The Pen is mightier than the Sward - Photo Gallery
What kind of a route would arouse the interest of fellwalking webmasters who, you would have thought, have walked everywhere in the Lake District? It just goes to show that there is always more to be discovered; Andrew and David are self-confessed path-dwellers and had to work harder than usual for their photographs. It was another warm morning when I met the others at the entrance to Brotherilkeld Farm; already warm enough to need plenty of Factor 15 sunscreen and the Factor 35 hat.
We set off up the farm track, bearing left just before the farmyard to walk beside the River Esk and then cross the footbridge to Taw House farm. You have to enter the farmyard but go through the gate immediately on the right and follow the track until you reach the stone-built Scale Bridge. The bridge crosses Scale Gill at an attractive waterfall in a small wood; Scale Gill somehow gets the credit but it is really a combination of the much more imaginatively named Catcove and Cowcove Becks.
On the other side of the bridge you walk on a green path rather than a track and on the map it looks like you have to turn left off the main path. We resisted the temptation to head straight uphill through the bracken although it looked like there was a trodden path. We followed the green path for a short distance and it took us round to the left; you would have struggled to find evidence of the path going straight ahead to follow the river. It was very warm as we started to climb up the old peat sled-gate that now serves as a good walkers path; the bracken was green and tall in spite of the recent shortage of rain.
The path initially took us out of our way as it took the easiest possible route around Brock Crag until the gradient eased and the path turned northwards to take us into typical Eskdale country. This is a large, lush green wilderness, no brown vegetation here where the water never seems to dry up although I could tell the difference; in wet weather it is extremely marshy as opposed to slightly muddy in places. None of us had walked this path before, it was easy walking in splendid surroundings on a warm, sunny day; acres of lush grassland where Damas Dubs flows lazily in between small rocky outcrops.
As we got past Silverybield Crag there was a sudden, surprisingly spectacular view of Scafell and Scafell Pike; we had sneaked up on them and caught them from an unusual angle. Slight Side too; a benign green hill when you are on it but a spectacular craggy mountain from this side. Esk Pike, the owner of the valley, was hazy and unassuming in the distance with the elegant Bowfell and Crinkle Crags completing the skyline. This was indeed a bonus, I was expecting a bit of a trudge on a plain green path but so far anyway the three photographers had been well entertained.
As we continued along the good dry path we could see Sampson's Stones neatly arranged on a small hummock and beyond was the formidable rock face of Dow Crag. The grass slope at the side of Dow Crag looked exceedingly steep but that was our route to Pen, a small rocky summit above the crags that I had never really noticed before. Even with the very dry conditions it was obviously still wet enough below us in the Great Moss, a small group of walkers were making the usual tortuous traverse through the swamp. Sampson's Stones are large boulders that require climbing skills if you want to get on top of them; it is curious how neatly they are arranged in this small area and nothing else in the whole of Eskdale is anyway near their size.
We walked through the stones and onwards up the valley and past Cam Spout where barely a trickle of water was falling down the steep rock. Our route was becoming more visible and slightly less intimidating; there are signs of wear on the grass to the left of a small gully on the left hand side of Dow Crag. The path had become a lot less obvious by this stage and it was a case of deciding just when to start climbing across the vegetation. We started walking up on the right hand side of the gully which had broadened out and was full of moss-covered boulders. We crossed the gully at its shallowest point; it disappeared up into the crags at this stage and there was even a trickle of water flowing over the bright green moss.
The plain green slope was exceedingly steep, a grassy field set at a true forty-five degree angle was as strenuous a climb as you could wish for on a very warm day. The top half of the slope had a covering of large boulders but there was a grassy route so it wasn't necessary to handle much rock. It was with some relief that we got to the top of the steep slope but it was only a short rest before making the final grassy climb to the summit of Pen. The summit itself was a large crown of rock with some angular boulders containing unusual wavy patterns. That little summit had taken an awful lot of work to get to but the transformation from steep slog to rugged mountain top was instant.
The view was fantastic, Eskdale was lush and green a long way below and the mountain scenery ahead was bold and rugged. Ill Crag showed off the fearsome steepness that gave it its name, Scafell's eastern buttress was sending an invitation to climb it, rocky and rugged Scafell Pike ahead looked as though it should be England's highest point. My original plan had been to descend to Little Narrowcove before climbing back up to Scafell Pike but I didn't need much persuading not to lose any hard-earned height. The scramble up and over the boulders to Scafell Pike isn't a route that path-dwellers would normally choose but it wasn't unduly difficult and they couldn't complain about the view.
The best bit of all was that after the final climb up bouldery scree we arrived on the summit only a short distance from the platform cairn of Scafell Pike. From there we took the bouldery path to Mickledore, there should be no chance of following the wrong line of cairns in such good visibility. If you climb to the top of Mickledore ridge and right up to the rock face of Scafell you will find the entrance to Rake's Progress, an eroded climbers' path that drops down on the right and takes you to the foot of Lord's Rake. There were several people climbing the rake making it look a suitably difficult prospect for the path-dwellers; it's just as well that all of the worrying warning signs have now disappeared.
Lord's Rake really isn't too bad at the moment, once you clamber over the large boulders at the bottom you can move over to the right hand side where you can hold on to the wall most of the way up. If you try to go quickly you will slip and dislodge rocks and it will be uncomfortable for you and anybody below you; take it steady and you will come to no harm. There is a point just before the entrance to the West Wall Traverse on the left where you need to get onto the left hand side to clamber over some boulders to get to the foot of the infamous fallen boulder. At the moment there is plenty of room to get through the gap underneath the boulder but walkers of a more nervous disposition can clamber upwards on the right of it.
From the top of the first rise there is a short, easy ascent to a second small col from where there is an eroded descent and traverse to the steep climb of the third rise. There were no takers of my suggestion to go back and walk the West Wall Traverse so we made the straightforward climb to the summit of Scafell. It was becoming hazy but it was still warm as we kept to the top of the ridge all the way to the summit of Slight Side. As you climb down from Slight Side's bold rocky summit bear left to find an eroded path taking you downwards; we managed to find a variation of the path we hadn't seen before but it joined up with a more familiar path just as the eroded stones became a steep descent on grass.
The path is quite obvious at first but becomes less easy to follow as you get to more level ground and you have to be careful to notice where it splits. The more obvious path keeps its height as it traverses the top of Cat Cove, we took the left hand branch that descends to Catcove Beck. You have to make sure you keep on the opposite side of the beck to Cat Crag otherwise you would have to cope with following the beck down a ravine. Andrew mentioned that he had missed the path we wanted on a previous occasion and it was clear to see how easy it would be to do so.
After crossing the bouldery head of the ravine the path became more obvious and headed off encouragingly in almost the right direction. There was however a cairn on a small rise where our path should have started; I decided that if the path wasn't going to show itself then we would have to go and find it. After walking through pathless grass the ground started to fall away but we could see a bit of a gap in the dense bracken below. We followed the clues until the bracken seemed too dense to walk through but Andrew spotted a slight gap; sure enough the path was there otherwise it would have been an almighty struggle to get through the green stuff.
The path through the bracken meets the path we started on near Scale Bridge; the path reaches the road at Brotherilkeld Farm and the road leads to the Woolpack Inn for a welcome beer.
Andy Wallace 22nd July 2006