Western Lakeland Getaway - Part 2: Way Out Wast

 

Grasmere - Hardknott - Wasdale

It was a cloudy Tuesday morning - a complete change to the clear blue skies & sunshine over the bank holiday weekend. After a full 'cumbrian' breakfast in the hotel, I packed up, checked out, and set off in my car.

This morning I would be making my way over to Wasdale via two notorious mountain passes. Heading out of Grasmere via the Red Bank road, I dropped down into Elterwater before taking the Little Langdale road to the Wrynose Pass.

Signs at the start of the road warned of 30% gradients, narrow roads and dangerous surface in bad weather. The Wrynose pass rises steeply through the valley between the flanks of Pike O' Blisco & Wet Side Edge. The pass tops out at the location of the Three Shires Stone.

Unfortunately this stone had been knocked down by someone not reversing properly, but was the marker for the boundary of the three old counties of Lancashire, Cumberland & Westmorland. Luckily, I'd paid a visit to the Stone, when it was still standing, when I tackled the summits of Pike O'Blisco & Cold Pike back in March 2017.

It was very desolate as I drove over the top of the pass, just below the low hanging grey cloud, before the road descended into Wrynose Bottom & the Duddon Valley.

This really was back of beyond. Surrounded by the fells, there were no houses - not even any farmsteads, as the narrow road followed the Duddon river towards Cockley Beck. On the rare occasion, a car would appear coming the opposite way, but was just a matter of pulling into a passing place as we passed each other.

After Cockley Beck, site of the only 'T' junction for miles, I passed another warning sign for the 30% gradients. This was where the Hardknott Pass began.

The road was narrow, steep and had plenty of sharp hairpins. It was needed to drive in first & second gear for most of the ascent, and before long the road went into the clouds. This gave the road an eerie atmosphere. I felt very lucky to have made it up the pass without meeting a car coming the opoiste way, as that would have been an ordeal to pass each other on the steep sections! Eventually the road levelled out as it reached a plateau, and passed a large cairn, marking the summit of the pass. The road then began to descend, out of the cloud, again quite steeply, zig-zagging down the fellside into Eskdale.

Just after the end of the zig-zags, shortly after the road straightened out was a large layby on the right - which I knew from checking the map earlier was the place to park to visit Hardknott Roman Fort.

The Hardknott Fort was constructed between 120 - 138 AD, located on the road between the roman towns at Ravenglass, on the coast, and the fort on the north shore of Windermere (now Ambleside) to the east. It was home to around 500 roman soldiers.

The remains of the fort is surrounded by a square outer wall, with the plans of three stone building in the centre. These were the Garrison Commander's Villa, a Headquarters building & granaries. Interestingly, outside the fort perimeter wall, are the remains of the bath-house, including a small circular building, which apparently was similar to a sauna.

It was humbling to think that two thousand years ago, the inhabitants of the fort would have looked out over the valley & mountains & seen much the same view as today.

Back in the car, the road made its way through the Eskdale valley, where I spotted the 'Lil Ratty' steam train chugging through, on its way between Ravenglass & Boot. At the end o fthe valley, the road then split off, and took the turning to Wasdale.

I have to admit I was feeling slightly dejected, as the low cloud was still hanging over the tops of the fells - and meant I wouldn't be climbing any high fells today. But for now, it wasn't raining, so I was grateful for that.

Instead, I went with 'Plan B', and parked up at a lay-by on the Wastwater lakeside, booted up & headed to the south shore of the lake, for a short walk around Low Wood.

This was a lovely low level walk along the lakeshore. The water was unbelievably clear & calm, but the low cloud meant there weren't really any reflections on the open water.

The woodland was also very peaceful & I'm pretty sure at one point I heard the tapping of a woodpecker, although never caught sight of one. Unfortunately the cloud kept rolling over, and brought with it the rain. This gave me an excuse to finally dig out my Mammut waterproof jacket that I'd bought last autumn, and it was put to the full test (passing successfully, I might add). The canopy of the woodland provided at least some resistance to the rain, and on turning a corner of the path, was greeted by a carpet of bluebells. I'd put my camera away to prevent it becoming soaked, but tried to take a few shots with my phone, but I felt they were not up to par with the photo's taken the day before at White Moss Wood.

On rounding another corner, the path followed the lake as it became the river Irt, and went around the edge of a bay, with a boat house on the far shore. Due to the bay being quite sheltered, the boathouse & trees were casting their reflection, so managed to get a shot as the rain slackened for a moment.

As I headed along the woodland path, the rain began again, and was getting heavier, so I checked the route on my phone before zipping it away. Heading along the river to a stone bridge, I didn't cross the brindge but continued to follow the foot path along the rivers edge before reaching a field, which needed to be crossed before reaching the road at the top, and hastily made my way back to the car.

I drove back along the Wastwater road to the hamlet of Nether Wasdale and checked into my accommodation for the next two nights - The Strands Inn & Micro Brewery. After being given the quirky herdwick sheep shaped knitted room key I unpacked, got changed and headed down to the bar to sample some of their home brews.

I'd booked a table for dinner, and perused the menu. It was good to see that they were proud of the locally sourced produce - naming the farms where it came from. The lamb on the menu came from the farm across the road....can't get much more local than that! - I went with the Steak & Ale pie (made with their own ale), which came with chips & veg - & I added on a side of onion rings.

It was fantastic, filling and very tasty. I still had enough room for the Sticky Toffee Pudding though! :)

After another ale or two, I retired back to my room for the night.

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Yewbarrow & Wasdale Head

Day 2 in Wasdale, and after (another) full cumbrian breakfast at the Inn, and giving my proposed route details to the lady on reception, I got in my car & headed up the Wastwater road to the car parking area at Overbeck Bridge.

It was a pretty overcast morning, but the peaks I was planning to do were cloud free. Rain was forecast for later that afternoon, from around 4pm onwards, but I was hoping to be back at the car by then.

First peak of the day was Yewbarrow. It's name referred to the fact that, with its steep rocky crags at either end, and long ridge inbetween, the mountain's shape resembled an upturned boat, which in vikings times, was used as a burial place for prominent individuals before being set alight as the funeral pyre (a barrow), and apparently, was once had Yew trees on its slopes.

The route didn't pull any punches, and went sharply up the ridge, following the wall towards Dropping Crag & Bell Rib crags.

The path then turned left just below the rock face of Dropping Crag, and this is where the fun began. The path turned back on itself & weaved up through the crags, and had a good few scramble sections, ascending up through a couple of narrow gullies & rock steps.

Eventually a shoulder was reached, and a more distinct path reappeared, which became very narrow. There were drops on either side of the path, over grassy slopes to my left, but to my right was Yewbarrow's famous 'Great Door'.

A vast cleft in the rock, the Great Door looks out over an amazing vista, from the top of the Scafell massif (sadly, topped with cloud), straight down to Wastwater a few hundred feet below. I spent a few minutes taking in the view, and noticed a small memorial plaque had been attached to one of the rocks.

I continued along the path which was thankfully not as steep or scrambly, and ascended a couple of shoulders and false summits before finally reaching the highest should, and the true summit cairn appeared in front of me. (#108 - Yewbarrow - 2,058ft)

From the summit I assessed the situation with the weather.

The cloud was still quite low, and was just skimming the top of Scoat Fell to the north - one of the fells I had originally planned to do. At the current altitude, there was also a constant breeze.

The route continued over the summit of Yewbarrow, following the top of the fell along its ridge line. From here there were two descents from the fell:

• I could either continue to the eastern 'head' of Yewbarrow, which had another steep descent down Stirrup Crag. In his Pictorial Guide, Alfred Wainwright advised that the best way to traverse Stirrup Crag was to 'follow the trail of blood left by the author',

• Or, I could take a path which turns off about half way along the top of the ridge, and descends down the western slope towards the col at Dore Head.

I opted with the Dore Head route, and followed a good mountain path down the hillside. In places this skirted the bottom of some crags, crossed a boulder field, and weaved its way through some scree, before reaching flatter ground at the bottom.

From here, it was decision time. The wind had picked up and the cloud had dropped further. The next peak on my route was Red Pike (Wasdale), but the cloud had descended to shroud its peak, and the peaks of the other fells behind.

I opted for Plan B, and aborted any further Wainwrights for today. It was around 11:30 AM, so consulted my map and found a route which descends from Dore Head down into Mosedale & towards Wasdale Head & its world famous Inn - which would be a good place to stop for lunch.

I found the path at the top of Dore Head, and made my way down. It was a steep and narrow path which zig-zagged down the grassy slope by the side of a huge scree run. At the bottom the path flattened out and became more of a farm track as it passed through the pastures at the bottom of Mosedale. It then reached Ritson's Force - a series of waterfalls, named after Will Ritson, one of the past publican's at the Wasdale Head Inn, so I headed down to the waterfalls for a bit of an explore & photoshoot.

The path headed through a couple of fields, filled with Herdwick Sheep & their lambs, before I skirted my way past a few farmyard hens, over an ancient packhorse bridge to some farm buildings, turned a corner and was met with the Wasdale Head Inn.

But instead of heading into the pub straight away, and while the rain was still holding off, I decided to follow the path through the next field to St Olaf's Church - the smallest church in England.

The earliest record of a church on this site dates back to 1550, however there are claims it is much older than this, with the wooden roof beams said to have come from a viking longboat! However, it was only given its name very recently - in 1977! Fitting that it is named after a viking King of Norway.

The graveyard had a number of graves dedicated to people who had lost their lives on the surrounding mountains - quite a few were very weathered, but the oldest one I managed to read dated back to July 1927, to a chap who had died on Great Gable.

There were also quite a number of gravestones, including a few recent one's, all with the surname Naylor, and I wondered if they were part of the same family as Joss Naylor, world famous fell runner, who lives in the area.

Joss Naylor, aka the King of the Fells, was born in Wasdale Head in February 1936, and is a farmer & long distance fell runner. His most famous achievement is holding a 13 year long record in completing the 'Bob Graham Round'. Starting & finishing from the Moot Hall in the centre of Keswick, this is a variable route covering no less than 42 lakeland peaks.

Naylor's record was set in 1975 on a route over an astonishing 72 peaks, covering over 100 miles, 38,000 feet of ascent, & all done in 23 hours & 20 minutes!

In 1986, for his 50th birthday, he completed all 214 Wainwright summits over a period of 7 days. For his 60th birthday, he summited 60 fells in 36 hours, and for his 70th birthday, ran 70 felltops over 50 miles in under 21 hours! He took it easy for his 80th birthday, however, running 30 miles from Caldbeck to Wasdale Head, which he did to raise money for the Brathay Trust charity.

I retraced my steps back along the path through the fields to the Wasdale Head Inn & went to Ritson's Bar where I ordered some food. A chicken club sandwich, with a hot chocolate, which nicely filled the gap.

After lunch I headed back out, and followed the road back towards the lake, picking up a path which ventured off towards Lingmell Beck, through the Wasdale National Trust Campsite, and back to the head of the lake. At this point the rain started....earlier than forecast.

Once again, I dug out my trusty Mammut waterproof jacket from my pack, and made a bee-line along the road, for just short of a mile, & back to the car.

Mark