GUIDE TO THE RIVER ROEBURN

NAME OF RIVER: Roeburn.

WHERE IS IT?: About 15 miles up the Lune Valley from the M6 near Lancaster, near Junction 34/35 of the M6. Try...

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?grid2map?X=360215&Y=467794&arrow=Y

...for a map.

PUT-INS/ TAKE-OUTS: Get in where the road crosses the river high up in the moors - you'll need a map...highest road access, maybe there is more paddling above? Take-out in village of Wray below bridge on river right.

APPROX LENGTH: 2.5 miles.

TIME NEEDED: 1-2 hours.

ACCESS SITUATION: Unknown. We were not questioned and all the locals seemed friendly. Wray is small but busy with lots of kids, dogs, horses milling around (even in torrential rain) so drive/ park carefully. At the get in there is a small lay-by which fits 3 cars - the road was well used by cars, tractors, trailers, etc so don't block it! It's a small river and not suitable for big groups - a group of 4/5 would be ideal.

WATER LEVEL INDICATORS: I've paddled this in lowish levels, which was pleasant. However, this river is best in spate. I don't know of any indicators other than looking at the amount of flow in Wray village. Brown and churning is good!

GRADING: In high water, remarkably continuous grade 3.

MAJOR HAZARDS/ FALLS: Trees/ cables.

Ewen Fraser...'3-4 trees in the river 1st Oct 2005 at regularly spaced intervals. All could be paddled around but two were in the main flow and potentially nasty.'

GENERAL DESCRIPTION: A blast in spate! More challenging than many pool-drop grade 4 rivers, take note. It drops over 100ft a mile without any flat bits, long wave-trains with the odd stopper lurking.

Trees are a hazard, and we also paddled over an electric cable, under a low swing bridge, to the left of some scaffold and over some small weirs. Breakouts which fit the whole group do exist but are widely spaced so paddlers need to be prepared to find their own eddies. We also proved that pinning on rocks is more than a possibility, and throw lines were required to retrieve a submerged RPM and stranded paddler. Towards the end, the river bends sharp left before it narrows to a short gorge with a ledge drop - this needs inspection as it can generate a big tow back, but it's not the easiest drop to take a look at. After inspection, we took a line on the far left (against the wall of the gorge) with no problems although some people went rather deep - different water levels may provide other options. It's possible to portage around this drop via the right bank, but it's more of a muddy climb than a walk and took the two guys who did so about 45 minutes of hard work with throw lines.

OTHER NOTES: Don't do this without doing the River Hindburn too.

Thomas Young (2nd Sept 2006)...We found the locals to be very friendly and accepting of us there. Trees growing out from the bank can be a problem at times, but nothing life-threatening at time of paddling. We took the Ledge Drop (in high water) on the Right Hand Side, and found it to be a lot easier than it looked, with a dogleg channel that flowed through nicely. Having done this, general concencus amongst the group was that other sections of the river were far harder.

CONTRIBUTED BY: Mark Rainsley, also Helen Wigmore, Thomas Young and Ewen Fraser.

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