Nine Standards Rigg
Walk date – 13th August 2025
Distance – 4.5 miles
Weather – hot, humid and very hazy
It was set to be very warm and humid today so with that in mind we decided on a shortish walk, which wouldn’t be too crowded, didn’t involve many very steep climbs and had the benefit of plenty of parking space. We decided on Nine Standards Rigg which we last set foot on in 2017. The second photo of that walk was a shot of a signpost which indicated the route of the public bridleway, so before I forget to mention it, that signpost was nowhere to be seen today. Nothing quietly decaying on the ground, not even a stump of wood could we find despite spending a few minutes searching around. It could have been officially removed or simply fallen down and blown away in a past gale, there’s no way of knowing. I just thought I’d mention it in case walkers decided to use the route and spent time fruitlessly searching for the signpost which we mentioned in our 2017 walk report. However, as the wide path is clear to see from the roadside a signpost isn’t really necessary. We varied our route a little for today’s walk when compared to the one indicated on the 2017 walk and simply did an ‘out and back’ from the roadside parking up to Nine Standards. Walkers who would like a longer and more challenging route may find something more to their liking at this link –
https://ninestandards.org.uk/walking/
Route
Out and back to Nine Standards Rigg from the B6270 road between Nateby and Reeth.
A shot of the B6270, snaking across the open moorland and looking in the Nateby direction, with its line of snow poles placed at intervals. As can be seen parking isn’t a problem up here.
Across the road from where we parked is High Seat and obviously not the one in the Lake District. From its summit walkers can walk the ridge above the Mallerstang valley as we did on 31st August 2024.
We followed a slightly different path from our parking spot just to vary things a little which took us through this patch of limestone pavement. Its very warm and despite having started out in t-shirts and shorts both of us soon had shiny faces.
The gate in the distance is what we’ll pass through on our return leg. Meanwhile we continue stepping along the limestone pavement.
The path passes this little nameless tarn where a very light breeze was ruffling the surface. The light breeze soon dissipated so we were back to warm and humid again. It was nice while it lasted though.
A line of sheared sheep plodding slowly up the slope as we made our way down to Rigg beck. Even though they have been sheared it looked as though they were still feeling the heat of the morning. Behind the wall are the crags of High Dukerdale which rise up on both sides of the beck as it makes its way down to Kirkby Stephen.
Descending the steep path down to Rigg Beck where I stopped to take this shot of the point at which the beck takes a sudden plunge down into Dukerdale. A fence across the beck ensures that sheep don’t also take a sudden plunge.
Crossing Rigg beck, not as dry and parched as the last time we crossed it but still not much more than a dribble.
A look back to Tailbridge Hill rising up above the crags of High Dukerdale as we make our way up beside the wall.
The cairn towards the left of the skyline is what we are now heading for. The wall has curved over to the left of us and we are now crossing open moorland.
The view back across Rigg beck towards Tailbridge Hill. As is obvious from the photo there were no long distance views today thanks to the hazy conditions.
In the distance, beyond the tree-lined deep cleft formed by Rigg beck, is the village of Nateby. Beyond Nateby everything is pretty much lost in the haze.
We’ve reached the cairn/shelter which I mentioned a couple of shots ago, and here we had a short break to mop ourselves down and take some water on board. The light breeze returned while we were here which was also refreshing but it wasn’t quite enough to cope with the temperature which, like us, was still climbing.
Not the ‘missing signpost’ I mentioned at the beginning and it wasn’t very useful to us in any case. We’d just come from the Nateby road and we weren’t going to Hartley either but I thought I’d take a shot of it anyway. It was plonked in the middle of nowhere at the junction of some very faint paths. If it was in situ in 2017 we wouldn’t have noticed it on our walk then as by this time we were on our way up to the second cairn we visited and Rollinson Hags but I did wonder if the Australian fellow we met then had been confused by it.
Another look back towards Tailbridge Hill (centre right) and High Seat, on the left skyline. Behind High Seat we can see the shape of Wild Boar Fell with its long flat plateau and I’m guessing that the right hand skyline will be the Howgills.
The topograph on Nine Standards Rigg comes into view where the two walkers moving away had just been reading the information on it.
When we reached it I had the usual difficulty taking a photo of it but with J acting as support I eventually managed it. I also noticed something which I hadn’t noticed on our 2017 walk. Around the rim of the circular plate had been placed the following words …..
‘TO COMMEMORATE …..
….. THE WEDDING OF …..
….. HRH PRINCE CHARLES …..
….. TO LADY DIANA SPENCER …..
….. 29TH JULY 1981″. Well, that marriage didn’t age well, did it? I wondered if the organisers of the topograph now regretted their decision. There is nothing on Nine Standards Rigg commemorating his second marriage.
Between the topograph and the Nine Standards new stone slabs have been laid presumably to prevent erosion, they looked as though they had been put down very recently too.
There were several people around the Standards when we arrived so we dropped down a short distance to this shelter ‘arrangement’ where we had a break while we waited for them to move on to their next objective. Vast swathes of open moorland from Cumbria to Yorkshire were in our view.
Our view of the tops of some of the Standards from the shelter ‘arrangement’. I’ve called it an “arrangement’ because I don’t think that it is a shelter in the accepted sense of the word, it seemed to be nothing more than a heap of slabs of stone haphazardly placed in a hollow below the Standards. Whatever it is it was somewhere to sit in the sunshine and enjoy the cooling effect of the light breeze which came our way from time to time.
Eventually everyone drifted away from the summit and we were able to go back up the slope and take some shots. We began at the end nearest the topograph so I numbered them Standards 1 to 9 from that aspect.
Standard 1 …..
….. Standards 2 and 3 …..
….. Standards 4 and 5 …..
….. and Standards 6, 7, 8 and 9.
Standards 8 and 9 were interesting with regard to their shape, 8 was slender and conical which made it look like an upside down ice cream cornet, whereas 9 eschewed tradition completely and was a tall, vertical square construction.
J sitting in the sun and taking advantage of the circular seating on the bell shaped Standard 7.
With the topograph in view over on the left here are the first three Standards again. The following link has plenty of useful information about the Nine Standards should you wish to know more about them –https://ninestandards.org.uk/history/
From the Standards we made our way back to the topograph noting that the stone slabs extended at least as far as the trig point over on the left skyline. How far the stone slabs extended beyond the trig point I can’t say because at this point we left the slabs and began our return leg using the path we had used on our outward leg.
The signpost in the wilderness appears again behind which are High Seat and Wild Boar Fell. The hazy conditions haven’t improved.
Back at the cairn/shelter once again.
Crossing Rollinson beck …..
….. and now heading back beside the wall to Rigg beck. Notice the number of ‘shake holes’ in the land beyond the beck, limestone moors are full of them
The crossing at Rigg beck and the climb out of it.
Back at the little nameless tarn where some cattle were now in residence. They only wanted a drink, I wanted to plunge myself into it as the weather has become very warm now and the sun is directly overhead.
Gate number one comes into view and no trouble with the latch when we reached it.
J closing gate number two and again no trouble with the latch.
The second gate leads us out onto this wide grassy path studded with slabs of limestone …..
….. and eventually our car came back into view so we left the grassy path and walked the remaining few yards over the rough grass back to it. After stowing our packs and peeling our t-shirts away from sweating backs we each had glugs of the cold water kept in the car for just such an occasion, especially today as the water we were carrying had turned so warm it only needed a tea bag to morph into a cuppa. Believe it or not we pack a bottle of water to keep in the car ready for our return even in the winter. There’s something about a glug of ice cold water at the end of a walk, whatever the weather, that’s really refreshing and invigorating. As extra invigoration seemed to be the order of the day J had the car’s air-conditioning on full blast most of the way home. Shame about the haze though.