Kepple Crag to Border End - Photo Gallery

It was a wet morning, and it was still raining when I parked at Jubilee Bridge; this is where the Hard Knott Pass road reaches Eskdale. I crossed the bridge and started to walk along the path, I was aware of having to stay on a lower path but ended up on higher one anyway; I descended the steep bracken-covered slope to get to a likely-looking gate, about half way down the wall ahead of me.

I followed the path through woods, across fields, around the Penny Hill Farm yard, and along a good track to Doctor Bridge; I didn't cross it but turned left on another track heading towards Low Birker. After a short walk down the track, I came across a small patch of wild Irises; I have seen them before in the Lake District but only rarely, I can't remember the last time I saw any in flower. After passing the farm buildings, the good track came to an abrupt end, with an unsurfaced muddy mess ahead; I walked up a small path on the left, then across more fields.

I had to choose one of two green paths through bracken, it was difficult to judge which path was which on the map; I decided to take the left fork, on a rising path. After walking through bracken and past some trees I came to a wall; I couldn't reconcile the position of it to where I thought I was on the map, I can't have been where I thought I was!

In the rain and mist, I took a compass bearing, and used my intuition and experience, to make my up to where I thought I should be; I later realised I had come over to the Penny Hill peat road, rather that the Low Birker one. The peat roads are a common feature around Eskdale, built for pony sleds to bring peat down to the farms. I walked on up the rising, steep, zigzag path, and passed a ruined building, probably an old peat hut; the path carries on, following the contours, but I walked across very wet ground trying to find Kepple Crag.

I continued onwards, past the watery ground, trying to keep on slightly higher ground above the wetness; on a slight rise I saw streams issuing from the wet ground below me. I though I should be able to recognise this area on the map, and thought I had; fortunately, as I walked on, I caught a brief glimpse of what was obviously Kepple Crag ahead. This mist came right down again as I carried on across wet, almost swampy ground; as I reached drier ground I had to walk through dense bracken, and just before I reached the base of the crag, I found a better path than I expected in that remote place.

I followed the path, but left it to walk around the front of Kepple Crag; I climbed upwards on a steep path, mainly on grass but between masses of rock. As I reached the summit, the rain stopped, but it was still misty; there were glimpses of views down to the valley and along the ridge, but the mist was rolling along quickly.

I walked back down to the path at the base of the crag; it crossed more very wet ground, along the edge of a reedy tarn, and on to a wide wet col. I made a couple of false starts trying to find a way across the swampy ground, and had to backtrack before finding a place where the water was only up to my ankles. I found drier ground passing below some more interesting crags, before climbing on grass, up to the start of a steep green ridge. I started climbing upwards, past steep dark crags, and then found a way up on grass between the rocks to the craggy cockscomb crest of Crook Crag.

After an awkward scramble along the short rocky ridge, I didn't find any sign of a cairn, before descending to a faint path; I crossed undulating ground, losing the path in places, before making the climb up to the summit of Green Crag. The impressive rocky summit was slightly diminished by the lack of a view in the dense mist; after descending to find the faint path it promptly disappeared. There is nothing quite like navigating in mist; following a compass bearing I descended eastwards over more wet ground, until I eventually caught a glimpse of forest.

I headed over towards the forest and picked up the wet path I was looking for, it took me across more very wet ground to a wall stile; the Hard Knott Forest contains a typical Forestry Commission path. Their is no reconstruction of the forest paths, you take them as you find them; you usually find them a muddy mess and this one is typical. I reached the junction with a good track, I turned left and it immediately deteriorated into a mud-avoidance exercise; the path is a good deal wider than it was a year ago.

I carried on until I reached a gate in a fence; you turn right here, uphill, climbing steeply but the path is not at all obvious at first. The path is grassy to begin with, the gradient is consistently steep up to the craggy outcrops as you approach the summit of Harter Fell. As I reached the summit tors, I tried to climb one of the interesting subsidiaries, but the rock was very greasy; I walked over to the separate trig point and then had to find a safe way to scramble up to the summit.

Having carefully got off the summit rocks, I descended on steep grassy ground until I reached a gate in the forest boundary fence: I struggled to avoid deep mud to get through the gate and started to descend through the harvested forest. After a short distance I realised I knew the area, and it was obvious that I was going in the wrong direction, so I walked back to the gate-in-a-bog, and after getting back on the other side of it, I continued to follow fence in the direction of Hard Knott.

I was soon walking over familiar, wet ground and after a short descent I reached the road at the top of Hard Knott Pass. I crossed the cattle grid and turned left to follow the formerly electrified fence uphill; I followed the faint path until I reached a stile near top of the rise. I bore left, climbing easily up grass towards the ridge; as I reached the crest the summit cairn was only a short distance ahead.

I continue onwards, trying to descend to the Roman Fort over Border End; I ended up in a place that was just too steep to get down, and getting steeper. I had to climb back up; only by climbing up again do you realise just how steep the ground is that you have just got down. I found a faint path, it was going away from the direction I wanted, but it was below the ridge and away from the steep crags; I eventually found easier ground and a reasonable, if wet, descent to reach a path back to the fort.

I carried on downwards, on a path by the side of the fort walls, and kept off the road all the way back down to the Jubilee Bridge car park.

© Andy Wallace 20th June 2009