Elter Saturday - Photo Gallery

When I parked at the National Trust car park in the centre of the village of Elterwater village it was warm enough for shorts, the sun was really trying to break through. You go through a gate and walk beside the river heading away from the village, I was trying to identify and name all of the hills that I was going to climb but there aren't many distinguishing features visible from this level.

You follow the river round a bend and then walk up a track on the left up to the road, turning left and dodging cars then take the first right turn onto another road. There are not many cars on this little road; just after a gate on the left there is a signpost for a footpath that takes you across a field to another minor road. Turn left and walk along the road for a while past High Close Garden on the left; there are many unusual and tall trees in what must have been a grand place in the days long before High Close became a Youth Hostel.

Keep going uphill until you come to a road junction, a sharp left bend would take you on another little road to the youth hostel. The names of the place you get to from this junction are carved in stone and set into the walls either side of the junction, easy to see for pedestrians and easy to miss for motorists. Carry on a few yards past the junction and go through the gate with a signplate bearing the name Deer Bolts Wood. Follow the path through the woods and just as you begin to wonder if you are going to miss the footpath to Loughrigg Fell it appears through the trees, as unmistakable and obvious a foot path as you will ever see.

As you get out of the trees to the start of the footpath there is a super view of Grasmere, the lake was still and peaceful looking in spite of the large numbers of people already out and about. There were few takers for the footpath; carrying on to Loughrigg Terrace seemed to be the preferred option for most people. One thing about smaller hills is that they never seem to give anything away, if you want to enjoy their summit you have to work for it and the steep reconstructed footpath certainly makes you work.

The path isn't too bad really and takes you almost all the way to the triangulation column set on a rocky summit platform. The views all around were good if a little hazy and the breeze was cold enough to put a jacket on although I persevered with the shorts. Continue southwards along the line of the path off the summit crown and you soon come to a section of reconstructed path taking you to the rest of Loughrigg Fell. The summit is at one end of a very interesting little hill, not high but quite broad with many rocky peaks well worth investigating if you have the time.

I had a lot of walking still to do so I resisted the temptation to climb all of the peaks but certainly one day it will have to be done. I continued along a faint path until I reached a wall, not following it downhill yet but walking beside it along the ridge. Just before I started to descend I had to climb the last peak, on the other side of the wall and pathless but I had to look back at the rest of Loughrigg and look down on its tarn.

I followed the wall downwards, steeply over wet ground at times, until I reached a bridle path where I turned right. The path widens and takes you past a camp site and houses until you meet another little road where you turn right going slightly uphill and then turn left down a smaller road leading to Skelwith Bridge. Once you cross over the bridge and cross to the other side of the main road to follow a small road that is not a through route for cars.

After you pass the community centre the road becomes a path, continue to follow it through the trees and you get to yet another small road. This time turn right and follow the road looking for a rutted track leading into the woods on the left. The road was blocked by workmen still clearing the debris of fallen trees and the track was a churned up quagmire to start with. Follow the track, which is quite obvious, until you cross a small stream; then it is less obvious and you bear right towards a metal gate. There was a tree there that is the definition of torn asunder, split down the middle almost to ground level.

The gate has to be climbed and you continue to follow the track on the other side if all you want to do is get to Black Fell. Personally I like to get on the ridge as soon as possible and walked up pathless rough grass towards the skyline. At the start of the ridge is a substantial cairn, two metres high with a radius to match. This hill is named Park Fell on the map, after a slightly undulating ridge I came across the summit cairn sitting on a summit sized boulder. Keep following the ridge and you have to descend to a col, you can see the track below that you could have followed, more direct but less interesting than the ridge.

There isn't much path on which to descend, just head for the track in whatever way you can down steep grass and through boulders. The col is quite damp and muddy in places but as you begin to climb rough grass takes over and it is an unexciting tramp up a not too steep gradient. As you get to the ridge near the summit of Black Fell it gets a little bit more interesting, a wall with a ladder stile leading to the triangulation point at the summit. It is the the only trig point with a name plate, the plate says Black Crag, the map says Black Fell.

Now I have to get back to the road without making too wide a diversion, I set off downwards across the grass heading towards the junction of a couple of minor roads at the main road. I can't see the junction but I can see where the ridge of Holme Fell reaches road level and that is the point I am aiming for. After a few minutes I got to the wall, too high to climb over, at least for now, and no gaps to get through so I decided to turn right and follow it for a while. I found a gate sized gap in the wall and I could see a farm track below complete with a group of walkers so I headed downhill to that.

I turned right again to walk along the track but I wasn't convinced the farm I could see was High Arnside where I wanted to be. The farm was actually Low Arnside, I didn't want to follow the path I was on so at a gate I went in the opposite direction to the footpath marker arrow. I crossed over fields and climbed a wall hoping to find the High Arnside track and I came to another wall with trees on the other side so I decided it was time to go downhill. I could see where Holme Fell was; I followed the wall downhill and came to the road, or rather the fence at the side of the road that was topped with barbed wire.

The other slight problem was the thicket of brambles on the other side of the fence. You have no scope for misjudging that top length of barbed wire even with long legs so I walked along the fence hoping to find a way over it. There was no way across and I came to a junction with another fence, at right angles to the road with an even higher barbed wire top, so I walked back to the wall. The wire above the wall wasn't barbed so I climbed up onto the wall, walked along it past the fence and inelegantly lowered myself onto the embankment beside the road.

Well that's the most awkward bit of the walk done, just get across the road now and turn left in the direction of Holme Fell. After you cross a small road opposite the High Arnside track you go through a kissing gate and you are at the foot of Holme Fell. Last summer when I was here the bracken was high and I would have had to find a path but the bracken is dead so I just headed up to the skyline. It wasn't too long before I found a faint path that took me along the ridge.

Now this is an interesting ridge, for a small hill it has a lot of variation and lots of scrambling opportunities, on a dry day it would be a great place to clamber up to all of the peaks. There is a faint path that weaves between the rock outcrops; it enables you take an easier route than I did but not half as interesting or enjoyable. With a bit of luck and paying attention to the map and the path you will find the descent to Usk Gap, you can see across the gap there two peaks either side of a col. The descent to the gap can be as interesting as you like, there is plenty of good slabby rock to climb down.

The is a more obvious path on the other side of the gap making a steep ascent upto a col and leading naturally to the left hand peak with its substantial cairn, obviously a summit you would have thought. It is a summit of course, but of Ivy Crag, it is the right hand peak that is the summit of Holme Fell. The attraction of Ivy Crag is that it is close because you still have a walk over rough ground to get to the final climb to the summit of Holme Fell. You can go over or around rock according to your taste to a small untidy cairn on a summit sized boulder. There is a higher rock platform along the short summit ridge, this is obviously quite a bit higher than the big cairn on Ivy Crag.

I descended around the side of the rocks over steep vegetation, sometimes the ground was very soft and very wet, towards the attractive looking tarn amongst the trees. As you walk through the wooded area around the tarn there are some impressively fallen and snapped off trees, it must have been quite a gusty night when they all came down. There was a path around the tarn that I followed, you take the right hand branch when you need to choose and you eventually get to the quarry hole at Hodge Close.

The signpost near the steep sided hole in the ground says roofing slate has been quarried there for 200 years and you wouldn't argue, it is an impressively smooth sided and formidably large hole in the ground. As I got past the quarry there are a few houses, in one of the small gardens were a couple of cute looking Great Danes, I just had to go and say hello to them. As I walked towards the gate one of the dogs bounded up to it and put its paws on top of the gate waiting for me. As I went to stroke it it bit me on the thumb, giving it a squeeze until I managed to pull away.

The dog turned away as nothing had happened and I had to use my first aid kit for the first time, it wasn't the kind of walking injury that I had expected. After a hasty one handed clean and patch up I walked back to Elterwater, I decided to give Lingmoor Fell a miss and get down the the accident and emergency department.

What did we learn today?

Andy Wallace 26th March 2005