Newsletter: Autumn 2025
- BBRCC Admin
- 1 day ago
- 8 min read
Updated: 19 hours ago
Welcome to our Autumn Newsletter, full of news and updates from BBRCC - The Outdoor Club and its members.
Continue reading the content below, or if you prefer you can download the original PDF.
Upcoming dates
Sat 31st Jan 2026: AGM - 4.30pm - Cae Groes
Sat 31st Jan 2026: Annual Dinner
Sun 1st Feb 2026: First Committee Meeting of 2026 - 9.30am - Cae Groes
Full list of dates will be published on the website as they are announced.
Working parties
Consider volunteering on one of our forthcoming working parties. Spend one day helping out and enjoy another day free on the hills. Accommodation is free for volunteers and it’s a great way to meet other members. If you are interested, please contact the booking secretaries for the property or Keith Southwell for Cae Groes (keithjsouthwell4@gmail.com) or Dave Mobbs for Raven Crag (dave.mobbs2@gmail.com). Dates for working parties in 2025 will be published on the website as they are announced.
Speaker booked for the BBRCC Annual Dinner 2026 - Alex Staniforth
Alex Staniforth is a record-breaking adventurer, ultra-endurance athlete, international
keynote speaker, author and charity founder from Chester, who is no stranger to overcoming
challenges.
By the age of 19 he had already survived the two most significant disasters in Mount Everest
history, in two consecutive years. However, his biggest mountains have been within:
overcoming epilepsy, bullying, mental ill health and a stammer since childhood.
Alex has never allowed adversity to become his identity – only an opportunity to discover his
potential and inspire others. He is the fastest person to climb all 100 UK county tops -
covering 5,000 miles by human power in 72 days - and has raised over £100,000 for charity,
winning the Pride of Britain Granada Reports Fundraiser of the Year 2017 and a Points of Light
award from the Prime Minister in 2023. Alex has authored two books ‘Icefall’ and ‘Another
Peak’, and in 2020 founded a mental health charity, Mind Over Mountains, to restore mental
well-being through nature. Why settle for Base Camp?
Visit our website to book in for the Annual Dinner, which will be held on the 31st January 2026. More details and official invite also continues below.
Annual Dinner Invite 2026
The Annual Dinner will be held at The Princes Arms Hotel, Trefriw.
Saturday 31st January 2026.
Everyone is welcome and it is a great opportunity to meet other members and get some time in the hills as well as enjoying the meal and guest speaker. We will be electing new committee members and positions.
Timetable of events:
6.30pm Coach departs Cae Groes for the Princes Arms.
7.30pm BBRCC Annual Dinner at the Princes Arms, Trefriw.
11.45pm Coach departs Princes Arms for Cae Groes
Menu
Vegetable and lentil soup with golden croutons (V)
Port and stilton pâté served with Melba toast
Sautéed mushrooms and bacon Welsh Rarebit served on a baked garlic croute
***
Roast shoulder of lamb served with tomato and mint stuffing and rich lamb gravy
Venison, root vegetable and red wine casserole served in a puff pastry shell
Fillet of haddock with a caper crumb topping, served with a white wine and parsley cream sauce
Nut, vegetable and cranberry roast with a rich Madeira gravy (V)
***
Bramley apple and strawberry crumble with Crème Anglaise (V)
Lime and ginger cheesecake with Chantilly cream
Selection of cheeses with savoury biscuits, grapes and celery
***
Coffee/Tea
(V denotes that a Vegan version of this dish is available upon request)
New doors for Cae Groes
Thankyou to Gethin Prys for making smart new doors for Cae Groes and the barn. Gethin Prys incidentally also made the bunk beds in the main house.
A request from Raven Crag
When visiting Raven Crag please make sure you bring your own tea towels and pillow cases, as these may not be provided or be well maintained.
Car charging
Please do not charge your electric vehicle at our properties as this is not within our budget. For electric bikes/scooters, see our Summer 2025 newsletter for extensive guidance, viewable on our website.
Cae Groes apartments now open for booking
The 4 stand-alone units at Cae Groes have been undergoing huge amounts of work throughout 2025 and are now ready for booking. They are perfect for couples or families with space to comfortably sleep 4, with their own brand-new private kitchens and showers. If you have stayed in one before then please come and take a look at the changes - you’ll be pleasantly surprised! Thanks to the team for working so hard on these improvements.
Call to all members and their guests from Raven Crag House Manager
Weeds are increasingly a problem on the patio, particularly at the kitchen end. Infrequent use of weedkiller does not have any effect and infrequent working party manual removal isn't sufficient. More importantly, our excellent grass cutters (Herdy sheep) don’t like it. If all members and their guests staying at Raven Crag could remove just 10 weeds each, (odd request, we know) hopefully it will keep them at bay and all of us can play a part in the upkeep of the property in this way.
BBRCC Annual General Meeting 2026
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN of the 55th ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING of BBRCC, which will take
place on 31st January 2026 at Cae Groes commencing at 16.30pm. More information will be
sent to all members on email.
John Apperley will be doing a slide show from 3.45pm before the AGM. It will cover some
past BBRCC trips. There will be tea and biscuits and the show will be 30 mins while we set up
the AGM. Please join us!
After the AGM is the Annual Dinner, with guest speaker Alex Staniforth. We anticipate this to
be a fun and interesting evening, so please follow us to the Princes Arms in Trefriw after the
AGM for some great food and company. Booking form available on our website.
OFFER: Bring a friend for members’ rates
Until 1st April 2026
Cae Groes only
Is now the time to get the old gang back together for a weekend in the hills?
We are currently waiving the additional fee that a non-member pays for a bed in Cae Groes,
meaning your friends can stay for the same cost as you - £16 a night, reduced from £26.
Book online through our website - bbrcc.org.uk.
Please note the booking member must be present throughout the whole booking.
Stories from members
Thankyou to Neil Atkins and family for voluntarily undertaking some maintenance during their stay at Raven Crag.
We always appreciate it when members take the time to help maintain the properties
during their stay. When everyone pitches in, it reduces the amount of work needed during
our Working Parties. Even small things will make a difference to the longevity of the
properties,
Neil and his daughter Rebecca and son in law Michael Wolstencroft made the most of the
nice weather and undertook some weeding, stone wall rebuilt, gutters cleared of blockages
& the bbq washed & cleaned. We'd like to say a huge thankyou.
They had just completed the Yorkshire 3 peaks challenge on the Sunday for charity - 24
miles in less than 12 hours - 50,600 steps. 24 started, 6 dropped out & 1 lady ended up in
hospital with a broken arm. Below are some photos.
“Just got back from a great long weekend at Cae Groes. Took the kids and families from my
athletics club up Snowdon and to Conwy parkrun. Such a fantastic experience for them in
Wales making memories that will last a lifetime.” - Ian Martin
“Bagging Munro‘s. Trip 8 Sep - 17 Sep. 20 Munro’s over 9 days. 6 days wet and cloud, 3 days
clear and cold. Pictures from the clear days.” - Shaun De Clancy
Andy Cornner runs outdoor fitness classes and used Raven Crag as the venue for their annual hiking weekend for the 5th year running.
“We were so lucky with the weather and only got hit by the occasional showers on
Saturday... Friday and Sunday were completely dry on the hikes.
Friday... A quick 3 miler up to Loughrigg Fell from Elterwater and then a 4 miler up to
Whorneyside force waterfall for a dip later in the afternoon.
Saturday... A 6 mile hike taking in the climb up towards Pike o Blisco, before heading left
down to Blea Tarn and then up Lingmoor Fell in the morning. And then an afternoon blast
up to Stickle Tarn.
Sunday... A 7.4 mile casual hike from Elterwater, over to Cathedral Cave and then back
along the river from Skelwith Bridge... We were lucky enough to watch a family.of otters on
the river too.
5th September in a row and we'll definitely be back for more!” - Andy Cornner
Mountain Biking weekends
Join us for some hilly and often muddy off-road cycling using the club house as
accommodation for the weekend.
13 – 15 March 2026 - Using Raven Crag as accommodation, ride some trails either from
club house or nearby trail heads.
9 – 11 October 2026 – Dependent on March’s take up and ideas for a weekend away,
perhaps a visit to another part of the country like Peak district, Dartmoor, Mid Wales or
just a stay at Cae Groes.
Book your bed/bunk via the members’ booking system.
Event organised by Luke Whitaker. Find the event through the BBRCC Facebook group.
Please consider becoming a committee member
If you love the outdoors and feel that you could contribute towards the running of the
club why not join the committee and make a difference?
We have 3 committee meetings a year as well as the AGM, and you will benefit from free
accommodation in the relevant property - a great chance to combine it with some time
in the hills. We also pay back fuel expenses.
It’s a great chance to gain more insight into the running of the club and bring your ideas
for improvements.
For further details please contact the club secretary Trish Hammett on
Don’t forget, the password for the Members’ Page on the website is LOVATT
MEMBER FEATURE
This is a new feature where we talk to a member of the club. We hope this will build a sense of community and help you get to know other members using the properties.
CHRIS MOBBS
My name is Chris Mobbs and I am booking secretary for Raven Crag, along with my husband Dave who is house manager for the property. As a former Barclays Bank staff member (42 years service), I only became aware of the 2 properties in 2008 so missed out on 28 years of use! Dave and I became regular users of Raven Crag as we loved to get out in the hills and the location of Raven Crag is just perfect and only a couple of hours drive from our home in Liverpool. After a number of years, I felt we should try to give something back to the club so volunteered to become a committee member 6 years ago, Dave following a short time thereafter. Being committee members and focusing on Raven Crag keeps us busy as the house is popular with members and there are always bookings for me to process and maintenance in the house for Dave (and our volunteers) to turn his attention to.
As for hobbies, we love to go walking in the hills and have had great walking holidays in the Tramuntana Mountains in Mallorca, the High Tatras mountains in Poland, the Picos de Europa in Northern Spain, the Sierra Nevada in Spain and via ferrata in the Italian Dolomites....to name but a few.
We also enjoy touring in our camper van and last year spent 7 weeks touring in Portugal which was amazing and we have some wonderful memories. What a beautiful country! My heart belongs to Wales though and I am constantly drawn to it....I have Welsh blood I believe so perhaps that is the reason. This year we spent 5 weeks touring Mid and South Wales, were blessed with great weather and had some wonderful experiences including seeing 40k puffin on Skomer Island and a million Manx Shearwater in the same vicinity, glorious deserted beaches, being in Dark Skies National Parks, watching dolphin swimming in their natural habitat.....and so much more.
It is always good to come home to see our 2 beautiful grandchildren whom we love very much.
Our recommendation would be to get out and explore...you see so much more when you walk and there is so much to discover and enjoy.
