Middle Spell - a magic fell - Photo Gallery

It's time I visited some of the Wasdale fells that I haven't seen very much of, well more accurately they are the fells around Greendale, one of them is Middle Fell. I was very impressed with Middle Fell on my first visit and today I want to make a more direct climb up its interesting looking, east facing slopes overlooking Wastwater and the screes.

It was already sunny when I parked the car at the side of the road at Greendale and I set off along the road still not really sure of how I was going to get up Middle Fell. Before I reached the road junction at the shore of Wastwater I was looking across the flat area by the side of the road towards Middle Fell and I decided I had to go for it.

The large wet meadow is unsuspected from the lakeside road, after so much rain recently the ground is very wet, there is a faint path but it may just be a sheep trod. The easy grass is very wet underfoot, almost to ankle depth in places, the alternative dry areas are covered by bracken. The slope ahead doesn't look too steep and there seems to be a natural way up to a col on the skyline.

Well, by the time I got to the the start of the vertical bit it was obvious that the natural way up was a bit too natural by the side of a small stream and not a sensible way upwards. Not that the alternative looked very sensible but I thought that once I got past the bracken onto the rock it would be better. The bracken wasn't as dense as the previous weekend but the ground is very steep, the bracken hides the boulders under your feet.

Then after squeezing past rock outcrops through the steep awkward bracken slopes you reach even rockier outcrops. What a magic place this is, a strenuous but relatively safe scramble in warm, sunny conditions. Half way up I heard the mewing of a buzzard, it soared lazily above easily seen against the cloudless blue sky. It seemed to me that the bird was warning me away from its nest or its food supply.

I scrambled up as much rock as I could, I could have taken a harder route but my route wasn't easy, the most awkward moments where when I had to get over dwarf gorse plants clinging to the rock. The biggest worry I had was the smell of a dead sheep, on this steep ground I didn't want to fall over a maggot ridden corpse. I climbed above the height at which the buzzard was flying and there was more rock to climb.

A rocky cliff that I would have climbed it if it didn't overhang was bypassed by a grassy rake, it was only afterwards looking at the photos when I realised how exposed I had been. At the top of the outcrop is more rock, what a great little hill this is, it took me over two hours of fun before reaching a cairn at the top of Long Crag. I soon found a path along the broad flat ridge to a fine rocky summit with impressive views.

It was wonderfully warm and sunny at the summit, the views of the big hills just add to the experience of this magic little fell. I followed the path on the other side of the summit in the direction of Pots of Ashness, a flat wet area between here and Haycock. There was a small tarn in the middle of the path, common sense said go around it but in my exuberance I went for the direct route across it. The clump of grass I went to put my foot on was just the top of the grass sticking out above the water.

As I fell into the stagnant water the pungent smell filled my nostrils and in spite of my best efforts to prevent myself falling in the water I ended up with muddy legs up to my shorts. There wasn't much I could do but carry on and hope that the mud would dry and fall off. It was a reasonably easy descent to the col between Middle Fell and Seatallan, the wet head of Greendale.

I climbed up from the col towards Seatallan until I got to a point where I hoped I wouldn't have to lose any height on my way to Haycock. I got to a level that I thought would lose least height and turned right off the path walking over rough grass towards Pots of Ashess when I caught sight of Haycock being partially covered by a large bank of mist.

I'm not quite sure which bit of the large flat area is actually Pots of Ashness, I suspect the lower right hand side with small tarns, the wide sloping plateau is wet at the best of times. The faint path keeps to the highest ground but you still have to make leaps and take diversions to keep your feet out of water and don't trust isolated clumps of grass any more.

The mist then rolled in across the plateau and nothing was visible, I followed the path keeping to the right hand branch at both places where there was a choice but being aware that I might have to adjust my course as I got closer to Haycock. I got to some rock outcrops that are fairly distinctive and I recognised them as being at the bottom of the Gowder Crag's steep rugged slopes.

I turned left off the path and walked below the rock until I came across a path that was going uphill, my kind of a path. This was not the climb to Haycock that I had expected but my compass said I was going in the right direction and it was more rugged and interesting than the steep slog uphill that I was expecting. After the gradient eases you get to an area of rock sticking through grass, there are no landmarks in the mist apart from the steep scree down to the left.

I carried on uphill seeing only occasional traces of a footpath until I reached a large boulder where the ridge seemed to turn left, I tried to memorise the way I had come up just in case I came back down this way. Eventually I came to a small rocky peak bearing a cairn and beyond there was an area of large stones, this was close to the summit of Haycock.

I continued onwards and soon came to the wall across the top of Haycock with a large cairn on one side of the wall and a shelter cairn on the other side. I must have looked strange to the other walkers there wearing shorts and sunglasses in the thick mist. Finding my way off was going to be interesting, there are good paths to Scoat Fell and Caw Fell but not towards Seatallan.

I walked back to the cairn on the pike, there was rough stony ground beyond it and no trace of any path and I couldn't remember which way I had got up there. Nothing for it but to look at the map, a last resort indeed but there was very little to go on. There are cairns marked on the map roughly south south west of where I thought I was so I carefully made my way over lichen covered boulders in that direction.

I arrived at a flat grassy area by the side of a wide grassy gully, I didn't see any cairns but I was pretty sure I knew where I was and I started to descend down the steep grassy slope. It wasn't long before I was out of the mist and sure enough I could see I was on the steep slope that I had expected to climb. There ahead was Seatallan with Blengdale beside it stretching into the distance, its many pools of water sparkling as they reflected the sun.

I reached the cairn on a boulder at the bottom of the slope, there is no clear path here but there is a cairn over to the left and I made my way over to it and then onto a further small cairn. Then there were no more cairns and still no path so I carried on along in the same direction and after a while a faint path seemed to head off in the direction of Seatallan.

I followed the path and it led me back to the wet path I had walked on my way towards Haycock, the mist was beginning to clear by this time. As you walk easily over the flatness there is an increasing anticipation of the steepness of Seatallan, soon after you start to climb up the grass the path just disappears completely. I made my way up to the the grassy ridge and the view upwards was very green and very steep.

The convex slope is hard work and the top is nowhere in sight, just got to keep going with a steady, easy rhythm and don't look to see how much further there is to go. Eventually and quite suddenly the gradient eases and you are on the broad green top of Seatallan, the trig point and cairn are very obvious now that it is a sunny day again. At last a path, not a big path but it is there, following what passes for a ridge on Seatallan, at least it is dry until you reach the cairn at or about Tod Hole.

I'm not sure what Tod Hole is supposed to be but there is an outcrop of boulders, not that significant but it is the only feature of any kind along the ridge of Seatallan.The going underfoot changes almost immediately, the short smooth grass is replaced by the longer grass that looks reddish that is characteristic of wetter ground.

It is still easy walking, only slightly descending until you reach the end of the ridge marked by the cairn on Cat Bields. You can see the prominent cairn on the intermediate summit of Glade How from here, descend slightly on wet ground before beginning a fairly easy climb on drier ground to the cairn.

Buckbarrow and Wastwater Screes are now visible, pity the Scafell group is covered by mist I was looking forward to the view up Wasdale. It's difficult to tell where Seatallan ends and Buckbarrow begins, there is just an undulating ridge between Cat Bields and Buckbarrow summit. It has to be said though that this is a very pleasant walk on a warm and sunny afternoon.

From the summit of Buckbarrow a faint path passes behind the bulwarks of rock that you can see from the road before descending more steeply through bracken on an eroding path back to the road. Turn left for for a one mile walk back to Greendale, pleasant walking because it is generally downhill but it's a good job that the lunatic collie guarding Low Greendale is securely fastened to its kennel.

Andy Wallace 14th August 2004