Whitbarrow Scar

Location

SE Lakes - nr Levens (A590)

Details

An excellent site, very spectacular but not often flown. Best flown in light to moderate winds and should be avoided in stronger winds due to rotor at the top and base of the cliffs. The adjacent SW face has been flown and is reportedly very good but little is known about it other than winds should be on the light side, otherwise it gets rough.

Site Officer

:

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

LA8 8EU - This is the closest mail delivery point to the flying site and is positioned at:

Ravens Lodge at the easterly car parking area

Getting There

From the A590T near Gilpin Bridge take a minor road that leads towards the cliffs. A second minor road turns off to Ravens Lodge farm. Park just beyond farm in a small earth layby if walking in. HG pilots can drive through a gate into the quarry (ask at farm for permission and a key). A track leads to the south end of the quarry. Awkward track up through the trees.

Getting to takeoff

If parking just beyond the farm, walk through the gate and follow the track via a bedding plane to the extreme south end of the face. A vague path winds up through the trees to the T.O. edge. Various take off places exist.

Permission to use site

Ravens Lodge Farm; access and bottom landing field. Whitbarrow Lodge; for site access. Kirket Nook; for SW face landing field. The gate is sometimes locked - see the farmer for advice.

Additional Safety Notes

Power lines in bottom landing areas. Rotor below cliff top and back from T.O. edge. Telephone at Millside. Take care on launch.

Paragliding

A superb cliff site with a very impressive SE face. Good in light winds bit beware of strong compression in moderate winds. The take off is at a cliff edge! Don't scratch below the top due to the presence of rotor. Small trees and hidden gullies abound on the top so care when top landing; check out any top landing areas before flying.

Hang Gliding

The main face has no top landing. See PG notes above for additional information. The bottom landing is easy but check the locations of the power lines.

XC potential

Good leading into the heart of the South Lakes - Coniston Old Man beckons.

Videos

This video is a flight on the SE face of Whitbarrow starting from the south end and flying NE. The video finishes with a view of the landing field. Look out for the pylons.

Photos

Click on the photo for a full size image.

Photo 1 - A view of the SE face of Whitbarrow Scar from the Lyth valley

Photo 2 - The car parking area behind Raven's Lodge. The walk up starts to the right of the cone

Photo 3 - The bedding plane on the way up

Photo 4 - At the top of the bedding plane the track contracts a bit but carries on upwards

Photo 5 - The track enters the woods by a fence. Carry on through here

Photo 6 - Shortly after photo 5, you will see a bench on the right. Turn right immediately after and take the small path diagonally up the hill. After a climb will will go through a gap in a wall. Immediately after this follow the right arrow through a gate in the wall. Keep following the path up the hill and you will eventually end up on open ground. Here you can choose to go to the SE or SW take off sites

Photo 7 - A view from the SW take off looking SW

Photo 8 - A view from the SW take off looking NW

Photo 9 - A view from the SE take off looking ENE. Levens village is in the centre

Photo 10 - A view from the SE take off looking SE. The Kent estuary is in the middle ground

Photo 11 - Looking down on the SE face. An impressive place to fly!

Photo 12 - Looking down on the landing field from above the SE face. Don't miss the high tension power lines in front of the A590

Local Information - Pubs/Food etc

Nearest pubs to the site - for post flying debriefing only! You may find details of other facilities here

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

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.

No paragliding records available for this site

No hang gliding records available for this site

Data Resources

Follow the links to see the site in Google Earth and Google Street view. To access the former, you will need to have Google Earth installed on your PC. 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.

Link	Resource Type	Notes
	Google Earth - Car Park
	Google Street View - Parking	A good view of the east side of Whitbarrow Scar. The track on the right leads to Ravens Lodge