What a Cockup

Today's plans to do Blencathra via Sharp Edge didn't materialise. We consulted MWIS (Mountain Weather Information Service) which forecast light winds but it was the vertical rain and low cloud that caused us to rethink our plans.

We decided on a lesser fell in the form of Great Cockup which is on our Wainwrights 'to-do' list.

The two Cockups (Great and Little) are on the far Western edge of the Northern fells near Bassenthwaite.

It had stopped raining when we started but it was soon clear that the MWIS forecast was wrong. It was blowing an absolute gale, freezing cold and quite hard to stand up.

We made it to the top where we were greeted by some lovely views over the Solway Firth into Scotland. Unfortunately I had forgotten to charge my Satnav last night and the battery decided to die when we were on top. Although we also had traditional map and compass it proved really hard to find the path down as it's not a regularly walked fell and the paths were non-existent in places. As a result we got a bit lost and had to navigate back across heathland with no paths.

It was enjoyable but generally a bit of a Cockup all round

This view across the fields near the bottom is looking south towards Bassenthwaite