UKH

Black Crag (Borrowdale)

We regularly drive down from Edinburgh to Borrowdale for a day's climbing. Yesterday we arrived at Black Crag, Borrowdale and found that one of the nearby car parks was blocked by well placed logs, reducing spaces to about 4/5 at the adjacent area. I appreciate parking, even paid areas, are a premium everywhere in The Lakes.

Does anyone know the reason for this? Are there alternative parking areas for Black Crag/Shepherd's (apart from the cafe spaces!)?  Thanks.

In reply to Rab6t:

Think it was due to some rock fall on the crag directly behind it. Although that was some months ago.

Frcc post here:

https://www.frcc.co.uk/closure-of-car-park-below-grange-crags-car-park-crag...

In reply to Rab6t:

The National Trust have closed off the lay-by. There had been some rockfall either above or nearby that resulted in the closure, I don't know more than that.

Park at Bowderstone cp, easy walk in from there

In reply to petegunn:

Thanks, that sounds reasonable.

In reply to Mark Eddy:

Thanks Mark 

In reply to Rab6t:

The next closest is the Bowderstone car park and then walk back over the hill. It took three attempts to get one of the spaces in that parking area recently, we got a space at the cafe on the first day, then went to the Bowderstone car park the second morning and were heading to Thirlmere after spending some time on Wodens Face, and walking up to Bowder Crag, when there was a space available for Black Crag, so we popped in.

In reply to Rab6t:

Local info June time from a couple of visits to Black Crag: 

A small pinnacle toppled over at the crag base (Car Park Crag) which took out a smallish tree. There is another one that could fall, a bit like the block that toppled at the base of Via Media at Castle Rock a few years ago. This is quite a long way from the parking. The smallest stones and rockfall didn't get further than ten feet from the fence and the parking, fence etc were unaffected.

The large logs they have blocked the layby with could have been more advantageously placed beside the fence thus stopping any small stones and keeping the layby open. Fairly minor issue I would say. A greater danger would be trees blowing over in a bad wind. 

Whichever quango is responsible, the barriers should be moved back to the fence then we can carry on using the layby.

DC

In reply to Rab6t: I've not been to the cafe much this year but last year Yolandi who owns / runs the cafe was getting increasingly fed up with having an empty cafe but a full car park . As most will know Martin ( the farmer ) was very happy for climbers to park at the cafe and Yolandi has maintained that tradition .  To be honest I think parking at the cafe and then leaving the car whilst going to black crag, even after buying a reasonably priced brew, is a bit much . It's not that much further from the quayfoot car park . Of course the cafe shuts at 5/6 so after that it's not going to be an issue . 

In reply to mike123:

Fair point, and one we should all be aware of. I have parked there before and bought coffee and cake when open, but I can understand it is not a great business trade off when taking up space for a full day.