Buttermere Moss

Location

NW Lakes - Buttermere

Details

This site has lovely grassy flat-topped take off areas, big fields to land in and friendly farmers in Buttermere. The site makes for a very pleasant top to bottom if you haven't flown for a while. Best flown in a true westerly.

Site Officer

Steve Giles : 01768 780297

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

CA13 9XA

Buttermere Youth Hostel. Postcode point is 100 metres SE of youth hostel along B5289

Getting There

If heading from Keswick, drive west into Braithwaite. There, take the second left onto a narrow lane that eventually winds up Newlands Pass. At the top of this pass you normally park (NY193176) to walk up (see below). If you have 2 cars leave one in Buttermere Village and drive back up. If you only have one car, leave it in the village and walk east from NY179172.

Getting to takeoff

From the top car park, scramble up the steep path leading south. The path soon levels out. Follow it SW to High Snockrigg and choose the best wind-facing slope (from top car park it is a 15 minutes walk).

XC potential

Buttermere Moss has excellent XC potential, but even exploring up and down the valley is satisfying.

Permission to use site

Ask the farmers at Wilkinsyke Farm OR at Croft House Farm (next to the pubs) in Buttermere Village for a landing field BEFORE going to the take off area. You must then land in the correct field (see site map for detail)for the permission given. If no landing field available or no consent given then you will be restricted to landing at the foot of the fell. (This is rough ground and is for experienced pilots only).

IMPORTANT - Restrictions on use

BOTTOM LANDING FIELDS ARE CLOSED FOR THE TIME BEING. No restriction on landing in bottom fields outside the lambing season BUT YOU MUST ONLY LAND in a permitted and designated landing field agreed with the farmer PRIOR to flying. See the Site Map for which farm owns which fields.

Paragliding

A good site under the right conditions but can become very turbulent in the wrong conditions (see Safety Notes).

Hang Gliding

Top landable with large (negotiated) landings fields in the valley.

Additional Safety Notes

Keep an eye on the state of the lakes for an idea of how windy it is down in the valley, and for signs of the sea breeze approaching. The sea breeze normally makes a difference early afternoon. Care should be taken if flying in a SW moderate wind due to the big fells across the valley that will cause the conditions to become turbulent.

Resources

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

Type	Click to Follow Link	Notes
Google Earth - Car Park
Google Earth - Car Park 2
Google Earth - Take Off
Google Street View - Parking		Newlands Hause parking. The track to take off is the (steep!) one on the right going directly up the nose.

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

Local Information

Pubs

Nearest pubs to the site - for post flying debriefing only!

No pub details are available for this site. Send your recommendations to the webmaster.

 

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.

The parking area at the top of the Newlands Valley; Buttermere to the left in the photo. The track up to take off is behind the photographer

Looking down to the landing areas from take off. The rough ground area is between the 2 roads to the left of the parked cars. The other fields are behind the Fish Hotel, the prominent white building in the vee.

One of the take off areas. Essentially the top is a small plateau; choose the best take off spot depending on the wind direction.

 

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

Turnpoint Flight
Distance :	50.8km
Date :	22/05/2010
Pilot :	Phil Colbert
Notes :	See http://www.xcleague.com/xc/flights/20101005.html for details
IGC File :	Right click to download

Hang Gliding

No records for this site