Chandravadan Parekh’s Monument.
This monument lies in Greenup Gill. Thousands of walkers must pass within fifty yards of it every year as it located just off the popular Coast to Coast route, but there is no vestige of a path to it.
The monument came to my attention in Bob Orrell’s ‘Lakeland Monuments, book 1 - North.’ Sadly, having been in contact with Mr.Orrell, there is little likelihood of Book 2 being published at present.
Permission to place the cache was given by the National Trust in Borrowdale. The cache itself is located under the stone. It is a simple tat free box, containing just a log book and pencil. Please, no one liners. Take a few moments to reflect on the loss of a young life amongst these hills; and take a few minutes to write up your log.
The inscription reads (or read) as follows. It is now difficult to decipher.
We have set up this stone in memory of our dear friend Chandravadan Parekh aged 15years who came down with us from High Raise and died of exposure near this place on March 18th 1968. Our attempts to revive him were unsuccessful and by his shattering death he has made us forever humbler and more gentle in our lives.
David Atkinson Hillary Hutchinson
David Baron Peter John Ingrams
Graham Birkett Stuart Maugh
Charles Dixon David Murray
May 1968
And Death shall have no Dominion.
On March 18th 1968, a party of teenage boys from a private school near Carlisle set out with their headmaster for a days walking the fells on the east side of Borrowdale. It was a typical raw March day, cold, with showers of hail and a nasty wind, but the walk from the summit of Ullscarf , 2370ft, by way of Greenup Edge and Low White Stones, 2341ft, to High Raise, 2,500ft, was well within the capabilities of a group adequately equipped for the time of year. The party had climbed Ullscarf and Low White Stones but, when only about 100 yards from the top of High Raise, the headmaster noticed that 15 year old Chandradavan Parekh, an Asian lad from Birmingham, was very tired and having difficulty walking. He decided to cut short the walk and head down into Greenup Gill, but the party had only gone a few hundred yards when Parekh sat down and said he could not go on. The headmaster gave him a teaspoon of brandy and carried him down the fell for a short distance; but it was too much for one person and, telling the rest of the boys to put Parekh in a sleeping bag and carry him down as best they could, the headmaster ran down the valley to bring their vehicle as close to the bottom of the fell as he could.
Unfortunately, by the time the party had managed to reach Stonethwaite Parekh appeared to be lifeless, and though the Superintendent of the Keswick branch of the St. John Ambulance Brigade applied artificial respiration, it was unsuccessful. The inquest found that he had died from exposure.