Haweswater RSPB Sanctuary is to be found on the border of Cumbria and Yorkshire at a Shap Fell.
This is the steepest main-line railway incline in the British Isles and has long been a change to railway engines.
Shap Fell is the website with some amazing Videos of Steam and Electric locomotives climbing this famous route which is parent of the West Coast Route from London Euston to Glasgow Central.
I travelled this way in 1962 with steam lon the front and two banking engines on the back and just managed to get over the summit.
After the steam days, Electric Locos like 87014 Knight Of The Thistle could easily traverse the summit at 100 mph without any thought at all.
However, we went here to try to see a Golden Eagle, almost extinct. There is a point here called Eagles Nest that was the home to some of them. Not now, no sightings for five years. (See the link for photos).
It was raining in drizzle so we set forth valiantly and quite un prepared for the weather and climbed up the ascending valley as seen in the gallery.
There were lots of gates along the way which represented anchor points and challenge to get to the next one. We dod not make the summit; but had we done so we would have found Eagles Nest, without eagles. So we all got back to the car, soaked, and returned to Alnmouth where we had lunch out in the Mill Stream teas shop.
