Haig Pit

Location

W Lakes - Whitehaven

Details

A large site giving plenty of room for all on a good day.

Site Officer

Gordie Oliver : 07830 281986

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

CA28 9BG

Haig Colliery Mining Museum. This is shown on both 1:25000 and 1:50000 maps as the museum just to the south of the parking area.

Getting There

Directions are quite difficult to give, even with a map: From the west side of Whitehaven town centre, drive up Rosemary Lane (on the left of the only multi-storey car park in town). This leads onto High Road, take the third right, Solway Road, immediately right, and immediately right again onto a dirt track. Travel past the rugby field and onto the car park. A print out of the Whitehaven street map from the site guide OS or Google maps may be useful; alternatively use the Multimap website. If you decide not to drive right to the site then park at the end of the road on the southern side of the harbour and carry your gear the short walk up the path south (not the fenced off coastal path).

Getting to takeoff

Driveable or follow the description given.

XC potential

It is not difficult to fly 3.2 km south to a large bowl. Do not fly on as far as the lighthouse unless you have just witnessed somebody returning successfully and you are an experienced pilot. Constantly monitor your height - top land while it's still an option!When the wind blows westerly, St Bees is possible but not recommended, as there is a lot of sink as you turn the last corner making for the sandy beach. If the tide is in, you are probably in big trouble, so for the sake of 180m, top land before this corner.`

Permission to use site

No need to ask.

IMPORTANT - Restrictions on use

Experience at top landing required once away from take off there is no bottom landing due to boulders and the sea!

Paragliding

Top landable for PGs and a lower option in front of take-off, if you haven't the height. Other than this, there are a lot of large boulders and water.

Hang Gliding

Only top landable for HGs

Additional Safety Notes

When landing behind take-off, keep forwards to avoid possible rotor. If going all the way along the sandstone cliffs to the lighthouse, 5km south, constantly monitor your height and top land while it's still an option! NO SAFE BOTTOM LANDING.The small bottom landing areas are not suitable for a hanglider unless in an emergency.

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 Street View - Parking		The turn left into Solway Road. You need to go straight through the entrance in front. You can see the rugby pitch noted in the access instructions
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

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.

No photos available for this site. Good quality photos of CSC sites always required.

 

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

Turn Point Ridge Run
Distance :	29.6km
Date :	17/12/2006
Pilot :	Martin Sandwith
Notes :	An out and return to St Bees main cliff take off point and probably the first crossing of Whithaven Harbour with a Paraglider. Gordie Oliver points out that the crossing is not recommended as it's "well dodgy".

Hang Gliding

No records for this site