The Clerk The Bishop and The Posh - Photo Gallery

It looked like it was going to be a good day as I left the car in the free car park in Thornthwaite village, Barf rises up straight from the roadside and looks impossible to climb. The conditions and light are perfect, the sky is as deep a blue as it gets but the air is cold and the higher hills have a covering of frost. Turn left out of the car park and soon a small road turns off to the right, follow the road into the trees and there is a kissing gate for you to go through.

The is a sign on the gate that says no admittance, due to forestry work the Beckstones footpath is closed, fortunately that isn't how I intend to climb Barf. As soon as you get through the gate you can see The Clerk, a tiger tooth shaped rock that stands about three feet tall. It's amazing that such an insignificant boulder appears on the map just because it gets whitewashed. A few metres past The Clerk you get to the start of the path to The Bishop, another whitewashed boulder that is larger and visible for miles around.

There is no preparation for the steep slate scree, it is immediately there, the higher you get the looser and steeper it becomes. With it being damp I can kick into it almost like snow and you know how hard and strenuous that kind of climbing is. There is no rest, if you stop for a breather you will start to slide downwards, it is a real all-fours scramble as everything you touch is loose. The ground is a little bit firmer as you approach The Bishop where some vegetation survives but that is compensated for by the increased gradient.

Everything is loose, every stone you grab hold of comes away in your hand, so it is a mystery how The Bishop stays upright and has stayed upright since Wainwright wrote about it forty years ago. When you get past The Bishop there is no relief in the steepness, there is a faint path through heather and the well-rooted heather is all there is to hang on to. The steepness gains you height quickly and with the weather being so good you have fine views down to the Swan Hotel in the village beside Bassenthwaite Lake, across to Skiddaw and of course up to Slape Crag.

Carry on up through the steep heather and you will pass a solitary Rowan tree still bearing someone's initials carved into the trunk as Wainwright described. My familiarity with Wainwright isn't a coincidence, I have brought his Pictorial Guide with me today just in case his route isn't obvious. After the Rowan there is a bit more heather to climb through before the only small flat area this side of the summit. There is a bouldery gully between a couple of rock outcrops, some more steep heather and then you reach a wider area full of the kind of slippery scree that is formed by slate, ahead is the impassable rock face of Slape Crag.

There is a vague path that seems to go right up to the escarpment, I'm not convinced it is the right way to go but I'll go and have a look anyway. On the way up I made a note of a couple of trees growing out of the crags to the left of me. Well, I got to a rock step that has obviously been used before, there is six feet of climbing over wet rock which in itself wouldn't bother me because there is a good hand hold. What worries me is the exposure, it's straight down on the left, the lack of headroom is also a worry, I would not get through without taking my rucksack off even if I was brave enough to make the right move.

I'm always a bit disappointed when a rock step defeats me but this is too remote a place to get myself into trouble. After reading Wainwright's instructions again I descended the scree and found the Oak and Rowan trees growing side by side out of the crags that he described. Sure enough behind the Rowan there is a way of getting through, the rocks were greasy with being infrequently trodden and where I could have done with some heather to hold on to there was a gorse bush. To get across the rock traverse you run a gauntlet of gorse before getting to another heathery slope, now this really is steep ground.

There was a faint path through the heather that seemed to turn upwards, climbing through the heather was getting awkward especially as every rock I touched came away in my hand. I was thinking that Wainwright wouldn't have come this way without a good deal of complaining and then I reached a point where I didn't feel comfortable any more. The slope was just too steep to get up just by clinging onto heather and there were no obvious gullies or channels to use, had I finally got myself somewhere I couldn't get out of?

Whilst I was pondering my predicament I saw below me a faint path following the contours through the heather, I had a quick check of my Pictorial Guide and decided that was where I had to be. I slithered steeply downwards for about fifty feet hanging on to the heather while stretching my long legs to find vague, muddy footholds. When I got to the path another read of my route says there is a track up to the upper escarpment and not to follow it, was that anecdotal or Wainwright's experience? I should have read more before starting the traverse behind the Rowan.

The ground is still very steep and falls away dramatically but the path through the heather is good enough and finally there is another rock to step over before you get to the upwards path. This hill is still steep but there is an obvious path through the heather until eventually you get to the top of the upper escarpment at a shallow col. This welcome flat area is the perfect viewpoint for the Skiddaw group behind the blue water of Lake Bassenthwaite. So far I had felt very warm, all of that strenuous climbing with the sun beating down, suddenly at the summit of Barf the sharp breeze there made me feel instantly cold.

For a small hill that was quite a challenging route and for a small summit there is a wonderful view. From the summit of Barf in good visibility the way to Lord's Seat is obvious, what isn't obvious is just how wet the path is underfoot. Fortunately with it being so cold a lot of the wet peat is frozen so the detours aren't quite as wide as usual. Lord's Seat is a bit of a fancy name for a fell without too much character, there isn't much of a cairn to shelter from the wind, just a single metal post to welcome you to the summit.

By now it was clouding over and without any sun it suddenly felt very chilly and that wind was cold enough to hurt any exposed skin. The way over to Broom Fell is obvious in the bright conditions and the path is over good dry grass with quite a gentle gradient once you get off the summit mound of Lord's Seat. The col was just about sheltered enough to stop for coffee but the summit of Broom Fell was well wind chilled. The large cylindrical cairn at the summit did a very good job as a shelter while I put a fresh set of batteries in my camera.

From here onwards the fells are less popular and the footpaths are less obvious, only the good light showed up the faint path in the grass heading towards Graystones. It begins to feel very lonely as you descend to a muddy col beside a conifer plantation and the first of the fences that has to be climbed. It has to be said though that the fences here are much more walker friendly without that top layer of barbed wire. Once you get over the fence there is a muddy path up the hill beside a wall before you get to the summit of Graystones, for some reason the remnant of an ancient tree branch is stood up in the middle of the summit cairn.

There is quite an extensive view from here, beyond Wythop Moss you can see Ling Fell, Sale Fell and Binsey, Criffel in Scotland is well seen, the Skiddaw and Grisedale Pike groups are also visible. The view I liked best though was the diminutive Mellbreak sitting snugly in amongst the higher fells all round it. The question now is whether I tackle the wetness of Wythop Moss or try to cleverly bypass it, the likelihood being I'll end up climbing walls and crossing swollen streams. Last time I was here following the wall and fence northwards took me across the moss to Bladder Keld and a boggy hillside to climb, I think I'll try an alternative this time.

I followed the wall for a while until it becomes surrounded by wire fences that have to be crossed to walk along the ruined wall before climbing down after a junction of fences. I followed the fence going north west for a while and then descended a gentle ridge looking for the farm tracks marked on the map. I had another walker friendly wire fence to stride over before heading for a dip in a wall, I suspected that would be a good place to cross any stream that might be there. Sure enough I found the stream and crossed over it and there was a handy step stone to let me climb over the wall.

There seemed to be a path heading in the right direction, I was sure it was an animal track really but animals can usually be trusted to find safe and sensible routes. It worked even better that I had hoped, I ended up at the ford across Tom Rudd Beck, the only place where the farm tracks were visible. Now which way to climb Ling Fell, with a choice of animal tracks to follow I opted for the less direct path slanting up to the left. After a while I felt I was going the wrong way so I headed straight up the rough grass until I felt close to the skyline and started to slant up to the right.

I was thinking there wasn't much heather around for a fell named after the stuff but the top quarter of the hill is covered in it and I had to wade through it without any path. At one point I saw the triangulation column above a mound so just headed over to it as the crow flies until I reached the neat little summit of Ling Fell. Still the views are extensive, especially Sale Fell where I am going next, all I have to do is make a better job of getting there than I did last time. There is a faint path from the column past the summit cairn in roughly the right direction so I followed it and it took me quite easily down to the Corpse Road that seems to start and end in the middle of nowhere.

Anyway the Corpse Road got me to a proper road where I turned right onto it, followed it round to the left, crossed over Brumston Bridge and turned right on the road to Kelswick Farm. You have to go through a gate and immediately on your left is one of my favourite steep green ascents on Sale Fell. After I plodded uphill for a while I came to the ridge path and turned right to walk a unique ridge. Sale Fell has a quality about that is unlike any other place I have been, it is so neat and tidy, you could describe it as manicured, it is a Posh Fell.

Carry on past the neat summit cairn on Posh Fell until you come to a wall and turn right to follow the path to a metalled road at Kelswick Farm. Turn left along the road and there are a couple of footpaths you can take, I chose to walk through Chapel Woods past the ruins of the old Wythop church. Just keep following the path, past the entrance to Wythop Hall until you reach the muddy path through Wythop Woods. You have an easy downhill walk until you reach the old road, now a cycle track, back to Thornthwaite.

Andy Wallace 19th February 2005