Hagg Gill Round - Photo Gallery
There are a couple of interesting Mardale routes I have been looking at but from Mardale they would be too short so I have worked out a different way of getting there, but there is a danger that it may be too far in a day. I left the car at the small parking area near the church at Troutbeck and it was with hope rather than conviction that prevented me putting on my waterproofs before setting off.
Turn left at the road to walk past the church and after about half a mile you come to a small junction, a small road on the left and a bridleway on the right. Turn right on to the bridleway, an attractive, narrow walled track with trees either side makes a very pleasant quiet walk. As Town Head is left behind the mist is showing some signs of clearing and the quiet track meets a quiet tarmac road, Ing Lane.
After about a mile, you cross Ing Bridge half way to the signpost showing the way to Threshthwaite and High Street. Follow the High Street path across the fields, it is faint to begin with and then disappears amongst longer grass and bracken but carry on across the field towards the wall. Once you get to the wall you should see the gate in the wall looking straight up the nose of Troutbeck Park.
Once through the gate there are signs of a path heading upwards directly ahead but it looks as though you are going to have to struggle through bracken, and I'm half expecting to climb a wall or two. Quite steeply up through bracken the path is very wet, I am determined to go straight up the hill whatever happens and when I got to a wall I was surprised to find a gate. Through the gate I found the bracken six feet high, fortunately the bracken is getting weaker as it is starting to die off and there is a faint path heading steeply upwards.
When the gradient eases and the bracken ends you are on a lovely little ridge, the rugged rocky way upwards is unsuspected from below. The mist is still clearing with a good view of Wansfell and most of Ill Bell and its quarries, looking up the valley I could see the base of the cloud. In order to get to the summit you have to step over a fence, the fence builder has helpfully left a small gap in the barbed wire and folded down the top part of the wire fencing to make it possible to step over it. From here is a good view of Scot Rake, the Roman way up to High Street is more obvious from a distance.
Once you get to the summit any similarity to a hill ends, this tongue slopes easily up the valley unlike most tongue shaped ridges that follow the streams down their valleys. The wide grassy ridge is dry at first with a faint path heading towards Threshthwaite and another considerate fence builder has left a section without barbed wire to allow his fence to be crossed. The next section through short browning bracken is beginning to get wet underfoot and the final downward section, past a couple of piles of stones that the map suggests may be ancient cairns, becomes very wet through grass and reeds.
The walk along the ridge of Troutbeck Tongue is wonderfully quiet, on the final wet section I saw a deer running away only a hundred yards from me. As I reached a sheep fold at another wall that I thought I might have to climb,there were gates through the fold and the wall. All my pleasant feelings were suddenly soured as I got through the gate and saw litter stuffed in between the stones on the other side of the wall.
The valley then is broad, flat and relatively dry it is a delightful quite walk, the col at Threshthwaite Mouth is now clear of mist. You will meet another wall where you have to cross Trout Beck, easier said than done with so much water in the beck, and once across you meet the main path to Threshthwaite. Not that the main path is that obvious except where you cross the stream again at an attractive waterfall, there is then a fairly obvious ridge path to the col between Stony Cove Pike and Thornthwaite Crag.
The path up to Thornthwaite Crag looks daunting and the climb is strenuous but interesting, more so because the strong breeze is blowing across the steep path. The steepness gets you the summit fairly quickly where Thornthwaite Beacon at fourteen feet high is a recognisable landmark for miles around. Having not seen anybody else since I left Troutbeck it isn't really a surprise to see several walkers sheltering from the wind on the other side of the summit wall. I was beginning to think I might not complete my planned walk but the conditions were still good so I was going to think again when I got to High Street.
The path to High Street is wide and obvious as is High Street itself, the walking is easy especially if you stick to the main path, I can see that there is a huge shower over Helvellyn. You can walk over to the wall and follow it to the summit but the ground is very wet, the walking is better on the main path but if you are not careful you can walk past the summit. As you get closer to the summit the path gets further away from the wall but a faint path heads diagonally over to the summit at the highest part of the wall.
As I was considering whether or not to walk my planned route the weather suddenly came in, heavy raindrops and a high wind, my hands got cold immediately. I decided it was time to turn back and followed the wall back in the direction of Thornthwaite Crag, at the end of wall I followed the path across the shoulder of the fell without visiting the beacon again. It was very misty until I started to descend in the direction of Froswick when the mist cleared as suddenly as it had appeared.
Froswick and Ill Bell have an elegant recognisable profile and they make a good dry high level walking ridge. As I was climbing Froswick I saw walkers coming in the opposite direction, I thought I recognised the two dogs with them and sure enough one of the walkers was Ann who I met on my Bampton Tramp in February. After leaving Ann and her friends I carried on up to the summit of Froswick to meet another shower, the hail was horizontal.
The shower eased by the time I reached the summit of Ill Bell, the three large unique cairns there make this a uniquely recognisable place. The descent from Ill Bell leaves the reasonable paths behind, the ascent of Yoke immediately introduces you to the characteristics of a broad flat fell, there is a lot of water involved. The retention of so much water on flat peaty ground make for the creation of a wet and boggy path that encourages diversions until the final summit ridge and large cairn.
After you pass the viewpoint cairn at the southern end of the summit plateau the ground keeps on getting wetter if you stay on the path, keeping to the ridge is a drier option. Eventually you reach another wall, there is a ladder stile that gets you onto the wettest part of the fell, follow the wall as best you can until a wet path goes off to the right. There is some relief from the wetness for a while but as you get closer to Garburn Pass the mud gets wider and deeper.
From Garburn Pass a rough eroded track takes you all the way down to the road very close to the church at Troutbeck and my car parked close by.
Andy Wallace 2nd October 2004