Land of Hope and Grasmoor - Photo Gallery

Movie clip of Descending on scree from Grasmoor End

It was a sunny morning and there was a good forecast for the day so I decided to include last week's planned but abandoned walk of Hope Gill; of course I would have to think of a longer route that incorporated it. I started from the car park at Cinderdale Common and walked up the road to Lanthwaite. There is a faint path through the grass in the direction of Whin Ben; the climbing starts as soon as you cross the footbridge over Liza Beck at the bottom of Gasgale Gill.

You have a steep climb on an eroded path through gorse at first before the heather takes over; after the initial steepness there is an area bracken before the heather takes over properly for the duration of the steep climb of Whin Ben. The heather is past its best and there would have been an overwhelming purple-ness a couple of weeks ago. There is a final more eroded and rugged clamber over exposed rock to get to the bilberry lawn at the top of Whin Ben.

You have an almost gradient-free section of walking for a short while before the steepness reasserts itself; this an eroded, rugged climb of a rocky tower where the vegetation has been scoured away or maybe it never gained a foothold. Then there is a wider path as you get higher until, at the steepest part of the ascent, there is again hardly any vegetation left causing deep erosion and rough stony ground. It is an interesting clamber up the eroded slope until finally and suddenly you are at the summit and on the ridge of Whiteside.

There is a slight depression before you re-ascend to a secondary summit; instead of following the ridge to Whiteside Edge I turned left to deliberately, if unfortunately, lose all that hard-earned height. I thought I was going on an unexplored route down a broad ridge towards Dodd; at first it was plain grass but soon I came across what could best be described as a path. It was an obvious route at first but became even more obvious as grass gave way to heather and the path was visible all the way to Dodd.

Dodd has a an uncharacteristic rocky outcrop, a contradiction to the its name that means a plain grassy hill. I reached the col and could see the outcrop just above me; I think it could be climbed I but I took a route around to the left avoiding the need to scramble over the shattered outcrop. There is a faint but obvious path through the heather leading to the summit plateau; with this heathery jungle a name including the word Ling rather than Dodd would have been more appropriate for this little hill. There is a cairn at the highest point and a path going down to Hope Gill from it but I carried on along a vague path to the end of the plateau where another cairn overlooks Lorton Vale.

There is a unusual view of Whiteside and Cold Gill from Dodd, the bright sunshine prevented it from being a great view it seems very hazy for this time of year. Looking out across Lorton Vale and steeply down to Hope Beck I wondered if I should go back and find that path down from the summit. I decided to carry on and find my way down as best I could through the heather, bilberry and scree; its a good job the heather is well-rooted (it is always a reliable hand-hold). By the time the gradient eased my fingers were stained purple from grabbing hold of the ripe bilberries.

As the gradient eased the heather turned to grass; after a longer walk than I had expected I reached the flat bottom of Hope Gill where it was reedy but not too wet. Confusingly, the valley is named Hope Gill and the stream is named Hope Beck; usually the name “gill” is given to the stream rather than just the valley. I stepped across the beck and started to walk upstream on the small path; there wouldn't have been too much to see in last weekend's rain but it's a lovely valley on a nice day. After passing a ruined sheepfold the valley became narrower as the fellside on either side closed in and there was a point where the path ended as the steam flooded the small valley and a cascade of gravel replaced the heather on the left hand slope.

Was that the path continuing on the other side of the stream or could I see a path going up through the gravel? I decided to try the path uphill through the gravel because I knew the path moved away from the stream at some point. After a steep climb the path just disappeared and it seemed unlikely that the route would continue steeply all the way up to the ridge without a path through the heather, and it was in the wrong place anyway. I descended a little and followed the contours above what looked like a gravel pit and I could see a path on the other side of the stream. After a strenuous struggle through the heather I descended as best I could down to rejoin the path that had crossed the stream again.

I continued upstream until once again the path just disappeared where there was a patch of slate-like scree coming down to the stream. There was no path on the other side of the stream this time but there were signs of a trodden way up through the stones so I went to have a look; there were definite signs of a path here and the heather was less dense. This was what I had been looking for as the small path moved away from the stream; the fragile ground that the heather grows in would quickly become eroded if many people came this way. The steepness eased as heather gave way to grass and the path became vague and eventually disappeared. The course of the stream was now a shallow gully and the gradient wasn't that hard but what a slog; the grass seemed to go on forever and the small rock turret on the ridge wasn't getting any nearer.

Eventually I reached the ridge and went around the left hand side of the rock turret for the short scramble to its little top; a splendid place to sit in the sun and admire the view. I walked off the easy northern side of the turret and carried on along the rocky edge high above Hobcarton Gill and with the best view of Hobcarton Crag; this walk over bare rock and close to the edge is not one I would do if it was the slightest bit damp. There is a notch in the rock that separates a large flat slab from the arete rising to the summit of Hopegill Head; it looks as though the notch had been used as a route to Hobcarton.

From the bottom of the arete the naked rock looks steep and intimidating, especially with the rays of sunlight creating an aura of white light around the dark rock. I was apprehensive about the state of the rock but once I stepped up onto it however it all seemed so easy; walking up dry rock at an easy angle in bright sunshine was exhilarating. After the first easy slope you have to be a bit more adventurous to keep close to the edge; there are damp patches of rock and grass to avoid as you scramble upwards and you can see it's a long way down if you don't keep hold.

Eventually I reached the elegant rocky summit; the views along the ridge to Grisedale Pike and Whiteside made it feel like a real mountain top although it was disappointingly hazy. The view southwards couldn't be a greater contrast; plain grass on a high plateau where a very visible path takes the walker over the subsidiary mound of Sand Hill. Sand Hill looks benign but the path from its summit down to Coledale Hause has become badly eroded so I decided to follow the contours around to the left and avoid the path across the top.

The ground is fragile with the wet top soil barely held in place by the thin vegetation; it wouldn't take long to gouge out another wide path if everybody went that way. Anyway, I carried on and as I got around to the southern face of the hill the grass was thicker and the ground more consolidated as I descended to Coledale Hause. You can see the scree and rock of the north face of Eel Crag ahead and I made a beeline for it; as you reach the bottom of the scree you can see a flattened more consolidated route upwards and across the loose stones.

You need to Keep going up to the top of the scree where you are naturally channelled towards a shallow rock gully; there is plenty of rock to hold on to and it is a straightforward clamber upwards when it is dry. The sunny conditions showed up the brilliant colours of the rock on Eel Crag's steep, rugged profile in contrast with the hazy views of Grisedale Pike in the middle distance and Skiddaw beyond. There is a final big step-up before you get to a cairn on a grassy platform; there is a very satisfying view below of Coledale Hause, High Force and the obvious path down the Coledale valley to Braithwaite.

The way ahead is a rough path up to the skyline where you will reach the large sloping summit plateau of Crag Hill; the path isn't obvious but in good weather there is no doubt about where the summit is and even in poor weather going upwards won't get you too lost. Once you get to the triangulation point it can be confusing in bad weather but for once I had splendid views from the cairn on the edge, especially Grisedale Pike and the Force Crag area. Looking westwards all you can see is a slightly domed hill beyond the horizon of the plateau; the hill is Grasmoor and even without the line of cairns I could have made my way straight towards it.

As you start to descend the cairns lead you to an obvious path; it looks like one of the new JCB-made paths that protect the fellside as well as making a good, dry walking surface. The path takes you down to the col and then obviously upwards to Grasmoor; after a straightforward climb you get to a summit plateau that puts Eel Crag in its place – this is a big grassy moor. After the steepness of the earlier climbs it was nice to have an easy walk in the sunshine to get to the summit of Grasmoor although the path fades before you get to the large multi-room shelter cairn.

I carried on walking in a westerly direction, there is a path in places but it disappears when the ground becomes rougher and stonier only to reappear for the final descent to the small cairn above Grasmoor End. I think this is the best view of Crummock Water, made even better by the reflection of the sunshine; the details of Gasgale Crags on Whiteside were well illuminated. From the cairn a path leads downwards in the direction of Crummock Water; it is not a route I have done before and I mistook it for the Lad Hows route.

There seems to be a route following the crest of a ridge but I decided to use what appeared to be a wider, stony path a short way in from the edge. I was surprised at how wide and eroded the path was, the light colour of the stones suggested that it was relatively frequently used. The consistency of the path was like shingle and it quickly became steeper; walking down the scree wasn't too bad at first until it went through a rocky channel where the top cover of stones had worn away. The hard, rough surface was difficult for my boots to keep a grip with it being so steep but once I got through the channel the stones were ankle-deep again.

Then the “path” just disappeared and I was walking through heather downwards at an angle of forty degrees – I think I prefer the scree to no path at all. My preference was tested again as I reached more scree; it was like riding a wave of stones downhill, trying not to get swept away by a fast-flowing tide. Far below I could see what looked like a path up a shallow scree-filled gully and I began to realise I wasn't on the path I had thought and probably not on any kind of path.

Judging from the contours on the map I estimated that I surfed downwards for about a thousand feet over forty-degree shingle before I reached the path I could see; I had boots full of stones by the time I got there. As far as I can tell the path I had reached is the rough Red Gill route but it looked a good deal more straightforward than what I had just done. The path downwards was a hard consolidation of stones until I reached the bracken; the slope was still steep, the bracken was high and the ground was wet making it even more perilous than the scree.

The wet ground didn't last for too long and the steepness lessened as I eventually got back to Cinderdale where I had left the car.

Andy Wallace 9th September 2006