Walk 193: the last of the summer holidays

WALK 193: Faulds Brow (1125 feet above sea level, number 282 of my second round). 4.5 miles, 600 feet of ascent.

The summit cairn of Faulds Brow.

Late August is not always a reliable period weather-wise: I remember ending walk 64, on the 23rd August 2012, shivering in front of a roaring fire at the Old Dungeon Ghyll, for instance. But I’m not making any complaints about the weather that 2021 has offered, and yesterday, Friday 27th August, was another warm and sunny day, begging to be made use of productively — that is, as the setting for a walk.

In Caldbeck.

Faulds Brow is the most northerly Wainwright, and one of the most isolated. I bagged it some six years ago by appending it to walk 94, but that made for a very long hike and in any case, all the fells in the general area had already been done twice. The summit was therefore waiting for me to brave what was always going to be a long journey for a short and easy walk.

It would have been nice to have reached Caldbeck, start and finish point of today’s walk by public transport, but despite it being a big enough place to keep a pub, post office and petrol station going, buses only serve the village on Saturdays. Even then the journey would have been way longer and more expensive than driving it, so drive it I did (in my defence, this was the first one by car since April). Let me say nothing here about the traffic on the M6 and observe only that despite the travails of the journey this was a good, and very easy walk, with fine views. The usual extra detail and photographs are on the walk page.

View towards Carlisle, from the summit.

As of today, then, I have bagged 282 of the 330 Wainwrights on my second round, and have 48 to go. I certainly hope that the good weather will continue and that I will make Lakeland at some point in September, but this weekend is the last of my summer break and I am obliged to show my face at work from Tuesday on. Fingers crossed.