Stag events in The Lake District. Ghyll scrambling, Church Beck, Coniston. June 19th 2010

Many groups organising stag & hen events now consider outdoor activities in The Lake District as part of the package of things to do when a bunch of mates go away for the weekend to celebrate one of them getting married.

When best man Tom Macmillan decided to organise the stag weekend for his mate Euan, he contacted Kendal Mountaineering Services with a view to including Canadian canoeing as a half day session for the stag party.

Unfortunately at the time of booking, water levels here in the Lake District were so low that the river journey Tom was specifically interested in was not a viable proposition. Iain suggested either a beginners caving session in the Yorkshire Dales National Park or a ghyll scrambling & canyoning session in Church Beck at Coniston in The Lake District as suitable alternatives and the guys decided to go for the latter.

The water levels had not improved since Tom's initial enquiry and Church Beck was as low as Iain has ever seen it. At the get in point (first photograph) there was very little flow at all but above the dam about a 3rd of the way up the ghyll there was noticably more water.

In this second photo in the gorge, the guys enjoyed cooling off and ducking the groom who had to endure all sorts of antics throughout the ghyll session. Iain was sure that he must have thinking "with mates like these - who needs enemies!"

Above here, at the next waterfall, is where parties attending a ghyll scrambling session with us exit the lower ghyll and then head to the top of the ghyll to commence the Church Beck descent or canyoning part of the trip.

We had already met & passed one large group in the ghyll and found another similarly large group about to descend from the top. Iain could see that queue situations were starting to develop and as ghyll scrambling is all about "having fun but keeping moving" he decided to head back down to below Miners Bridge, lower the party down the "big waterfall" and then head back up to the top of the ghyll to start there.

In this third shot, the groom gets lowered down the Miners Bridge fall whilst others in the team look on.

This plan worked well, as by the time we got back to the head of the ghyll the other group had completed the first lower allowing us to keep moving. The next time we caught up with them they were at the Miners Bridge fall, but as we had already done this fall we were able to leap frog them and get ahead.

Well, the leapfrogging plan would have been fine - however, ghyll scrambling in the Lake District on a hot sunny summers day was clearly on everyones agenda and we found 30 people waiting to do the next section down.

Fortunately they all wanted to do the "top jump" unprotected allowing Iain the opportunity to sneak through and keep the group moving once again.

Photo four shows the middle jump with our party (in red tops) contemplating taking a leap, one guy has just done it. You have to leap well out on the middle jump as the water is not at all deep at the very base of the waterfall but appears to be bottomless just beyond!

Just beyond this view is the final slide down the chockstone in to the pool below.

The groom - Euan, found this a challenge indeed and of course - all of his mates took delight in trying to shove him off down it!

Boys will be boys! Iain hopes they enjoyed the rest of their weekend as much as they enjoyed their ghyll scrambling session with us.

Remember that we offer stag and hen events here in The Lake District and can put together a combination of outdoor activities you require. The last hen event was in April and can be viewed here on our blog.