Seathwaite Fell to Glaramara - Photo Gallery

I parked at Seathwaite Farm, there were plenty of cars and minibuses for 8;30 in the morning, and as I expected I passed a constant stream of 3-peaks walkers on their way down to Snowdon. I crossed over Stockley Bridge, the rocky cataract upstream of the bridge was dry and exposed, it makes you realise what a huge amount of water comes down the river on a wet day.

There is a rugged little climb up to a gate in a wall, I stopped to take my jacket off, it was warm in the early morning sun; I saw a bird I thought I had never seen before, it posed on top of a boulder for me while I took photographs. I later found out that is was Wheatear, a bird I thought of as having a plain brown appearance, but it was resplendent in its mating plumage, with brown eye-mask and smart brow epaulettes separating its pale mauve back from its white chest.

I set off again in teeshirt and shorts, in warm sunshine, the busy Scafell Pike and Great Gable path carries on upwards, but I turned to walk across lush green vegetation towards a green gully that I could see on Seathwaite Fell. It was an easy gradient with a couple of rocky streams to cross, I fancied that I could see traces of previous walkers, and came across the rain gauge that confirms Seathwaite as a very wet place.

I carried on to the bottom of the gully, it looks steep but there are indications that it could be climbed, and has been before, but not very often since I did so in November 2002. It is steep, mainly grass but with plenty of hand and foot holds, some rock outcrops and some muddy foot steps. I had to make a diversion around a mini waterfall and there is a very steep exit from the gully; from above it looks impossible to get down, or to have got myself up.

The gradient eased and I had a climb up a bouldery slope to the first cairn of Seathwaite Fell, it is a delightful spot on a delightful fell. It had started to cloud over as I was climbing up the gully, and once I left its shelter the breeze was cold enough that I needed to put on jacket and gloves. I walked over to the next peak, across lush green vegetation, there was a faint path occasionally, and there were many small tarns, before climbing up to next the cairn. This middle summit has the best views of Great Gable and Great End, it was lovely and warm briefly but cold again as soon as the sun goes in.

I walked across grass again, around the head of Great Slack, and climbed up to the actual summit of Seathwaite Fell; there are still great views, fantastic visibility in the clear air and still a cold wind. I made a pathless descent, across undulating ground, and past more tarns, before Sprinkling Tarn came into sight; I didn't walk on the small path down to it, but traversed around it and descended a green ridge. At the bottom of the ridge, I walked across swampy ground to reach the main path coming up from Styhead tarn, near its junction at Ruddy Gill with the path coming up from Grains Gill.

I walked up to the X-shaped shelter near Esk Hause; the highway to Scafell Pike goes up towards Ill Crag, I made a more straightforward walk on an eroded path leading up to the summit of Allen Crags. It was a wonderful quiet walk along the undulating ridge, full of interesting grassy knolls, rocky outcrops and small tarns. I eventually got down to High House Tarn, before starting the climb towards Glaramara; the ground was more rugged, a climb through boulders followed by a short descent to small col.

Then there was some minor scrambling, up a small gully complete with stream, then upwards over bouldery ground to the first rugged peak of Glaramara; I walked over to the second peak with its big cairn, and then across to the summit with its shelter just below it. The sun came out, and I sat feeling warm for a short while; the air was so clear I could almost every hill in the Lake District except the Scafell Massif; Northern, Northwestern, Western, Eastern and the rest of the Southern Fells were all visible enough to identify individual tops.

There is an interesting little descent from the summit of Glaramara, twenty feet of rock that is good fun when climbing, requires a bit more thought and care on the way down. At the bottom of the rock face, a muddy path leads away across marshy ground; I was looking for a route to Hind Gill, and I chose a pathless route between a craggy outcrop and what looked like the top of a gill. I found a spring, that became a stream, and it was indeed the source of Hind Gill, I walked down easy grass slopes by the side of the juvenile gill for a way.

As the gill became too rough to contemplate descending it, a path appeared in front of me, it was immediately steep and badly eroded, and remained so all the way down to the intake wall. An easier path and easier gradient eventually led to a gate opening out onto the path not far from Seathwaite farm.

© Andy Wallace 11th Jun 2011