Not a Beautiful Day, a Great Cockup - Look at a few photos With apologies for the poor quality

I've been thinking about the Northern Fells for a while and been waiting for a day when the weather is good enough for a bit of exploration. It is fine and sunny as I drive towards Keswick, Skiddaw is capped with cloud but it is light and will probably disappear as the day warms up.

At the roundabout at the junction of the A66 and A591 roads take the A591 signposted to Carlisle and after about 4 miles on the right a small road turns off towards Orthwaite. Within half a mile is a small parking area overlooking Bassenthwaite Lake which is where I left the car, it is bright and sunny, the beginning of a beautiful day.

Shortly after setting off uphill at a farm gate on the right is a signposted footpath, follow this path and follow the blue marker arrows, turning right where you have the choice of two directions. As soon as I turned on to the footpath it became obvious that it might not be such a beautiful day on Skiddaw, the light cloud that I had seen was now much darker.

The footpath goes across a field with sheep in, as I was walking up hill there was a lot of bleating going on and sheep began running towards me from all directions. Within a couple of minutes there must have been a hundred or so sheep lined up behind me, I am sure they would have mugged me if I hadn't turned round and photographed the ringleaders.

The fields end at Southerndale Beck at a gate leading to Southerndale itself, an inviting looking path heads up the valley but the urge to be up high is strong. I turned right alongside a wall and headed straight up the ridge when it looked as though the path was taking a roundabout route. This leads to the curious outcrop of rocks known as Watches, the view behind was getting better the view ahead was becoming more ominous.

From Watches the path becomes steeper, on grass at first and then becoming stony, the concave slope of The Edge becomes obvious as the higher you get the steeper and stonier the path becomes. It is an interesting path with increasingly good views until I disappeared into the cloud with a final scramble over exposed slate up to the delightful summit of Ullock Pike.

The hard work is done for now and the walk along Longside Edge is enjoyably easy, in good weather it is exhilarating but safe with excellent views and a steep drop on either side, but today these things are hidden by the mist. From the summit of Long Side you drop down to a small col, and at the lower of two fairly large cairns the main path goes off towards Carlside Tarn.

To get to the summit of Carl Side you need to walk south eastwards, there is a faint path in places but in the thick mist it is easily lost. With your path detector set to maximum power you should reach the summit cairn of Carl Side for what it's worth. Even if you miss the cairn you can't miss the path, when you reach it turn left for an easy walk to Carlside Tarn, still partly frozen today.

The walk up to Skiddaw is probably the least interesting path in the Lake District, a grey path over a grey fellside in grey mist, the only interest being when the path steepens which in dry weather is quite slippery and awkward. As the gradient eases and it becomes obvious that the ridge is close by a couple of unnecessary cairns lead you to a shelter which is not the summit. At the shelter turn left and follow the wide path until you each the Ordnance Survey column at the summit. A recent addition is a small column obviously erected as a Millennium project by Allerdale Council, it shows the direction of local landmarks and places, a poor substitute for a view.

By now the mist has turned to rain, or rather sleet and the time it takes to put on waterproof trousers, check the map and take a bearing is enough for my hands to get cold. Set off northwards following a path until it disappears on reaching a large flat area, a large cairn on the right is a clue to which direction to take. There is a new fence without a stile but the path seems to be on the other side of it running parallel to it, I'll follow the fence northwards for now and see what happens. I feel a bit better where the new fence coincides with an old metal fence post and the path crosses over on to my side of the fence.

My hands are too cold to struggle with a map, especially whilst I'm on the border of the South and North sides of it, so follow the fence for now. After a while the fence turns off to the right but instinct says to follow the path ahead and after about a hundred and fifty yards I reached the summit cairn of Bakestall. Retrace my steps back to the fence and follow it down Birkett Edge to the top of the waterfalls of Whitewater Dash, at last below the cloud line, out of the rain and hands warmed up.

My plan to explore is in tatters, I made a half hearted attempt to head towards Great Calva but today is not the right day to explore places that I don't know. It is too early to go home so I'm going to head towards Great Cockup which is visible from here. I take the track below Dead Crags until reaching a farm road where I turned right towards Dash Farm. At a junction of tracks turn left and eventually reach Brockle Crag, well named with a white stripe of quartz rocks along its back.

At the foot of the crag, turn right and double back following a path alongside the wall in the direction of Great Cockup but the ridge urge strikes again and I climb up grass to the top of Brockle Crag with its white quartz boulders. Then head directly for Great Cockup, no path but easy walking over grass passing the occasional grouse butt, but I didn't see many grouse. From the summit of Great Cockup I can see many of the other Northern Fells, I have a much better idea now of how I can get to them. The weather over Great Calva and Skiddaw still looks atrocious and is heading my way so I set off down pathless grass to pick up the path that contours around the base of Little Cockup.

I eventually reached a track and I couldn't make up mind if it is was the road marked on the map, all of the other landmarks were in the right place but it looked a bit like a track but I turned right along it anyway. That was a wrong decision as I ended up back at Brockle Crag instead of on the Orthwaite Road, never mind at least I knew where I was and eventually got back to the road.

Not the day I was hoping before but it still gave me good idea of where things are, I'll have to try again soon.

Andy Wallace 1st March 2003