Faulds Brow
Walk date – 8th November 2025
Distance – 4.8 miles
Weather – heavy cloud and constant rain
We’ve had a frustrating week in which things which were supposed to happen didn’t, and what we weren’t expecting to happen did. The weather didn’t help matters either and after a week of overcast skies and lots of rain keeping us indoors again, exasperation, annoyance, irritation, call it what you will, just about summed up our mood. The only thing to do in such a situation is to get outdoors and take a walk. The forecast for today was encouraging and although there might be some early morning fog in the valleys and cloud clinging to the higher tops the overall outlook was for a ‘dry with sunny spells’ sort of day. On the drive over we noticed that Blencathra was hidden by cloud, the base of which began about halfway up its slopes, and even the summit ridge of its near neighbour, the much lower Souther Fell, was also hidden by it. On the other side of the A66 the tops of Clough Head and Great Dodd were also invisible and the gap between the two sides of the A66, which should have been showing the fells around Keswick, was nothing more than a grey wall of dense cloud. As we turned of the A66 and headed into Mungrisedale we could see brighter skies ahead and the patches of blue increased as we made our way over to Caldbeck. We thought we had found some kinder weather when we arrived in Caldbeck in bright sunshine but It didn’t work out that way at all.
Route
Caldbeck village car park – Ratten Row (Caldbeck) – track from speed de-restriction sign – moorland road crossing – intermittent grass track up Faulds Brow – Faulds Brow summit cairn – off path route back to Whelpo road sign – Whelpo Bridge – permissive path beside Whelpo beck – Caldbeck village car park
We decided to drive over to Caldbeck and take a walk up to Faulds Brow, one of AW’s outlying fells and the most northerly one. Its not very high, standing at 1125′ (344 m) above sea level, and only involves about 600′ of ascent from Caldbeck village. A group of people on the other side of the car park informed us that they were going up to High Pike and asked us if that was also our destination, to which we obviously replied that it wasn’t. I did think at the time that they were in for a lengthy walk but gave it no more consideration than that. We arrived in bright sunshine but as we walked up the lane, at the far end of the car park, and out onto the village green the blue sky gave way to heavier cloud. Thinking nothing of it we continued on up the slope emerging after a few seconds onto …..
….. the village green with its large pond surrounded by some very stately trees, this splendid weeping willow being one of them. Spits and spots of rain began falling onto my specs. We continued on along the lane to the left of the pond which eventually joined the B5299 coming up from Caldbeck village.
At the de-restricted speed sign we turned off the B5299 and took to the track on the left. The track is no longer suitable for motor vehicles but probably was the former road in and out of the village prior to the B5299 superseding it. I’m becoming annoyed by the spits and spots of rain landing on my glasses and continually having to wipe them clear.
The view looking up the old track. A pause to wipe my specs once again and put the jackets hoods up. We can now hear the rain pitter-pattering onto our jackets.
The view back along the lane and no views anywhere. We should be seeing the northern fells somewhere back there, High Pike in particular, but at the moment there is nothing on view.
We’ve reached the moorland road, which goes across to Uldale, so we cross over and set foot on the farm track leading to Waverhead farm but …..
….. almost immediately leave the farm track and make our way across the grassy path leading us towards Faulds Brow. Its still raining!
Another pause to wipe my specs clear of raindrops and after doing that I decided to leave them off and tucked them inside my jacket. There’s nothing to see anyway beyond a certain distance so I didn’t really need to wear them. The path, such as it is, is close to the wall at this point so its as good a time as any to impart a little nugget of info from AW’s outlying fells book. According to AW this wall which marks a parish boundary has also been adopted as the boundary of the National Park.
This lone mushroom/toadstool caught my eye as it was the only bright thing around on such a dull morning. I have no idea what it is called or if it is poisonous or not but it was the only bright spot in the swathes of wet grass surrounding it.
We’ve arrived at the former quarrying area which we couldn’t explore as thoroughly as we would have liked thanks to the rain which was now quite heavy …..
….. looking ahead from the quarrying area. The top of Faulds Brow is the darker brown area on the left skyline. I’ve now run out of dry tissues to wipe the camera lens so this shot looks somewhat ‘smeary’. I’m wearing, over my usual jacket, a waterproof one with the hood up now and J asked me to get his out of his pack. There was nothing where his waterproof should have been so we could only assume that at some point he’d taken it out and not put it back again. His jacket is now soaking wet and my waterproof one is running with water. Now you know why we didn’t hang around and explore the old quarry area. The camera is protected by my waterproof as I tuck it back inside it after taking a shot.
The path from the quarry area eventually petered out so we just aimed for the high ground knowing that we would eventually see the cairn which marks the summit. We’ve reached a ridge at this point but the only things we can see are farm buildings and the plantation of trees over on the left skyline. At least there is now a well trodden path to guide us …..
….. which eventually curves around away from the ridge and up to the summit cairn. From here AW describes the view as follows ‘….. an uninterrupted view across the wide coastal plain to the Solway Firth, backed by the Scottish hills with Criffel prominent, while to the south the Skiddaw massif forms a near horizon and Lakeland’s western fells appear more distantly to its right.’
No matter in which direction we looked none of the views described by AW were available today. There wasn’t any point in hanging around the summit so after taking a couple of shots …..
….. we took an off path route back down to the open moorland road …..
….. and having reached it walked along it towards the road sign indicating the lane down to Whelpo. In the previous shot the Whelpo lane and the road sign can be seen although it will need a zoom in and a bit of squinting to see them.
A very smeary shot as we walked down the lane to Whelpo. Even though the camera was protected by its lens cap and tucked inside my waterproof jacket the minute the lens cap was removed the lens was spattered by the rain. I tried my best but with only damp tissues left to clear away the droplets the result was always bound to be fuzzy. Despite the rain it was a very pleasant walk down to Whelpo Bridge.
Down at Whelpo Bridge where the rain finally began to ease off. We didn’t cross the bridge to walk back along the road on the opposite side of the beck because …..
….. there’s a permissive path beside Whelpo beck which arrives at the same destination and its much more interesting than a road walk back to Caldbeck.
J has his hood off so it must have stopped raining! He’s standing on the permissive path beside Whelpo beck which is full and fast flowing.
Whelpo Bridge from the permissive path.
The path keeps alongside the beck for the most part but it does occasionally part company with it depending on the steepness of the banking as was the case here, where the path deviated to this step stile to avoid a steep slope above the beck.
The path dropped back down to the beck side immediately after the step stile and a few paces further on was this bridge which I think provides a crossing point over to Beckstones.
Its pitter-pattering again as we continue along the permissive path beside the beck. On a sunny day this would be a lovely walk but even in the rain it was most enjoyable.
Oops. This looks like a recent casualty brought down by the strong winds.
We’ve reached The Howk. A limestone gorge through which Whelpo beck has to force its way down the gorge by any means it can, whether it be over, under, round or through. The beck and the rocks create a series of waterfalls, with the path high above them, which are quite spectacular. The thunderous noise of the waterfalls could be heard long before they came into view.
The path is steep and today it was very muddy and full of fallen leaves so it pays to be careful.
A view of another fall from a sort of viewing platform, although it really was just a change of direction in a set of steep wooden steps to get back down to ground level. Some of the falls wouldn’t be visible when the surrounding trees are in full leaf and even now, in autumn, it can be difficult. The camera has done its usual thing of concentrating on nearby objects so, rather than a sharp shot of the waterfall, we have a clear shot of the various tree stems, branches and leaves and a fuzzy view of the fall.
Back down to ground level where a typical autumn scene awaited us. J passes a few minutes in contemplation while I scouted around for the ‘perfect shot’ as usual! Behind J the buildings of the former bobbin mill have just started to appear.
The path skirts around the remaining bobbin mill buildings …..
….. and leads around to the front of them. I named this Building 1 …..
….. Building 2 in front of Building 1 …..
….. Building 3 …..
….. and finally all three buildings together. In its hey day the mill employed about 60 men and boys making bobbins primarily, but later on anything which could be made out of wood. The mill finally closed its doors in the 1920s. We had something similar in our Yorkshire village which was known as the ‘peg oyle’ (‘oyle’ being the pronunciation of the word ‘hole’ in Yorkshire dialect). It made the wooden pegs and lags for the looms used in woollen mills but later it also turned to making anything out of wood. It managed to stagger on until 2004 when it finally closed down. Beyond the bobbin mill there was only a short distance left to walk before we were back in the car park in Caldbeck, where true to form, it finally stopped raining, the grey clouds moved somewhere else and the sun came out. We were only out just under two hours and for most of which we got rained on. Ah well, at least we can get our wet jackets off, put on some dry jumpers which we’d had the foresight to leave in the car, have a cup of hot coffee and get ourselves some body warmth back. We also noticed that the car which the walkers going to High Pike got out of this morning was no longer parked there. Perhaps they set off and then decided not to bother when it began to rain. With our body warmth back to normal after a couple of cups of coffee we drove around to the village church, St Kentigern’s which is also known as St Mungo’s to have a look round the church and also see if we could find John Peel’s headstone in the churchyard.
We didn’t have to look for long because as we walked down the main path to the church I spotted a headstone close by a wall to the left of us which looked to be a possibility so over we went. J pointed to it, said it had the name of John Peel on it and when we got closer we saw it was the one we were looking for. I have included at the end of this report a few details about the headstone and John Peel in general.
Here’s what the headstone looks like in situ.
We went inside the church and took the above photo with the sunlight streaming through the windows, lighting up the interior and giving the wooden pews a warm glow. By now J was feeling cold again. He was wearing a jumper but no jacket, which was still soaking wet so he hadn’t bothered putting it on. J dropped some coins into the contribution box, as he always does, and then we had a quick look round before we left, so our visit to the church was only brief. After that we walked back to the car parked just by the church gates and made our way back home. The fells beyond Blencathra were still under heavy cloud but as we made our way over the A66 towards the Penrith roundabout over the M6 J remarked that no rain appeared to have fallen on this area at all, the roads were completely dry with not a vestige of damp anywhere to be seen. Maybe we should have stayed in the east after all.
John Peel
John Peel was a well known farmer and dedicated fox hunter born near Caldbeck around 1776 and who was laid to rest in the churchyard of St. Kentigern’s Church in 1854.
He is the subject of the famous nineteenth century song written by his friend John Woodcock Graves around 1824 and I well remember singing it in my prinary school days, although not in the following Cumbrian dialect –
Did ye ken John Peel in his cwot seay grey?
Did ye ken John Peel at the breck o the day?
Did ye ken John Peel ganging far, far away –
Wid his hounds and his horn in a mwornin?
For the sound o the horn caw’d me fra my bed.
An the cry o the hounds he oft times led,
For Peel’s view holloo wad waken the dead,
Or a fox fra his lair in a mwornin.
or if you prefer the English version:
Do ye ken John Peel with his coat so gray?
Do ye ken John Peel at the break of day?
Do ye ken John Peel when he’s far, far away
With his hounds and his horn in the morning?
‘Twas the sound of his horn brought me from my bed
And the cry of his hounds as he oftimes led,
For Peel’s view holloo would awaken the dead
Or a fox from his lair in the morning.
Having been written in 1824 long before the scarlet coat (known as hunting pink) became established in the 1850s it is likely that Peel’s hunting coat was grey and probably was made from the grey wool provided by local Herdwick sheep.
Regarding what is written on John Peel’s headstone, which was difficult to make out so there may be a few errors –
JOHN PEEL of RUTHWAITE who died
Nov 15th 1854 aged 78 years
Also MARY, his wife who died
Aug 9th 1859 aged 82
Also JONATHAN their son
who died Jan 21st 1806
aged 2 years
Also PETER their son
died Nov 15th 1840
aged 27 years
Also MARY DAVIDSON their
daughter who died Nov 30th 1865
aged 48 years
Also JOHN their son who died
Nov 22nd 1887 aged 90 years