts actually pointed in the wrong direction. This confused for a minute or two but we eventually managed to muddle our way through and reach the barn on the other side of the plantation. A  farm track led us to a road which in turn led us to the Bowerhouse Inn. There were good views of Muncaster Fell from the road. It isn't a particularly high fell (just over 230 metres at its highest point), but it is quite long. The morning was a bit grey and cloudy but shafts of sunlight were managing to break through over to the east.

The road walking brought us to Irton Road Station, one of the stopping points for the narrow gauge railway that runs from Ravenglass along the Eskdale valley. Our route would go close to the tracks later on in the day and I hoped to get some pictures of a train or two. Kapitan Mo went down to the station and carried out a thorough inspection of the arrangements there. He spent so long in the shelter that I feared that he might have actually laid down and fallen asleep on one of the benches. He eventually re-appeared though and sauntered back towards us. He then had to make a return trip to the station to retrieve his trekking poles. Slow Mo was living up to his name.

Silver Knott

The road took us past Forest How Guest House. There was a camouflaged bird hide tent set up in the garden that was so small, I rather doubted that any adult could have actually fitted in it. The track took us around the east end of Muncaster Fell and then we doubled back to start ascending to its eastern end. We left the obvious track that ran westwards at a lower level, and followed a vague track to reach the ridge of the fell. Once we'd reached the peak of the ridge we started making our way over rougher ground to our first Explorer of the day, Silver Knott. The sun was occasionally breaking through now and the view over to Irton Pike was very good. We had to forge our own way down from Silver Knott through the bracken. Fortunately, we didn't have far to drop down and we soon arrived at the continuation of the obvious westwards heading track that we'd branched away from earlier. The ridge top of Muncaster Fell is quite broad and we came across many tracks criss-crossing its top. It is probable that a lot of these had just been made by sheep or cattle, rather than walkers. For the moment though, I was content just to follow any one of these tracks that appeared to be heading in our desired westwards direction.

Muncaster Fell And Hooker Crag

We had to do a bit of bracken wading again for the last bit up to the summit of Muncaster Fell. Further westwards we could hear a bell tinkling and after an investigation, we could see a herd of cattle mooching around our next destination, Hooker Crag. I noticed a look of alarm cross the Cabin Boy's face. I suggested that we took a break on Muncaster Fell in the forlorn hope that the little tinklers would take their tinkle some place else. It was indeed a forlorn hope because 10 minutes later, our bovine friends were still tinkling in the same location. I explained to the Cabin Boy that we had two options: take a long diversion route that involved a lot of bracken wading or take a direct route through the cattle to the top of Hooker Crag. Even the Cabin Boy had had enough of bracken wading and so we gently walked through the dozing cattle and then quickly up the last crag to the trig on Hooker Crag. The Cabin Boy seemed a lot happier now. Kapitan Mo particularly liked the view from Hooker Crag and said that we should add it to the Wainwright's Missed Gem list. It was indeed a good view since it was the last elevated outpost before the Irish Sea and had a wonderful view along the coast. That was our 3 Explorer hills done for the day and so it was all downhill from here. We headed south-westwards on a track leading towards Muncaster Castle.

Tarns, Butterflies And Castles

The track turned out to be quite pleasant. We were able to step off it at one point, and walk through some light undergrowth for a few yards and see Muncaster Tarn. John Nuttall had categorised it as private on his list, but there was no fence preventing you getting to it.  It was a decently sized and pretty tarn though, and so I've added it to my tarn list. Back on the track we came across some blackberry bushes that were inundated with Red Admiral Butterflies with a Comma Butterfly thrown in for good measure too. I'd heard a report on the radio saying that it had been a great year for butterflies generally...something to do with the wet summer and the lush, green vegetation providing plenty of food for the caterpillars.

We didn't have time to see Muncaster Castle and so at the end of Fell Lane, we started heading northwards on a bridleway. There was another Explorer hill, Barrow Crag, on our left, but access to it looked impenetrable through the thick woodland. It isn't that high either and so it might be one of those Explorer hills that I gracefully pass on. The track dropped down to Muncaster Mill and the Eskdale narrow gauge railway line. We'd occasionally heard the whistle from the steam trains during the morning and so we were now hopeful of getting a good view of one.

Planes And Trains

Our track headed north-eastwards squeezed in between the surprisingly steep face of Muncaster Fell and the railway line. Initially, there was quite a lot of undergrowth between us and and the line and the first train that rolled past was frustratingly hidden. Eventually though, our path had an unobstructed view of the line and we even had to cross it on to the continuation of our path on the other side. During this period of track side plodding, there was total silence. Not even a token toot. I wondered if we might be unlucky and end up not seeing a steam train altogether. As I was pondering this thought, two jets approached from the north and flew low over our heads. Wow! If only we'd been on the top of Muncaster Fell when that happened. A little further on we came across what looked like a dumping ground for old bits of rail and other railway equipment. As we inspected this we heard an approaching toot. Crikey, we would get to see a train after all. It seemed to take forever to arrive. When eventually it did, it didn't disappoint.  It was a lovely, red miniature steam train towing tiny carriages that  were crammed with people. As soon as the passengers caught sight of us they all, each and every one of them, started waving at us. We waved back, of course. I'm not sure why it seems imperative that people always wave from steam trains. The same people wouldn't have given us a second glance if they'd been travelling in a car. Maybe its the pollutants emitted from the train's small chimney that affects them. It chugged its way into the trees to continue its journey down the Eskdale valley. As the Kapitan, the Cabin Boy and myself were congratulating ourselves on our good luck, we heard the toot of another train coming the other way towards Ravenglass. This turned out to be a fine looking yellow steam engine. All we needed now was a Sea Eagle to fly above us with a fish in its talons. Well, it turned out that we weren't that lucky.

Parkgate Return

Our return route through the Parkgate plantation was more obvious than our outward journey. We stuck mainly to the forestry roads. Halfway across the plantation, we followed a gps bearing and a vague track through some woodland to reach Parkgate tarn. It is quite a large, pretty tarn that had an abundance of water lilies and well worth the short diversion.

Back at the gate entrance to the plantation, the birdseed had completely disappeared from the tops of the fence posts. Obviously the birds had had a feeding frenzy or else they'd knocked it all onto the ground.

The Cabin Boy's knees were only slightly swollen when we got back to the car and I took that as a good sign that I'd correctly judged the route's length and difficulty. Despite Muncaster Fell being relatively low, its views didn't fail to please, with Hooker Crag given honorary membership of our Wainwrights Missed Gems list. It had been great to see the steam engines and also the jets flying over our head too.