We were lucky enough to be able
to return to Cumbria after only 3 weeks this time, and this time
we stayed at Castlerigg Farm Campsite again. |
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OUr tent at Castlerigg Farm with Walla Crag behind |
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One of the Castlerigg Fell Ponies |
| Blencathra was looking as beautiful
as ever! |
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Blencathra, looking good in the sun |
After the wonderful
weather we had been blessed with in May, we did not expect too much
for this trip, so we were pleasantly surprised to wake up to a nice
sunny day for our first walk of the holiday.
Castlerigg is nicely situated for getting to
Borrowdale, and our aim for this year is to complete the Top Ten,
and hopefully the Top Twenty as well. Our plan for most of this
holiday was therefore to start at Seathwaite, from where there is
good access to the Scafells and a lot of the other highest fells.
The first walk took in three Top 10 fells: Ill
Crag, Broad Crag and Great End. Ill Crag and Broad Crag are slightly
controversial in that Wainwright and one or two others do not consider
them separate from Scafell Pike, but when we originally created
our Top 100 list, we studied the maps and then went with the majority
and counted them as individual fells. They have a reputation for
being inhospitable, being covered in boulders and therefore not
having any visible paths, so we were pleased that the visibility
was good when we set out. We should have known that it would not
last!
As we arrived at Seathwaite, we instantly
recognised Sour Milk Gill and remembered our scramble on that route
when we visited Green Gable. Today, however, we were heading for
Stockley Bridge. |
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The Seathwaite Sour
Milk Gill |
| We parked on the road, just before
Seathwaite Farm, where we were greeted by the local campsite alarm
clock. |
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The Seathwaite Alarm Clock |
| The route to Stockley Bridge goes
straight through the Farm and then towards Seathwaite Fell, which
is skirted on its left side. |
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Walking through Seathwaite Farm, with Seathwaite Fell
behind |
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Never one to choose the easy route, David crosses
the stream next to the footbridge by Grains Gill |
| The path does not rise much to start
with, and before long Taylorforce Gill comes into view between Seathwaite
Fell and Base Brown. |
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Taylorgill Force with the slopes of Seathwaite Fell
on the left and Base Brown on the right |
| The path crosses Grains Gill at Stockley
Bridge, then gradually rises between Glaramara and Seathwaite Fell. |
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Stockley Bridge |
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Seathwaite Fell |
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The path by Grains Gill |
After quite a long drag you come to another footbridge
at the point where Grains Gill becomes Ruddy
Gill.
In the background the impressive bulk of Great
End comes into view. |
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Great End comes into view near the footbridge by Ruddy
Gill |
| Ruddy Gill has some nice little waterfalls
and rock pools. |
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By one of the waterfalls in Ruddy Gill |
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Ruddy Gill with Great End in the background |
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Waterfall in Ruddy Gill |
| The path is good until the upper end
of Ruddy Gill, and in the sunshine we were able to admire the views
back to Borrowdale. |
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Looking back to Seathwaite and Borrowdale from Ruddy
Gill |
| Higher up the path becomes eroded,
but the magnificent views of Great End made up for it! |
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Higher up Ruddy Gill, the path is not so good |
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The imposing sight of Great End |
| Having finally gained height, we had
some excellent views of Derwent Water behind. |
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Looking back to Derwent Water from Ruddy Gill |
| Ahead of us was the magnificent sight
of Great End. One or two clouds were now swirling around the top,
but it was nice and warm in spite of the wind and the views were still
good, so we took no notice and decided to stop for lunch near Esk
Hause when we found some shelter. |
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Below Great End, with a few clouds just beginning
to come down over the top |
| Looking across to where Great Gable
should have been, all we could see was cloud. We agreed between ourselves
that we had definitely chosen a much better walk than those poor people
who were on the Gables today. |
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Great Gable covered in mist behind Seathwaite Fell |
| As we walked towards the path to Esk
Hause, we could see Allen Crags ahead - the subject of a walk later
in the week. |
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Allen Crags from the upper reaches of Ruddy Gill |
| Our only previous visit here had been
in 2001 on the walking holiday when we walked via Grains Gill to Angle
Tarn and back via Langstrath, and on that occasion it had been very
misty and it had started to rain heavily just a little further on,
so I had not ever seen Sprinkling Tarn. We were luckier today: as
we climbed up towards Esk Hause it came into view. |
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Sprinkling Tarn coming into view |
| We had a vested interest in Allen
Crags, and it was interesting to see that it really is just off the
path to Stake Pass, with not much extra effort required to reach the
summit from here. |
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Allen Crags |
Having reached the path that leads round Great End
to Calf Cove, we found a suitable rock for
lunch.
Anyone familiar with the Lake District
will know how quickly the weather can change, and today was no exception.
By the time we had eaten our sandwich, Great End was no longer visible
as the mist came down! The only thing we could say in favour
of the weather from this point on was that although we could not
see our hands in front of our faces, at least it did not rain (other
than the moisture in the cloud)!!! |
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Cloud coming down over Great End |
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Cloud on Great End |
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Cloud coming down over Sprinkling Tarn |
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Esk Hause Disappears in cloud |
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Looking towards Allen Crags disappearing in the mist
from Esk Hause |
| Having become directionally challenged
on the Dodds once, this was not the time to be careless, so the GPS,
compass and map were all consulted. In fact, had I not had the GPS
with me, we would probably not have attempted Ill Crag and Broad Crag,
considering the lack of paths. |
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David making his way into the mist at Calf Cove |
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The path to Calf Cove |
| Calf Cove has got the largest cairn
we have ever seen (other than on a summit), so we assumed that this
is a place that is often in mist?! |
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An enormous cairn at Calf Cove |
| Ill Crag has not got a path a such
and it is necessary to leave the main path from Calf Cove to Scafell
Pike to find the summit which is set right back. In mist, it seems
a long walk and you just have to trust the GPS and compass to lead
you in the right direction. |
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Towards Ill Crag's Summit |
| Eventually, we found the summit cairn.
In the mist it was not possible to see if there was anything higher
around, but we arrived at a shapely cairn and there was a big drop
beyond, besides which, the GPS said it was the summit, so we believed
it! |
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David at Ill Crag's Summit |
From here, we cut straight across
to Broad Crag. The terrain was rocky, with no discernible path,
and David complained more than once that we seemed to be going round
in circles. The visibility was very poor, and although it did seem
an awfully long way, I trusted the route on the GPS, and eventually
we arrived back on the path to Scafell Pike, from where we crossed
to the extremely bouldery Broad Crag. Luckily enough, the summit
is not too far back from the path, so we did not have to climb across
the boulders for as long a distance as the pathless route to Ill
Crag. |
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Making our way over the boulders towards Broad Crag's
Summit |
| Having said that, the going across
the boulders was very slow indeed and it did not seem any quicker
to get to Broad Crag's summit, although the distance was much shorter,
but we got there in the end. |
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David on Broad Crag's Summit |
The visibility was not showing
any signs of improvement, which was a shame, so we did not linger
but set off back in the direction we had arrived, I think!
Again, David was of the opinion that the boulders
did not look familiar and we seemed to be walking in the wrong direction
altogether. I have to admit I agreed, but armed with GPS and compass
which told us otherwise, we ploughed on regardless. |
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Looking for the path back to Great End |
| As usual, the GPS and compass were
right, and it was us that had become disorientated in the mist, because
eventually arrived back at the path to Calf Cove. David was still
of the opinion that we had circled Broad Crag about three times and
judging by the time we took to get back to the path, it did seem a
possibility, but I don't think we really did. |
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Finding the path back to Great End |
| The path between Scafell Pike and
Great End is clearly defined and well cairned, as you would expect,
and our progress improved a great deal. As we walked along the path,
the sun tried to break through the cloud a few times, but never succeeded,
so we never had any views at all although it looked brighter at times. |
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Walking towards Calf Cove |
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And again... |
| Great End was still totally immersed
in cloud, and our only real clue that we had reached it was when the
path started ascending. |
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At Calf Cove |
| The path to Great End is not as bouldery,
but there are a lot of loose stones and therefore it is not clearly
defined. |
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Ascending towards Great End's Summit |
| We were slightly surprised to still
not have seen another person as we approached Great End's summit.
We realised that Ill Crag and Broad Crag were not popular, but we
had expected to see one or two people on Great End. It seems that
is not that popular either, or maybe it was just the weather that
put people off. |
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David waits for me on Great End |
| We finally reached the summit cairn.
The mist was as thick as ever, which was a pity, because I could imagine
the magnificent views on a good day, and I had also hoped to take
a look at the top of Cust's Gully, but there was not much point today. |
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David at the summit of Great End |
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"View" from the summit of Great End |
| The wind was quite strong at the summit,
and David thought it would be a good idea to test out the Shelter
Cairn. These shelters always seem to be facing the right way and it
was a lot more comfortable in there. |
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David in the Shelter Cairn on Great End |
| From the Shelter Cairn, David set
out with determination for Calf Cove. Unfortunately, he did not set
out along the path, but decided to follow his nose (he may have simply
not been concentrating, but he denies this!!!). The result was a very
bouldery descent, and one that I was not entirely happy with, considering
the buttresses we had seen earlier that day. |
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David's shortcut to Calf Cove |
| But, in fairness to his homing
instinct, we did eventually arrive the other side of the Cross Shelter
at Calf Cove, having cut off a fair bit of path. |
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The Cross Shelter at Calf Cove comes into view |
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Looking back at David's shortcut |
| From here, we followed the path back
to Ruddy Gill. |
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Walking back to Ruddy Gill from the Esk Hause path,
with a large bag of stones for path restoration visible in the foreground |
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The path to Ruddy Gill |
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Descent to Ruddy Gill |
| Allen Crags was still in mist, but
we could see the upper reaches of Ruddy Gill, where there is an incredible
amount of vegetation considering the height. Maybe it is because the
sheep cannot get to it? |
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Allen Crags and Ruddy Gill |
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Ruddy Gill |
| We then re-traced our steps from this
morning via Ruddy Gill. |
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Descent via Ruddy Gill with Glaramara to the right |
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The path by Ruddy Gill |
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Coming out of the clouds at last |
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Waterfall in Ruddy Gill |
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Another waterfall in Ruddy Gill |
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Common Frog jumping out of the way by Ruddy Gill |
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The path back to Seathwaite by Ruddy Gill towards
Grains Gill |
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The footbridge by Ruddy Gill and Grains Gill |
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Seathwaite from Grains Gill |
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The path by Grains Gill |
| The path seems to go on forever, but
eventually we got back to Stockley Bridge. |
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Back at Stockley Bridge |
| The path from Stockley Bridge along
the River Derwent to Seathwaite Farm is quite lush with vegetation
and wild flowers. |
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Common Water Crowfoot in the stream at Seathwaite |
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Nearly back at Seathwaite Farm |
| Seathwaite Farm was a welcome sight
after a long day's walk. The Tea Rooms were also a welcome sight -
unfortunately we had been out there so long that they were just closing.... |
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The Tea rooms at Seathwaite Farm |
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Arrriving back at the car at Seathwaite |
