Cawfields

Grid Ref: NY716667   Aspect: N   Routes: 2   Max Length: 23   Average Length: 19

Altitude: 232 mtrs   Walk in: 10 mins

Turn north off the B6318 military Road opposite the Milecastle Inn, 4 miles east of Greenhead. Follow the road for 1 mile to the car park and picnic area next to the flooded quarry. Walk along the road towards Cawfields Farm and the crag soon comes into view on the right.

General:

Cawfields Crag is half a kilometre long and, in places, a good 20 metres high. Unfortunately it is broken and vegetated and has received little attention. Two lines are described here, but there are more available. The crag is very similar in character to the other Whin Sill crags and also has the Roman Wall running along the top. The impressive quarried section above the pool has, as far as is known, been sensibly ignored.

Rock:  

Whinstone Quartz Dolerite, Permo-Carboniferous

This is bottom of the range Whinstone, only a slight improvement on the dreadful quarried variety.

Routes/Bouldering:  

No recorded routes.

Problems:

One of the attributes of Whinstone is that it is renowned for being hopeless for bouldering. Cawfields is no exception.

History:

The first ascensionists of Engineers Buttress are unknown and P Baines and A Frazer climbed Earth Invasion some time prior to 1984. Mick Johnson is said to have done 15 routes, but the descriptions are not available.

Name	Grade	Stars	Description
Earth Invasion	HVS 5b		F.A. Ernie Goodyear (1983)
Engineers Buttress	MVS 4c