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Mardale Madness - Ritchie Crag Traditional Geocache

This cache has been archived.

martlakes: Time for the Madness to end! [8D]

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Hidden : 2/6/2006
Difficulty:
2.5 out of 5
Terrain:
3.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

Mardale Madness No.5 - Cunning cached conundrums around Haweswater.

Each cache in the Mardale Madness series is a standard cache - find and fill in the logbook as normal.

Each cache also contains several copies of a cunning puzzle - please take one. Solve the puzzle and email me the answer. If you find all the caches and complete all the puzzles you will receive the coordinates for a final, bonus cache.

MM5 Ritchie Crag is on the east side of Haweswater, about 3km from the end of the road at Mardale Head. There is some parking space at the bottom of the Old Corpse Road.

After the ascent of the Old Corpse Road (OCR) Ritchie Crag is a great place to sit and admire the view. The OCR is still quite a good track, although a bit water-worn in places. It gives fine views of the waterfalls in Hopgill and passes a couple of ruined buildings (which must have had a brilliant view). According to Wainwright in his ‘Far Eastern Fells’ the OCR was used to transport the dead from Mardale for burial in Shap. Later, Mardale must have acquired a church and graveyard because the bodies had to be exhumed when the reservoir was built. They were reburied in Shap. The church, pub and houses were all demolished before the flood came.

This can be combined with the others in the series for a full circuit of the lake. The permissive path along the shore from Mardale Head has a branch that leads up to the road at the start of the OCR.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Gbc bs fznyy fgrc, 11.5z sebz fhzzvg pnvea.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)