Misty Back of Skiddaw - Photo Gallery

It was a damp morning but not raining as I headed Back o'Skidda'; I parked near Over Water in the shadow of Binsey, but that wasn't on my route. I walked to Longlands village where a gate welcomes you to Uldale Commons; I walked along a good track for a while and then took the smaller path on the right, leading up to a green ridge. The ridge leads to the summit of Longlands Fell, a descent and ascent took me to the summit of Lowthwaite Fell.

I made a beeline for Brae Fell, down rough grass to get across the interesting deep valley of Charleton Gill; it started to rain as I walked up to the ridge and it was misty by the time I reached the summit. It had become windy too as I made my way across the swampy ridge towards Little Sca Fell; I came across a deep gill that told me I had missed its top but at least I was able to find the path towards Great Sca Fell. The path petered out in the misty wilderness, my instinct and compass told me I should be further west; I walked across the slightly rising ground and soon reached the cairn at the summit of Great Sca Fell.

It was misty, windy and cold on the trudge across featureless swampy ground, I've been there before and it's not quite as featureless as it looks, and I found the summit of Knott before the other poor soul wandering around in the gloom. I sat down at the summit cairn, using it to get as much shelter as possible while I looked at the map, in the conditions and unfamiliar surroundings I was wondering how I might continue my walk.

I decided to walk back to Great Sca Fell and take the navigation challenge, not the swampy trudge back through the mist but trying to find Meal Fell. From the summit of Great Sca Fell I followed a compass bearing, but there was a faint path that I didn't expect and after five minutes I was suddenly below the mist and the way ahead was obvious. After descending to a broad grassy col it was a straightforward walk to the summit of Meal Fell, a curiously interesting little summit, and then a straightforward walk down to Trusmador, a curiously interesting little bealach.

I climbed up the easy slope to a cairn at one end of a grassy ridge, it doesn't look like the summit but it is, the other cairn at the end of the ridge looks higher. I walked across the grassy ridge, past the several Grouse Butts, to the lower cairn; there was a path at first leading downhill but it disappeared. There is a track marked on the map but I couldn't see any sign of it so I headed towards the houses of Orthwaite.

I crossed a fence and stream, and then back again, almost like wandering around as if I didn't know where I was going. I decided to just follow a fence down to a gate that let me onto the road at Orthwaite. Rather than walk back along the road I followed a footpath sign, and walked across muddy fields until any signs of a path disappeared, so I carried on across the fields.

I had seen a couple of buzzards overhead and then saw one very close to me, I assumed I had disturbed it; shortly afterwards I heard a whoosh and felt a draught close to my head and then saw the Buzzard fly past me. The bird buzzed me another three times before I got far enough away from what it was protecting, probably its nest; I eventually found the path again near a moat, as it is marked on the map, before reaching the road for the walk back to Over Water.

© Andy Wallace 27th March 2010