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Swindale, Old Corpse Road, Naddle Beck, Rosgill Moor, Cumbria.
 [14.9 km]  Wed 06 Feb 2019
Lat/Long: 54.521120, -02.740837
OS Grid ref: NY 52144 14233
 A dark drive north along the M6 where I left at Shap to turn west through the village and via the lanes to Swindale Valley. There is a small car park area by the single-track road at the east end of the valley. Just after this is a sign saying no parking on the road further on. It had come light when I set off to head south west along the road. I passed the water intake weir and on to Truss Gap farm buildings and on to a point where a rough track turns off left.
Fox on the way

Heading up Swindale
Water intake

Site of Swindale Church and School
Swindale Church and School
This was the location of the Swindale Church and School. All that remains is a low pile of rubble behind the wall. I have a picture of the school from an old postcard showing the building, children and teacher. I did my best to take a photo of the same view. There was low cloud as I continued along the road and it still felt quite chilly. The road ends at Swindale Head where I turned right to follow the sign saying Old Corpse Road.
All that's left - a bit of rubble
The path heads up a wet and partly muddy grass track to a ford where the track gets even worse and extremely wet. A sharp left turn took me up the fell to another ford which wasn't very obvious as a point that needed crossing. After that the track was in better condition and easier under foot. Near the summit I stopped to take a photo looking back down the way I'd come. I continued over towards the summit and left the track to turn right across open fell which still had several snowfields lying on the ground.
Heading up The Old Corpse Road

From the Old Corpse Road looking down Swindale
My first objective was to have a look at a minor summit called Brown How which I passed and started my descent to the north east across some very boggy ground to Aaron's Beald which is a ruined stone wall rectangle. It was difficult finding a way down to avoid the running water coming off the fell. I reached a track at Guerness Gill which crosses the gill buy a small stone bridge which has a steel pipe carrying the water underneath. A little downhill is a 12 inch cast iron pipe. The continuing path to the north east started off quite good but soon vanished completely and there was nothing on the ground to follow.
Looking towards Haweswater
There were the occasional concrete marker posts for the pipeline I’d seen earlier. The gloomy weather was quite windy and the rain started with a vengeance. I hurriedly put my waterproof trousers on and continued walking along the line of a stone wall. The map I was using appears to cross the wall but there was no stile or crossing points. I stayed with the wall until I found a gate through which I was able to regain my original planned route. Off to my right is a route I've walked before that follows a wall over Harper Hills. I turned off left to follow another non-existent track down into Naddle Beck.
MCWW Manchester Corporation Waterworks 
It is shown on the map but there is no track of any kind on the ground. At High Forest the route crossed a river where I saw an interesting ‘V’ notch weir fitted in the river to monitor the flow. However there was no level recording equipment. I set off down the stream and turned left to head for a gate across some terribly boggy ground. After passing through two gates I noticed one of my gloves had dropped out of my pocket so I had to return almost a kilometre to the v-notch Weir.
Makeshift V notch
That was where I'd taken my gloves off to take a photo. I hadn't seen the missing glove so I turned round to follow my GPS route that I'd recorded earlier. Fortunately on the way back I found the glove lying on the heather. I continued through the gates where I came to a stone a track that took me down to Naddle Farm. Before the farm buildings I turned right to take the track over Naddle Beck. The map shows a ford but there was hardly any water in the river. I assume this is due to an intake weir just upstream. The rain had stopped and I continued up the rough track to eventually reach a wall where I reached the moor tops with improved views though there was still lots of low cloud. The track was indistinct for a while but improved as it descended back into Swindale. Most of it was horribly wet.
Ford at Naddle Beck