The Dark Side of Fairfield - Photo Gallery

It was cold when I set off and it was damp on the motorway because of spray but the sky seemed to be clear. There were patches of thick fog in the Lake District but it suggested that I might be in luck with the weather today. I parked by the phone box near Deepdale Bridge and I remember in the past going through the gate and following the footpath across the fields. I did wonder about using the farm track heading up the valley that joined the road a few yards away on the other side of the phone box. After crossing a field the path is marked and takes you around a barn and through the woods on the pretext of avoiding grazing land.

The path through the trees is a combination of muddy and vague and it was taking me higher away from the valley, I realised I had made a mistake - I should have chosen the farm track. Once I got above the tree-line I made a beeline for the head of the valley, or should I say I headed in the direction of Fairfield. The walking was easy over undulating grassy hummocks until I got to a wall running at right angles up and down hill. It was too high to step over, there is a sheep fold built into it but there are no reliable step-stones to climb and it wasn't substantial enough to scramble over. Before attempting anything that I might regret I followed the wall up hill past the sheep fold and soon found a suitable gate.

I had to walk around the intake wall before being able to drop down to Deepdale Beck, I would have crossed over the stream if it hadn't been so wide to get onto the path I could see on the other side. There seemed to be a faint path on this side of the stream and because I would probably have to cross back over further up the valley I decided to just carry on as I was. The stream didn't really get any narrower but became more rugged as I got higher up the valley and if necessary I could have got across. For a wide, flat valley the ground wasn't too swampy, probably the land is drained well enough by the many streams, each of which was easy to step across.

Fairfield's huge buttress, Greenhow End, dominates the valley along all of its length, getting ever larger but not really getting any closer. It was a bright sunny day up on the ridge, clear blue sky and the out of time moon high above but Fairfield casts a big shadow and the sunlight is still out of reach. This is a splendid valley that feels remote and unspoiled, protected by Fairfield's intimidating dark side yet much more pleasant to walk without the swampy ground you would expect. Then before you get to the head of the valley you reach what I can best describe as a Drumlin field, several small rounded hummocks of glacial origin the like of which I haven't come across before. In between the drumlins I finally got to cross the stream with a long stride, the water still being deep enough to get me wet if I had misjudged it.

Then the final flat head of the valley before it starts getting steep, looking back there is a strange and beautiful view of Angletarn Pikes in the sun, far beyond the drumlins. This is a special place, it is exhilarating having this valley all to myself just as much as being all alone on a big hill. This flat area is the wettest part of the valley but even so I didn't get my feet wet, I'm not sure that it doesn't get much wetter, it is like walking on a nearly dry sponge. Once you stop looking where you are putting your feet you have to look upwards for the next part of the walk. I have been conscious of the existence of a line of slightly flattened grass all the way up the valley, will it lead me through the intimidating steepness too?

The crags soar upwards dark and intimidating with just the tops illuminated by the bright sunlight, is there really a way of getting up there? I have been looking for a way as I walked up the valley, the climb to Link Hause looks impossibly steep but that could be an illusion. The climb around the back of Fairfield looks an easier forty degree slope but how close to the edge of Greenhow End is it? First of all I had to find my way up the steep ground between crags and rocky water cascades, I still feel as though someone has been here before.

There are no real problems with getting upwards apart from the steepness, you hardly have to use your hands at all as a plain grassy rake gets you between the dead bracken and the rocks to the base of the huge crags. I was just admiring the view back down the valley feeling exhilarated and glad I came this way when something on the ground caught my eye. It was a baseball cap, either abandoned here or blown off the top of someone's head on Fairfield, French Connection isn't a name I see a lot on the hills.

You turn left here towards Link Cove, the ground isn't quite as steep but having got here it's still a leg testing walk upwards. Link Cove isn't a small place, it is a splendid wild place – a classic hanging valley and corrie. Keep going upwards, it gets a bit steeper again until you get to a kind of crossroads, a large crag means you have to pass it on one side or the other. The climb up to Link Hause up on the left hand skyline looks viable but I chose to go right towards unknown territory on the dark side of Fairfield. The steepness is back to forty degrees or more but there are no difficulties apart from that, eventually I can see the skyline and finally I was in the sunshine.

I climbed up through some low crags and passed the top of a stony gully and after a further grassy climb I reached the ridge. Where is this place, at first it feels that there is nothing I recognise but slowly I began to get my bearings. St Sunday Crag is featureless just like a huge barn door but the unusual view of the Helvellyn group is wonderful and spectacular. While I was climbing I didn't really know where I was going to surface but I was at the place I should have been, The Step is an unexpected airy ridge above Greenhow End. The ground disappeared spectacularly adding to the sudden disorientation, I though I knew the hills well but this is a real surprise view.

It took a couple of minutes to sort myself out but it seems there is a straightforward walk to Fairfield around the unfamiliar but appropriate strangely named places such as Hog Hole, Black Tippet, Flinty Grave and Cawk Cove. It's an easy walk then to the summit of Fairfield, feeling warm in the wall to wall sunshine and looking at my favourite mountain view from Crinkle Crags to Skiddaw. The distant view is even stranger, the lowlands beyond the hills seem to be covered by mist but most of the mountain valleys are clear, this is a special day on Fairfield. Above all there are people here, I haven't seen anyone for nearly five hours, it's a long way to Fairfield.

Now I am on familiar ground, the path to Link Hause then on to Hart Crag and Dove Crag before I try to be clever again. I know the standard descent from Dove Crag is beyond the summit by the side of an old fence but I wanted to visit the large cairn on High Bakestones and I know there is a big cairn at the start of the path to it. After passing the summit of Dove Crag there is a descent and I came to a big cairn, was this the route to High Bakestones – I wasn't sure but I headed downhill anyway. I quickly came to the conclusion that I wasn't going to get to High Bakestones so I just headed in the direction of Little Hart Crag.

The going was easy enough and quite soon I got to the fence and the usual path and quickly remembered why I don't really like this wet and eroded path that quickly gets frozen on this shaded side of the ridge. The path is obvious across Bakestones Moss by the side of a fence but if you are not careful you could easily follow it down to Scandale Pass instead of following the less obvious muddy straight ahead route to Little Hart Crag. There are two summits to this hill like a smaller version of Angletarn Pikes, the view of Red Screes from here puts this little hill in its place.

Once to get to the second lower summit you are at the start of the descent towards High Hartsop Dodd, in this visibility it is impossible to miss anyway. I couldn't say where Little Hart Crag ends and High Hartsop Dodd begins but there is a negligible ascent to the small summit cairn. Any feeling of an easy descent is quickly lost, the first section isn't so bad, fairly easy walking over grass until you reach the old wall. Things get steeper from here and you can't see the bottom of the descent, there is an eroded outcrop that hides most of the downward view, the path is more eroded and somewhat easier these days. Then you get to a fence and after that the going is steep down uneroded grass, I don't have knee trouble but my knees felt the strain.

Finally on level ground there is a permitted path that goes almost all of the way back to Deepdale Bridge, the ground is already beginning to frost over on this dark side of Fairfield.

Andy Wallace 24th December 2005