Location

SE - Between the Lune and Dentdale

Details

An excellent site consisting of a grass and heather covered ridge that extends for 6km. The carry up is steep in places and sustained however the effort is well worth it. The site can be silky smooth or gut wrenchingly rough.

Site Officer

Burkitt Rudd : 07811 642533

Postcode for Sat Nav Systems (read the Health Warning!)

LA10 5TA

The bridge at Gawthrop about 1 mile to the North East and down the hill from the car parking.

Getting There

Leave the A65 at Kirby Lonsdale and travel north approx. 4km to Barbon to the east of the A683. Pass through Barbon village heading out on the minor road towards Gawthrop and Dent. This road passes up through Barbondale with the main ridge of Barkin rising steeply on the left. Limited parking can be found in the side of the road before it drops steeply towards Gawthrop.

Getting to takeoff

From the parking area, follow the footpath through the gate into the field beyond. Contour around the hillock and once over the next stile head for the small enclosure of trees up on the fellside. The take off area is close by the small enclosure or above the next wall out on the open fell. DO NOT take off or overfly at low level the field immediately to the right of take off (looking away from the hill).

XC potential

Excellent. The coast at Ravenglass lies approximately 60km away and a more northerly track leads to the Scottish borders.

Permission to use site

Foulsyke Farm / High House Farm

IMPORTANT - Restrictions on use

There is a number limit of ten people on the fell, flying or otherwise. DO NOT walk through, land in or over-fly the field marked as 'out of bounds'. No flying is permitted within two hundred metres of the Combe (NE bowl) during the nesting season. Limited roadside parking. DO NOT obstruct the road or field gates. No school use.

Paragliding

A superb site with large take off and top landing areas. The bottom landing area is boggy in places and can be turbulent low down.

Hang Gliding

A big carry but given the right conditions a take off can be made lower down. The landing field is boggy in places with the occasional hidden drainage ditch. The wind is often well off to the north in the landing area; use of a wind sock is highly recommended. On a good day it can be very lifty, even low down.

Additional Safety Notes

Beware of a marked wind gradient and do not be tempted to take off low down in less than ideal conditions. The area behind the ridge is full of deep gulleys and getting blown back is not an option! The site can become very thermic particularly over areas of scree. Military jets use the area mid week and have been known to fly along the valley at below ridge top height. The site can be affected by sea breeze that causes the wind to rapidly switch such that it then blows over the back. A windsock in the landing area is definitely recommended.

Resources

Don't click on flight logs, download to your PC first (right click and 'Save Link As')

Type	Click to Follow Link	Notes
Flash Earth - Car Park
Flash Earth - Landing
Flash Earth - Take Off
Google Earth - Car Park
Google Earth - Landing
Google Earth - Take Off
Multi Map - Take Off

Follow the links for further details of a site. For flights you will probably need to right click and save the link to your PC before opening Google Earth.
Google Earth links rely on Google Earth being installed on your system. Google Earth provides pan and tilt faciity. You can also upload your flights to GE - use GPS Dump (Links Page) to convert a variety of GPS file formats to a GE kml file
Flash Earth is an alternative to Google Earth but provides a top down view only. To view in Flash Earth, click on the instruction text to clear it - the cross is the spot

A selection of photos showing key aspects of the site. If you have a good photo showing take off and landing areas, then send it to the webmaster. Aerial shots showing the landing area are especially welcome.

Looking SW down the Barkin ridge from roughly above take off. The high point is Calf top (with trig point) at 609 metres

From the south westerly end of the ridge looking back up NE. Take off is roughly at the end of the visible ridge where the edge of the shadow meets the ridge line

Looking down on the take off area which is in the walled area in the middle and left of picture. The area close to the wall running across the picture is used above the area of shadow.

In Spring 2009 Andy Plimmer and Ed Cleasby rebuilt the gate from the road. The old one was in a poor state and the new one is a fine job. Andy reports that getting the gate posts in was a bit of a challenge!

 

Site Records

This page shows records for this site. Some of the older records are not very detailed. More recent records may have an igc file available You can right click and download this to your PC. You can then use IGC Flight replay to view the flight.

Paragliding

FAI Triangle
Distance :	18.2km
Date :	14/04/2007
Pilot :	Jake Herbert
Notes :	Using the ridge and a turn-point over the back
Open Distance XC
Distance :	94.7km
Max Height :	6381ft
Date :	20/05/2008
Pilot :	Burkitt Rudd
Notes :	Take off at south end of the ridge landing a few 100m from the Scottish Border 100.5km via three turn-points Max alt 6381ft. Duration 4hrs 16mins. Glider Gradient Avax SR7

Hang Gliding

Open Distance XC
Distance :	57.9km
Max Height :	5500ft
Date :	Unknown
Pilot :	Unknown