Western Lakeland Getaway - Part 3: Ennerdale Charm

 

Today was going to be my first venture over to the remotest of Lake District valleys - Ennerdale. This is probably the remotest part of Cumbria. No public roads go into the valley, and there are very few habitations within the valley - save for a farm, a field studies centre & a Youth Hostel.

After checking out at the Strands Inn (after buying a few of their bottled beers to take home with me), I packed up my car and headed north west on the road out of the Wasdale valley towards Gosforth & picking up the A road north. At Calder Bridge, I then took the turning north east on the back roads to Ennerdale Bridge. This small village is still four miles from the valley, so I drove through the village & to the car park at the end of the road - Bowness Point.

And that's all there is: the car park, with a few notice board signs welcoming visitors to 'Wild Ennerdale', & explaining the project to re-wild the valley, which has so far been going on for the last decade. This was where all walks into the valley began. However according to the Wainwright guide, the actual start of my route for today was a further two miles away, at the Irish bridge that crosses the River Liza on the far eastern end of the lake. I booted up & started walking.

It was a pleasant walk along the stone pitched forest road through the woodland skirting the lake shore. The valley up ahead surrounded by towering fells on both sides, with the slopes covered with pine forest.

The bridge crossed the wide breadth of the River Liza, and between some fields filled with Herdwick sheep & their lambs before reaching a gate. This is where I entered Forestry Commison territory, and into the pine forests. The forest road soon turned into a track, and then a narrow path weaving its way deeper into the plantation. I reached a double footbridge crossing Woundell Beck, crossed the first footbridge then turned uphill, following the path upwards. The trees began the thin out as the path ascended up, until I reached a gate in a fence, which meant from then on I was on open fellside.

The path then wound its way up the gradual incline of the fell - leaving the lush forests behind and into the grassy moorland.

On checking my map, the path should have turned left towards my first fell of Haycock, however the path 'on the ground' actually started heading right - and towards another Wainwright - Caw Fell, which was actually much closer than I realised & wouldn't end up being that much of a detour from my originally planned route.

I followed the path upto the summit cairn. Interestingly the rocks of the cairn had a red/orange hue to them which was a bit different. (#109 - Caw Fell - 2,288ft)

A dry stone wall also passed along the top of the fell. After checking my map, the route to Haycock was straight forward enough, being just 1 mile along the ridge.

Crossing the wall at a stile, the path followed the stone wall down the gentle slopes of Caw Fell and up the slightly craggier slopes of Haycock, but in no time at all I was on my next summit of the day. (#110 - Haycock - 2,618ft).

From its highest vantage point, Haycock afforded views south towards the Wasdale fells. I could see Yewbarrow in the middle distance, and looking over the comb containing Scoat Tarn to Red Pike (Wasdale) - the peak I had to write off the day earlier. Today I was hoping to reach it's summit.

But before that, I had to, once again, follow the dry stone wall along the ridge line for another mile onto Scoat Fell. Once again, this was along gradually descending & ascending slopes. However a low cloud bank was massing in the west, and cloud was intermittently dropping over the fell tops inbetween the spells of bright sunshine. I was about half way up the Scoat Fell slope and looked back to find the Haycock summit I was on just a few minutes earlier had been shrouded by cloud. Scoat fell was still in bright sunshine, although the wind was picking up.

I reached the Scoat fell summit just before the cloud dropped. (#111 - Scoat Fell - 2,760ft) Interestingly the dry stone wall passes directly over the summit, and so a small cairn has been constructed on top of the wall! I took shelter below the wall and had a quick lunchtime snack.

Next waypoint on the walk would be Red Pike (Wasdale), although I'd be heading back over Scoat Fell & back down into Ennerdale later on.

To get to Red Pike meant I had to get over the wall and then navigate through a boulder field on the southern slopes down to a col between the two fells. Again, it wasn't that far away - only 3/4's of a mile between summits (I love it when summits are in close proximity like this), but on crossing the col the wind picked up and the low cloud descended once again, which limited my visibility of the view ahead. Luckily by the time I'd followed the path & reached to summit ridge of Red Pike the cloud had lifted - although it was now just a couple of dozen feet above me - and could drop again at any second.

The views were quite grand from the top (despite the cloud shrouding the tops of the Scafell range yet again), as the summit dropped dramatically down into Mosedale, with views towards Wasdale Head. (#112 - Red Pike (Wasdale) - 2,707 ft) After 'bagging' the summit, I headed back along the ridge & back over to Scoat Fell. The cloud was now rolling over the top of Pillar, the highest of the Ennerdale peaks, further along the ridge...but I hadn't planned to do Pillar, today anyway.

After picking my way back through the boulder field I was again on Scoat Fell summit. My final Wainwright for today was a mere quarter of a mile away, and Wainwright described this next ridge walk as 'an enjoyable ten minutes'. My next peak was Steeple.

Now I'm not exactly sure what classifies Steeple as a separate fell, as to me it is a subsidiary outcrop of Scoat Fell - but who am I to question.

It gets its name as, when looking at Scoat Fell from Ennerdale Water, it looks to have a church Steeple due to its prominent pointed peak.

A large cairn on the Scoat Fell summit marked the start of the path across the narrow arête linking the two fells.

And Wainwright was right - it was a fantastic little ridge walk, with a narrow path having spectacular drops on either side. A good little taster of what some of the longer Lakeland 'edges' might be like when I get round to walking them.

Over the arête and the path rose sharply to the small summit area at the top of the point.

The Wainwright guide suggested a descent back to Ennerdale via the ridge on the northern slope. From the top this seemed to be an initial steep descent - but looks can be deceiving.

After heading off the prominent peak of the summit, the intermittent path descending quite nicely down the fellside until it reached more gradual slopes. Once again, there was an area where the ground and rocks had an orangey-red tint. There must be some sort of ore in them, I have come to think.

The path then reached quite a wide stream - Low Beck. There were no stepping stones across it, although it was quite shallow, so I manged to pick a way over the driest of the rocks on the steam bed to make it to the other side.

This did feel like quite a long descent - 5 miles from Steeple summit to Bowness Point according to Wainwright, although their was a stunning view ahead of Ennerdale Water & the pine forest. Continuing on after the beck, the path disappeared as it crossed quite a flat boggy, heathery area on the upper edge of the pine plantation, which was marked by a wire fence. This area is known as Lingmell (but not to be confused with the fell of the same name adjacent to Scafell Pike). I followed the fence - thinking it would eventually lead to a gate or stile.

A path reappeared just in time for me to navigate down a short but steep rocky slope, and at the bottom of the slope was the gate into the plantation. The path dropped down through a wide, unplanted area of the forest - a 'drove way' - and similar to other drove roads - is used by farmers to move livestock from the fields to the fells & back again. It is also a permitted path for walkers to access the fells.

At the bottom of the drove way I reached a foresty track. The track crossed a bridge a bit lower down the Woundell Beck from earlier in the day - and lower down it was wider and more river like. I spotted a couple of curious cairns, or stone sculptures down by the riverside, so went to photograph.

After crossing the Woundell Beck bridge, the track lead me back to the fields, and the road back along the Ennerdale shoreline. It was around 5pm, and the skies were now a lovely blue colour with some large fully clouds hanging around in the bright sunshine - there was no low cloud covering any summits any more (from what I could tell from the valley bottom, anyway). It was a gorgeous early evening walk back to the car.

After packing my kit away, I jumped in my car and set my sat-nav for Loweswater. Tonight I would be staying in the legendary & historic Kirkstile Inn.

The drive out of Ennerdale was just as stunning, and I relished having to keep checking my mirrors to see the valley & mountains reflected back.

Mark