Fickle eh?, save Lamington Hill for another day then. I enjoyed walking / activating it on Sunday.
The obvious choices being my two local SOTA summits, both about 10-12 minutes’ drive from the A6:
Hutton Roof Crags G/LD-052, 30-minutes’ walk from parking at SD 55235 76147
Arnside Knott G/LD-058, 20-minutes’ walk from parking at SD 45804 77237
Not overly fickle. Just a change of plans. The two in mind are;
Gummer’s How and and Whitbarrow - Lord’s Seat
Arnside Knott(nice ice cream shop on the front) and Hutton Roof are both good ones to do, I have done those ones.
Cheers
john
They are the other two local favourites of mine (the latter dominates the view from my upstairs bedroom). I didn’t mention them because they are a longer diversion from your drive to Scotland. Have fun.
Thanks, we are splitting the drive with a stop over in Carlisle now.
All this is dependent on the WX.
Hmm, well I wouldn’t park there, not nowadays… Actually I did back in 1974 when visiting family friends in Bathgate. After a demonstation of model aircraft flying by Robert (the son), he suggested that I demonstrate my radio kit from what they call locally The Knock. I parked up at the road junction which in those days was more open. I was surprised how closed in it was when I activated Cairnpapple many years later.
For my mobile set up I ran a Pye Cambridge AM10D to a halo in my Mini. I worked a couple of locals and also Geoff G4AFJ and Bev G3TVY operating GM4AFJ/P in a tent near Blairgowrie at a height of 1480 feet above sea level. They used a Pye Cambridge running 7 watts to an 8 element yagi. Their operations were reported briefly in the VHF Bands column in Short Wave Magazine in September 1974 written by Mike Dormer G3DAH.
*“G3TVY and G4AFJ seem to have made a considerable impression on the Scots, one of whom took the trouble to ring up and say so, during their recent trip to Perthshire where they operated on two metres.Their techniques were good, they did all the right things about access to sites and they seem to have made a lot of friends in the process.Go thou and do likewise!”
Hmm, pre-SOTA protocol… 
Oh… and a Scottish wildcat passed by just as I finished operating. I’ve only ever seen two and the other was a fleeting glimpse when ascending a summit… 
Hi Andy I just had a look at a summit that I recently added a note to regarding access (GI/AH-010). I don’t see any tags. How do we mere mortals add them?
Thanks Robert - article updated! 
Brilliant… I’ve never spotted that. I’ve just added one.
@MM0FMF you know what the next question is… how do we search for tagged summits?
I’ve just added a couple - it seems that you have to submit an article as well in order to save the tags…
Great Mell fell G/LD 035 is less than 2km from the road. And even easier:-
Little Mell fell, G/LD 037 is less than half a K from the road and its an easy walk up on grass.
And both are 2 pointers
It’s not trivial or a drive on - but plenty of VFM available from Blencathra G/LD-008. It’s got to be one of the easiest UK 8 pointers.
And it’s feasibly en route to GM. Indeed, I have activated it when heading up to Glasgow for a gig (or heading back).
A lovely little winter 5-pointer, handy for the M6. But be prepared to get the heart rate elevated! There’s about 125m climb in that 1/2 km with most of that climb in the middle 1/4 km!
Little Mell fell is a good climb. Starts off ok then wow…
If you take it head on from the Hause then there is steep grass to contend with, but head left after the gate and after a couple of hundred metres there is a bit of a path that makes it easier.
… and only about 20 minutes drive from the M6 Penrith junction, if starting from these parking places GMF: 54.6137, -2.9190, LMF: 54.6036, -2.8940. Both very pleasant walks, and I revisit them every year.
But no shelter at the tops. I remember doing LMF one winter with a very strong summit wind blowing the fallen snow into a low-level white-out and trying to use my bothy bag as a windbreak for me and my two cocker spaniels, but - with the BB flapping noisily like a wild thing - the dogs were too spooked by my attempts. Almost a failed activation (thank goodness for regular 2m FM chasers).
BTW: is this topic title a bit misleading now?
I gave up on controlling topic drift many years ago, Andy, they go where they will, just like a chat in a pub - and probably none the worse for it! I see my main role as moderator as controlling bad behaviour.
It is bound to be a bit mixed up after Andy spilt all the 0’s and 1’s over the floor in the server room… PS + 1 for Blencathra - a relatively easy 8 Points more or less next to the M6
5mile walk for Blencathra - fairly easier… :-o ?
3.8Km each way (But 650m ascent) - so agreed not a 5 min walk but still (in my opinion) the easiest 8 points in the Lake District. (High Street is also short but the drive to the end of Haweswater makes it much longer). Not drive on - but relatively easy. (Well much easier than Pillar).
