The Martindale Round

 March had been quite a harsh month - two large Siberian weather fronts nick-named 'The Beast from the East' (Part 1 & 2) had swept over the UK and had brought with them minus temperatures strong winds and heavy snow.

A couple of weeks after the 'Beasts' had blown over, and the snow had receded to all but the highest tops, a sunny long weekend was forecast, and I decided it was time to do my first wild camp of 2018.

I was heading into part of the Lake District I hadn't driven to before - the remote Far Eastern valley of Martindale on the eastern side of Ullswater. Surprisingly the roads weren't too bad - heading to Pooley Bridge on the northern shore of Ullswater, then following the Howtown road parallel to the shoreline before it steeply rises through a number of hairpin bends to the new church of St Peter's of Martindale. This would be the starting point of my hike.

There's quite a big lay-by opposite the church, which was completely full, so I ended up parking on a bridleway track running by the side of the church along with about a dozen other cars.

It was about 1:30 PM when I set off up onto the fells. The dirt track initially rounded a small grassy knoll and passed a tiny boggy patch of water known as Lanty's Tarn before it turned sharply, and steeply to climb up the first shoulder of Steel Knotts.

The path was quite narrow as it ascended and in its worse parts was just foot holes in the ground. I passed a couple of walkers heading down this route, standing to one side to let them pass.

Eventually the path levelled out a bit as I reached the top of the crags known as Birkie Knott. Looking back, the church was now a hundred-or-so feet below, surrounded by bare trees, but I could still hear the Rooks cawing loudly from their tree tops.

Behind the church, the huge bulk of Hallin Fell revealed itself. Hallin Fell stands on its own and is one of the lowest of the Far Eastern Wainwright fells, but still tops-out at 1,271 feet & is popular with campers... this would not be my destination today though.

Continuing to follow the southerly path, it rose again as it climbed a second shoulder before levelling out to a gentler slope to the summit. Steel Knotts is one of those Lakeland summits that is not marked by a cairn, nor trig-point. Instead it is crowned with a slab of rock jutting out from its otherwise grassy top. The rock slab itself also has its own name - the ingruiginly sounding 'Pikeawassa'. I took off my back-pack and scrambled the few feet onto the rock to bag fell number 92 - Steel Knotts (1,414 ft).

The remainder of the days route was laid out to my south & it was going to a be a long trek to my next new Wainwright summit.

The path descended off the summit of Steel Knotts, and reached a dry-stone wall where it then undulated and circled the lower flank of Gowk Hill. The path became quite boggy in places, so I had to find an alternative route around from the path. Eventually though the path became a bit more favourable to walk on and reached a small beck with an old ruined Shepherds hut behind it.

After spending a few minutes looking at the ruins, I turned my attention back to the path which now began a long ascent up the flanks of Wether Hill upto Keasgill Head before joining the route of the ancient Roman road which runs along the top of the fells.

The path up was pretty straight forward, however there was one part which required the traverse of a large snow patch for about 150 meters. There were footsteps to show the direction to take, so, weary of my heavier camping rucksack, I slowly & carefully made my way across. Once past the snow patch it was plain sailing to the Roman road at the top.

Darker clouds had begun to draw in from the west, but at present it was dry, although a slight wind chill was in the air. The wide Roman road stuck to the top of the wide undulating ridge, heading over Red Crag. This road is what gave the fell 'High Street' its name, and was used by the Roman legion 2,000 years ago to travel between the forts at Penrith and Ambleside. Parts of the route were covered with peat hags, where, due to erosion & weathering, the peaty ground had been 'cut' with channels in between - a couple of feet deep in places. After clambering my way to find a route over the hags the path once again began to ascend onto High Raise. Now - there are two fells called 'High Raise' within the Lake District - one in the Central Fells north of Langdale (see my blog 'A Winter Walk In Langdale' - 31 Dec 17), and this one in the Far Eastern Fells. This would be my second time to this particular one, having previously ticked it off the list on 6th March 2017. It was a 'flying visit' as I needed to round the head of the valley before sunset, which was about 2½ hours away.

Leaving High Raise, I followed the route onto another previously bagged fell - Rampsgill Head (also 6th March 2017). As the name suggests, this peak is at the head off the Ramps Gill Valley, and has a fantastic view down the valley back to Steel Knotts & Martindale. I took the chance to have a quick breather, before heading down off Rampsgill Head towards the Knott to pick up the Coast-to-Coast route for a mile or so.

I had planned to bag Rest Dodd before finding a place to pitch my tent, but due to the time getting I decided to leave that until the morning....& my decision it was nothing to do with how imposing the further few hundred feet of ascent was looking!

The coast to coast route twisted and turned north-westwards following the rim of the Hayeswater Gill valley. Following an old drystone wall, I again encountered a number of boggy patches, as the route passed Satura Crag. It was around this point I was looking for a turn off to the left which would take me to my 93rd Wainwright summit. Eventually an old gate post was reached, and there was a faint path which turned off in the direction of Brock Crags.

The path dipped and rose between a number of moraines & hillocks before opening out to a large patch of ground containing 3 tarns, with the summit rocks on top of a large moraine due west. The ground also looked quite boggy in between - the prevalence of sphagnum moss on the ground was a tell tale sign.I carefully followed the path and managed to keep my feet dry before reaching the summit cairn of Brock Crags (#93 - 1,842 ft). Next, was to find a pitch to raise my tent.

I headed south just off the summit where there were a number of crags. It was around here where I scouted out a couple of grassy level patches, and finally found one suitable to pitch on, with views over to Gray Crag, Hartsop Dodd, and Dovedale to the west. The sky was still quite overcast - little chance of a descent sunset - especially as the Helvellyn mountain range was dominating the western horizon. I fire up my stove for a bite to eat and afterwards, settled down for the night.

It was 7 AM when I woke. It had been a peaceful nights sleep, no wind at all, and my 4 season sleeping bag keeping me toasty and warm throughout. I unzipped the tent door and noticed some flakes flutter down....it was frost. I emerged from my tent to see my whole outer canopy frosted over, along with the ground. The sun was still rising. It hadn't yet hit the tent, but its first rays were starting to catch the high peaks of Dove Crag, Hart Crag and Fairfield to the west.

Once again, I set up my stove to brew a coffee to warm me up, and began to pack away the items inside my tent. By the time that was done & my coffee drank, the sun was gently defrosting my tent, ready to pack up and set off.

I found the path again and backtracked to the old gate post in the old drystone wall. It was then I noticed a silhouette on the small hill in the near distance - a deer. This whole area, including the valleys of Ramps Gill, Bannerdale & Martindale all fall under a Red Deer Conservation Area, with the area home to England's oldest native red deer herd. I continued on quietly so not to disturb...

On reaching the old gate post, I retraced my steps on the Satura Crag path until its junction with the path for Rest Dodd. At this point it stopped to consult my map and on turning round stopped the herd of about 12 red deer were looking back at me, standing still on the back of the small hill I had seen from the front earlier on. It was an amazing sight, one I'd wished I had been able to take a photograph of, but as I slowly and quietly raised my camera up, the herd spooked and they quickly descended the hill out of sight. Oh well - I decided to keep my camera to hand for the rest of the hike just in case I was to stumble across them once more.

Instead, I turned my attention back to the domed peak of Rest Dodd. It was a long, slow slog up the flank of Rest Dodd. The ground was still frosty, which meant it was firmer underfoot when crossing the boggy sections on the lower slopes. The upper slopes were grassy, with the path following foot holes in the turf. Wainwright himself wrote that 'it is a fell of little interest', and I was want to agree with him.

I eventually reached the sun-drenched summit - #94: Rest Dodd (2,283 ft) - the forecast had been for it to be cloudy today, so the bright sunshine was a welcome mistake by the Met Office. I took in the view, and contemplated whether I should add The Nab into todays route.

The Nab is a strange fell, as due to its location in the Deer Conservation Area, there is only one permissive path on and off it's summit, and that path is via Rest Dodd. It's 650 feet of descent over 1¼ miles from where I was stood, then the same in ascent on the return. The depression between Rest Dodd and the Nab is also notoriously boggy & scarred with Peat Hags, so taking into account my heavy rucksack & the already planned route, I decided to tackle The Nab on another day - preferably in the height of summer when it would be less boggy.

So, I turned tail and made my way back down off Rest Dodd and rejoined the coast-to-coast path on Satura Crag, once again passing through the old gate post but keeping on the path heading towards Angletarn Pikes.

It was a lovely level stroll to Angle tarn, the morning silence only interrupted by the occasional honking of Geese on the lake. I could see that half of the tarn was frozen over, but may my way down to a tiny peninsula on the shoreline. Time for a freshly brewed hot chocolate. I had to break the thin ice though before I collected the water in my Sawyer water filter & poured it in my Jetboil. It was an idyllic setting - no wonder its a popular wild camping spot! As I sat enjoying my hot chocolate I spotted the first walkers of the morning heading along the path coming up from Boredale Hause. I imagined it was going to be pretty busy today...

Moving on, I set off on the lesser travelled path up the grassy fellside to the rocky Pikes above the tarn. Angletarn Pikes has two distinctive peaks, which make it easily recognisable from the surrounding fells. One was slightly higher in altitude that the other, and it was the higher summit which was my next destination.

One reaching the top of the grassy slope, the terrain evened out to an expansive plateau once again, with a number of hillocks dotted around. The path stuck to the flat-ish plateau inbetween, and, turned west to the rocky outcrop of Angletarn Pikes summit. From a distance it looked as though some scrambling may be involved, but getting up close, a path in fact weaved its way up onto the small grassy summit top - #95: Angletarn Pikes (1,857 ft).

The views from the top of this lowly fell were the full 360 degrees. Taking in Place Fell, the tail-end of Ullswater with Glenridding, the Helvellyn Ridge & across to Brothers Water. South was the High Street range.

I descended, and picked up the path along the ridge to my final fell of the trip. 2 miles to the north-east lay Beda Head, the summit of Beda Fell.

The path runs along the top of the ridge, Place Fell dominating the north, and Bannerdale & Martindale to the east. Once again, the path was boggy in places, but was easy to follow & I passed a number of walkers who had started to make their way up the fell from Martindale.

Eventually the summit was reached - marked by a small rock cairn - #96: Beda Fell (1,670 ft) - & I could look back at the fells I had trod to circumnavigate the valleys below.

From the summit, the path gradually descended for just under 2 miles, over Winter Crag and through the tiny hamlet of Martindale before the last slog up the road & back to St Peters of Martindale.

Five more Wainwright's ticked off - bringing me to 96 fells so far.... heres hoping for a lovely spring weekend soon in order to get #100!

A few interesting facts from the trip:

• On the decent from Beda Head I saw a fly-by of an Osprey V-22 aircraft which is a United States VTOL (Verticle Take Off & Landing) turbo-prop aeroplane.
• On the second day of the trip, HRH Prince Wales was visiting the Lake District to mark its appointment as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I drove past his entourage - consisting of a black Bentley, 2 black Land Rovers, and 2 Police motorcycles - outside the Pooley Bridge Steamer Pier.
• I was walking for EXACTLY the same amount of time on both days - 5 hrs 13 mins - however walked approx 1 mile less on the second day. (thanks to the MapMyHike mobile app for the stats!)

Mark