The previous day's walk along the
Helvellyn ridge was still in our legs as we walked through Burtness
Wood on an even hotter day. We should of course have used common
sense as we drove to Buttermere, already over an hour behind our
planned starting time and decided to walk round the lake, then go
back to the campsite and relax and continue our schedule tomorrow,
but we had made our plans, and today we had planned to walk the
High Stile ridge, so the High Stile ridge we were going to walk,
regardless what our common sense told us.
The good thing about Burtness Wood was the shade.
The heat was stifling and when we got to path to Scarth Gap Pass,
we were less than enthusiastic about getting into the sun, especially
as we were by now approaching midday.
We had many breaks on the way up Scarth Gap,
for water, for sunscreen, and just for breath. By the time we reached
the wall across the path I was getting a bit concerned, as we had
planned to cut across below Seat to Gamlin End, but the Ordnance
Survey map showed the path as being below the wall, and we had not
seen any path leading off on that side. Looking at the map, the
only alternative was to keep going to the summit of Scarth Gap and
then traverse Seat, which is what we decided to do.
During a stop a little further up, we were able
to see the path we should have taken, which quite clearly went from
the wall! So much for the accuracy of our map. But we decided it
was too late to start back-tracking and pushed on to the summit
of Scarth Gap.
By the time we got there, we were exhausted,
but not too much so to appreciate the splendid views all round. |
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High Stile from Buttermere |
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Warnscale Bottom and Haystacks from Scarth Gap Pass |
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Kirk fell from scarth
gap pass |
What we did not appreciate was
the look of Seat, now looming ahead of us. There was no defined
path to the summit, and we had no idea of the conditions the other
side.
We sat down and had our lunch while deciding
what to do. Getting our bag of sandwiches out of the rucksacks brought
all the sheep in the vicinity dashing to our side, and we had to
use all our persuasion to convince them that the sandwiches were
for us and not them. |
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seat from scarth gap pass |
| By now it was gone 1.30pm, and we
were tired. Common sense was at long last returning to our weary brains,
and we accepted that it would be silly to attempt the High Stile ridge
today, so instead we walked to the Ennerdale side of Scarth Gap and
admired the views. |
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great gable and kirk fell from scarth gap pass |
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Looking Stead and pillar from scarth gap pass |
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Pillar from Scarth Gap Pass |
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another picture of pillar with pillar rock visible
on the right |
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Green Gable, Great Gable and kirk fell |
| We then started slowly making our
way back down towards Buttermere, this time taking in the views to
the north. |
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fleetwith pike from scarth gap pass |
| We paused and looked back up Gamlin End, for once not
sorry that we had not climbed it, but thankful that we had seen sense
at last. |
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gamlin end and high crag from scarth gap |
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Warnscale Bottom on the descent from Scarth Gap |
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robinson with gatesgarth farm in the foreground |
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a raven on scarth gap pass |
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buttermere with high snockrigg and grasmoor behind
and hassness in the foreground |
We made it back to the path through
Burtness Wood, thoroughly enjoying finally reaching some shade.
When we got to Comb Beck, the temptation got
too much for David, and off came the shoes and socks. When I saw
the look of bliss on his face, I followed his example - the cool
water splashing round our feet was heaven! |
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david chilling out in comb beck |
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Comb Beck |
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Burtness wood, looking towards buttermere |
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buttermere with grasmoor range behind |
| By the time we saw Buttermere village
ahead, we were thankful, but although we had not achieved the day's
objective, we had enjoyed our walk and the splendid views. |
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back to buttermere village |
