Stone to Steel - Photo Gallery
There are some summits you visit only occasionally and looking back you wonder if in the bad conditions you actually got to the summit so you have to go back later and make sure. Then again does it really count if you visit the summit on a ridge rather than actually climb the hill itself? Anyway, I visited Stone Arthur in July 2000 on my way down from Fairfield and today I will do it the honour of climbing it as well as making sure I get to the top.
The National Park policy of hiking their car park prices means that I am parking on the street again in Grasmere, it is a grey day at ground level with the hills completely shrouded in mist. I walked through the village to the A591 and crossed over it to walk up the lane by the side of the Swan hotel. Walk past another lane on the right and shortly afterwards there is a footpath on the right with a signpost indicating the way to Allcock Tarn and Stone Arthur.
Follow the path alongside Greenhead Gill until you come to a gate, go through the gate and turn left for Stone Arthur. The climb starts straight away, quickly gaining height there are brief glimpses through the mist of Grasmere below and the distinctive top of Stone Arthur. You get to a small stream and the waymarker arrow points across the stream to the right, and looking at the map afterwards that was the right way to go.
However the arrow seemed to be pointing away from Stone Arthur so I followed the stream uphill, there did seem to be a faint path anyway. In the mist there is no visibility so I am using skill and instinct, I am amazed I don't get properly lost sometimes. I followed the stream until I reached a large boulder that was sitting by the side of the stream where a faint path seemed to slant upwards, and upwards was where I wanted to go.
Having followed the path up to a ridge I came across and wall and followed it generally uphill, I got a glimpse of Stone Arthur that suggested I was on the wrong side of the stream that I had followed. Surprisingly there did seem to be a faint path up the grassy slope until I arrived at a small depression and across the wall there seemed to be a more obvious path going uphill. It wasn't a path, just a water run off forming the start of the stream, so I was climbing steeply uphill on grass.
I reached the rocks near the summit that resembled a much more rugged summit, crossing through the lower boulders I got to the crag from which Stone Arthur must have taken its name. On a dry day it would have been fun to scramble up the rock but it is too slippery today so I walked around the crags and found the path to the summit. There is no cairn and it isn't clear where the highest point is so I visited the two most obvious higher points. A rare gap in the mist, the last for over two hours, gave me a good view down to Grasmere.
Having convinced myself that I had reached the summit of Stone Arthur the next bit of the walk made me doubt myself again, a steep climb to a pointed rock outcrop. I have since convinced myself that I was at the summit, but from Grasmere the view of Stone Arthur makes it look much more isolated than it actually is.
The walking from here was much less steep, almost at the summit of Great Rigg I came across the main path to Fairfield. The closer I got to Fairfield the colder it got, by the time I reached its summit shelter there was a severe wind chill and I met the first other person I had seen for three hours. The summit of Fairfield on a misty day is a very confusing place with no landmarks and plenty of cairns. I always tell myself to check the map when I am there but I was confident that I knew the way down to Grisedale Tarn. I made a slight course correction to pick up a line of cairns but I didn't recognise the place at all but carried on anyway hoping I wouldn't have to climb up this way again if I was wrong.
When I got to the ruined wall I knew I was going the right way, the path runs almost parallel to the wall down to Grisedale Hause. I passed a couple of walkers who were on their way up, the last people I saw for the rest of the day except for when I crossed the road later. From the hause is the eroded rocky climb to Seat Sandal, there were fragments of snow covering the steep path but at least I was sheltered from the cold wind there.
The summit of Seat Sandal is just as confusing as Fairfield, you cross a wall to get to the substantial summit cairn. Then you go back to the wall and follow it in a northerly direction downwards over grass. If you continue in the same direction when the wall ends and you will find it again and you can follow it all the way down to Raise Beck.
Raise Beck is a wonderful rocky mountain stream with many waterfalls and rapids and large boulders. Out of the mist now it started to rain but at least I could see all the way down to Dunmail Raise pass. Suddenly I could see that the mist had cleared from the top of Steel Fell, maybe I would get some views when I got there. The climb down to the pass is rugged and interesting especially over the wet smooth rock in places.
At the bottom of the beck you get to the road and you have to get yourself across the dual carriageway in between the speeding traffic. Turn right and walk along the verge for a while, past the large tumulus allegedly the site of the last resting place of King Dunmail of Cumbria. As the road narrows and the verge disappears there is a gate you have to go through to get on to a bridleway that runs parallel to the road in the direction of Thirlmere.
Just before you get to a gap in a stone wall a faint path goes off to the left to make the steep green climb to Steel Fell. It is green and steep and just what your calf muscles don't need after 6 hours walking. There is a stone wall about half way up where the gradient increases and the grass is wetter, at this point the rain started and the weather really closed in. I continued up the strenuous slope and it was only when the gradient eased that I allowed myself to put my waterproof pants on.
With it raining rather than being misty there was some visibility and I was able to head for the highest ground where I found the fence I was expecting. The navigation from here is easy, just follow the fence until you reach a cairn on a small ridge then follow the small ridge until you reach the larger cairn at the summit of Steel Fell. I was hoping to see a path leaving the summit in a southerly direction for me to descend back to Grasmere but there was none or at least none that I could see.
I should have looked at the map but it was wet and windy so I followed the fence for a while hoping to find a path but didn't find one. So, relying on skill and experience again I headed across the featureless plateau in the mist and it was now beginning to get a bit dark. I wouldn't recommend my wander around for a bit looking for a path technique to inexperienced walkers but it seems to work for me. Having found the path it is a straightforward descent back to Town Head and follow the lanes back to Grasmere in the fading light.
Did I really find the summit of Stone Arthur?
Andy Wallace 10th January 2004