Location

N Lakes - S of Keswick

Details

An excellent light wind site; can be inter-flown with Latrigg. The cliff edge requires a take-off with conviction! This is a good reliable thermal site and is in the right place for convergence. Also a classic afternoon site in a gentle seabreeze.

Site Officer

Gordie Oliver : 07830 281986

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

CA12 4TE

Just north of Castlerigg Farm which in turn is 500m north of Rakefoot Farm

Getting There

Approach from the A591. Descending into Keswick from the south, take a minor road on the left leading to Castlerigg campsite. Parking space is limited to 6 cars. DO NOT block road/access to Rakefoot Farm. There is a possibility of parking at Castlerigg campsite - a donation is required.

Getting to takeoff

From the road end climb the hillside heading towards the right following the line of the field boundary. The take off is 30m beyond the small gate.

XC potential

To be completed

Permission to use site

Rakefoot Farm, Castlerigg Farm and The National Trust

IMPORTANT - Restrictions on use

SAFETY: This site lies in the path of the busiest military low flying corridor in the country. THIS SITE MUST BE NOTAM'd prior to ANY MID WEEK FLYING.(Tel: 0800 51 55 44 - SITE CODE 17.078 GRID REF: NY 277 214). In the light of both the most recent incident, and in the light of incidents that have occurred in the not too distant past, the CSC Committee feels that the following is now the only course of action open to them: WALLA CRAG IS NOW A NOTAM ONLY SITE (for ALL mid week flying). Any pilot who is known to have flown on Walla Crag 'mid-week' and has failed to carry out the correct NOTAM procedure WILL BE NAMED AND SHAMED. Continued abuse of the SITE RULES governing flying at Walla Crag WILL RESULT IN THE SITE BEING CLOSED and measures put in place to prevent future flying at the site. DO NOT overfly the farm buildings at any time - failure to observe this request will lose the site! An exclusion area exists over the farm. Permission must be sought from the farmer prior to flying. The farmer will identify a suitable landing field. Keep the head of the road clear of parked cars. Use the footpath along the edge of the field to exit by. No dogs allowed on the site.

Paragliding

The HG emergency landing field should be no problem in light winds. Just below take-off height an easy top landing can be made 100m to the right (near the approach path). Keep away from the tress please.

Hang Gliding

Care with the take-off; brief your wiremen carefully. If 30m below take-off go for the bottom landing field. Leave it too late and it could be the emergency landing filed which is difficult due to size, slope and trees.

Additional Safety Notes

THIS SITE LIES IN THE PATH OF THE BUSIEST MILITARY LOW FLYING CORRIDOR IN THE COUNTRY. THIS SITE MUST BE NOTAM'd PRIOR TO ANY MID WEEK FLYING. Correctly identify the take-off point. There is a small, flat heather covered rigging area in front of the wall 30m beyond a small access gate. The take-off is just in front of this. Easy cliff take-off but no second chances. Top land well back behind the wall - in moderate winds rotor may exist some distance back from the edge.

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
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.

Walla Crags from the air with Blencathra in the background. 2 gliders are in the take off area. Photo by Peter Rycroft.

 

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

Open Distance XC
Distance :	32.5km
Date :	14/05/1996
Pilot :	Mark Stuart

Hang Gliding

Open Distance XC
Distance :	57.9km
Max Height :	5350ft
Date :	Unknown
Pilot :	Unknown