Shap summit to Shap village 

via Shap Wells & Wet Sleddale reservoir

14miles 1400ft

This memorial is where I parked in the A6 layby on shap summit. It's dedicated to the workers and local community who helped to build the first road for traffic over the summit

Shap fell bothy, sadly no longer in use.

The first signs of some breaks in the cloud over Wild Boar fell

Looking across the valley to one of the Shap fell quarries....

.... and a closer look at the action!

Starting the descent following Wasdale beck to 

Shap Wells. 

(Not be confused with the Wasdale in West Cumbria)

Shap Wells hotel....

.....and the entrance into a very smart foyer

On the hill behind the hotel Blea beck leads up to....

....the monument commemorating the accession to the throne of queen Victoria in 1837

.....and a closer look at Her Majesty

Also on the hillside is wooded area where....

.....Red Squirrels have been encouraged to breed....

.....as well as other wild life like this Coal Tit

The path leaving the hill through a tunnel of bushes

Leaving the Wasdale valley I crossed the moors to 

Wet Sleddale and its reservoir.....

.....where its outlflow was quite a sight given all the recent rains....

....and again

I then made a circuit of the reservoir....

.....stopping for lunch here

I left the reservoir following the river Lowther and was so preoccupied with making detours to bridges after being unable to cross fords due to the river levels, that I forgot to take any photos until I arrived here at Keld

Leaving Keld the path crosses fields passing 

'The Googleby Stone', one of a line of megalithic monuments forming a processional route dating from 2000 to 3000 bc.

Finally the short descent into Shap village to wait for my lift back to the car.

This was a walk I'd been thinking about doing for some time, but always thought I had something better for the day. However this really was a great walk with lots of interest not least the Red Squirrels!