Wether Hill via Steel Knotts.

A second day of great weather and we’d said if the cloud stayed high we would crack off a decent hill, so we looked at Wether Hill with a stop off at Steel Knotts on route.

Old church of St Martin.

We parked up on the grass outside St Martin’s Church and got our boots on.  Due to Alfie’s love of chasing sheep we took it in turns in holding his lead preventing our boisterous Springer Spaniel from being shot by the nearest farmer.  Kel put her boots and rucksack on and grabbed the lead.  I was bending over tying my boots and heard Kel let out a very vocal ‘NOOOO!’, just in time to see Alfie emptying his bladder on my rucksack.  Great Start!

If you’re going to do this route check the map, because it says there’s a path connecting the one that hugs the wall behind the church and the one slightly higher.  It int’ theea!  Save time and a shed load of energy and take the higher route straight away, don’t take the bottom path and have to climb about 200 metres in the same distance.

Anyway after our slight detour we were on the path we should be and at the junction above Nettlehowe Crag were we slung in a left and it wasn’t long before we were at the top of Steel Knotts and the great view it had.

We went back down the same accent route and hit the path which went over Brownthwaite Crag and through the battalions of sheep watching us cross the wall, which has seen better days, at the base of Gowk Hill and the start of the accent up the long route up to the Roman Road onto Wether Hill.

By this time the sun was beating down and we decided we’d follow the same route (ish) down to safe getting burnt by the by now baking sun.

The route down was very nice, relatively sheep free (they must have been in the shade somewhere) and a nice smooth steady decent.

We got back to the car and a large family had just finished their day out in the hills and were looking in the church and chatting.  I pulled out of the car park over a boulder hitting the front of the car, all heads turned as Kel went bright red with embarrassment.

So I sped out of the tranquil spot with knackered body work and the stench of stale dog pee buzzing through my nostrils, cheers Alfie!