Carrow Rigg Gash
| Grid Ref: NY951957 Aspect: W&E |
| Altitude: 229 mtrs Walk in: 25 mins |
The crag lies on the bracken infested hillside overlooking the woods of Billsmoor Park, 2 km north of Elsdon. It can only just be seen from the road. Owing to the boggy valley floor between the road and the crag, the best approach is from Bowershield Farm. Follow the B6341 north from Elsdon for 1.5 km and turn right along a tarmac farm road to Bowershield Farm where you can park on the grass adjacent to the tarmac area, which the farmer wishes to keep clear for farm equipment. Go through the gate, past the farm buildings and head across the burn towards the rocky hill ahead, passing the end of and old stone wall. A hundred metres or so below the rocks, contour leftwards round the hill to the grassy ridge. Descend this to just above a knoll where the Gash can be seen a couple of hundred metres to the north.
General[edit]
An unusual gash on the moor where, during the last Ice Age, the ice has moved a large chunk of the hillside downhill, leaving a deep chasm behind. This has then half filled with boulders and rubble creating a canyon some 300 metres long and up with rock walls up to 6 metres high and at one end filled with boulders hosting not only a few problems, but also some very deep caves and subterranean passages. A deal of quarrying has gone on, adding to the general mayhem.
Rock[edit]
Fell Sandstone Carboniferous, Dinantian
Pretty good and clean.
Routes/Bouldering[edit]
Routes:
A couple of poor looking lines of 6/7 metres exist on the upper quarry wall.
Problems:
Not bad, but a rope is needed for cleaning and something to remove the heather from the topouts.
History[edit]
The gash was stumbled on, or rather in, by John Dalrymple on a crag hunt in August 2003 and was visited a week later by John and Bob Smith. 4 problems were done, but there have been no other recorded visits except by farmers retrieving sheep from down the holes in the floor.