As planned, Fiona and I came up for the weekend. We had booked into the Greyhound Inn, Shap but found out on the Wednesday night that it had permanently closed! A lot of last minute phone calls found us a nice B&B in Orton. We did ring 3 on Friday then ring 2 on Saturday. We had some problems with overgrown footpaths on 2, where we couldn't take the permissive route in the RD. Also problems with cows. At one stage about 10 'teenage' cows ran towards us from the far end of a large field. We couldn't risk them not stopping so climbed over the nearest fence. I am becoming increasingly worried by cows and we did some other deviations to avoid them. Also in one field, a ram didn't like us and did the warning foot-stamp; I thought that he was about to butt us, but he stopped when we moved away from his corner.

At least four people did Ring 3 on Saturday. Was anyone else out doing one or more of the rings?

I am also disappointed that this has been cancelled, it really is a lovely event and it's a shame it's not going ahead this year. Will it be run again?

Like Simon, I have wondered whether it is too soon after the hundred. It might possibly attract greater numbers if it was a little later in the year?

Many thanks to Cumbria group for organizing it over the years, I have enjoyed the Rings, although haven't always been up to the challenge of leaving Shap Village Hall for a third time!

Disappointing to hear 3 Rings has been cancelled. I was seriously looking at entering for the first time this year - but waiting to see how I got on at the Marshal's 100, having had knee trouble. My legs certainly wouldn't recover from the main event in time for the 3 Rings - perhaps others are similarly wary and that is a reason that entries have been low?

In the past few days we received notification that the event for this year has been cancelled.
As Fiona & I have already made our plans including B&B, we thought that we will still travel up to Shap on that weekend and attempt the 3 rings unsupported.
If anybody else is still interested in doing the walk, let me know and we can arrange to meet up.
We probably won't do the 3 rings in one go, but spread them over two days.

A recent email from Neil Beatham reveals that this event is under threat of cancellation due to lack of numbers.
Here's the jist:
"The Three Rings Of Shap event held last year on Saturday 13 June 2015 was a resounding success. The dedication, commitment and enthusiasm of the volunteer team were instrumental to this as was the use of SPORTident?s timing and results solution. There was very positive feedback spanning the whole spectrum of participants. Unfortunately, total entries were 138 and this resulted in a financial deficit.

For 2016 we have had to increase entry fees to test the future viability of the event. We currently only have 37 entries for the event on Saturday 18 June. This is resulting in a fragility regarding the 2016 and subsequent Rings Of Shap events. We are reluctantly having to advise that the 2016 event will have to be cancelled if there are insufficient entries by the end of April 2016. Please support the event if at all possible otherwise it could easily disappear from the calendar. We should be grateful if you could please try and ensure your entry is in before Easter 2016 to give confidence that we can proceed with the event."

As I've entered & would like it take place, please consider entering this event in order to save it.