Wilsons Bield to Dales Head - Photo Gallery

It had been raining hard all the way up the motorway, by the time I got to Rosthwaite there was a heavy lakeland drizzle but it was warm enough to suggest that the rain might clear. From the National Trust car park I turned right along a wide track heading in the direction of Grange. After a few minutes walk you cross the river using the stone built New Bridge and continue on the path by the side of the river. At a wooden gate a path goes off to the left but you ignore that and go through the gate; in the direction of Castle Crag you will see another gate on the opposite side of a reedy field.

Cross the field and go through the gate, there is a faint path bypassing the outcrop of rock on the right hand side and heading into a hayfield. The hay had recently been cut and there was no trace of a path so I climbed up to the ridge on the left, a faint path made its way through the bracken running parallel to a wall. It was far too warm to be so wet so I stopped and changed out of my tracksters and into shorts but put my waterproof trousers back on over them. Having followed the ridge to the top of the enclosure I crossed over a wall, there was a place where it had been eroded enough to allow you to easily climb over it.

From there I made as direct a line as I could for Castle Crag; the bracken, wet ground and rock outcrops all causing a degree of diversion from the straight line but the obvious spoil heap ahead was always in sight. There is another eroded wall that can easily be climbed over and then you have to find your way uphill through bracken, the path is obvious enough once you see it. At the next wall there is a ladder stile to climb over and you are then on the steep sided climb to the summit. There is an obvious path up through the huge pile of quarry waste where small walls of slate have been built to keep the path intact.

At the top of this path is a large cairn as you reach a flat area, most of which is taken up by the remains of the summit quarry. You should have a quick look through the quarry workings before going up to the summit, nature often makes strange and beautiful shapes out of man's destructive work. Close to the face of the quarry a number of small cairns have been built, each in a similar style with a taller stone protruding from the top, “build your own cairn” making a bizarre variation to “pick your own strawberries”.

Ordinary walkers will be unable to climb the smooth wall of the quarry; you have to use a rough path through trees to reach the small summit plateau with its monument-like slab bearing a plaque on the front and a well built cairn on the top. On a wet day it is not advisable to climb directly up the wet rock but around to the right is an easier way to the top of the slab. Last time I was here it was no easier with it being under snow but there was a good view of Skiddaw from this summit perch.

The descent on the western side of the hill is very steep through waste material and wet, bouldery grass until you reach a little wall running parallel to the contours. I would turn right and scramble down the rough slope if I were going towards Grange but I am heading south so I turned left for a reasonably level descent to join the track, an old mine road heading towards Seatoller. The last time I walked this way I got myself completely lost in the snow and ended up scrambling up a pathless slope to High Scawdel and today I realised how I did it.

I was trying to find Tongue Gill and the path to Rigghead, the map shows two footbridges but I didn't find them. After walking for a while and looking at the map I felt sure I should have come across the bridges by now when the path made a bend and I went through a gate and got to a stream. Something told me that this was where I wanted to be, a big enough stream to need stepping stones and evidence of a footpath that was heading in the right direction. The rain had stopped more or less so I took off my waterproof trousers, it is too warm to be so wet.

I decided that this was Tongue Gill and I started to walk up the path by its side, very soon the path became more substantial with the occasional ironworks suggesting that this was a quarry path. The remains of quarry workings again made an interesting diversion on the slog uphill, if I was braver the entrances of the old levels would have lured me inside to investigate. My only thought is why do quarries need to tunnel inside the hill, maybe they did more that just find stone here.

Rigghead itself in contrast to the quarry workings is flat and wet, I decided I was going to explore today instead of heading straight to a summit. My first target is Wilson's Bield, close to Rigghead but I'm not really sure what I'm looking for although I could see something across to the right. The ground is wet but not really swampy, maybe just puddles on a wet day, although once or twice my boot was close to being swamped. Wilson's Bield was obvious enough when I reached it, a wide v-shaped wall of stones where sheep can shelter from the snow.

I hadn't expected to see anyone here but two walkers appeared nearby on their way to High Spy, their solution to the rain was to put their umbrellas up. There is a path here presumably towards High Spy and possibly along Robin Fold Edge to Low Scawdel but I want to find Robin's Fold. Below the High Spy ridge is a wide flattish area where many sheep graze so a sheep fold big enough to be named shouldn't be too hard to find. After having walked backwards and forwards a couple of times I decided to give up, I didn't want to after having spent so much time looking.

There are faint paths criss-crossing the area and I was hoping one would lead me to Robin's Fold but to no avail. I saw no hint of anything man-made but there are stones and outcrops everywhere and there is always the possibility that the map is wrong again and the fold no longer exists. I walked across rough ground keeping to the contours, I didn't want to lose too much height because I knew I was going to have to climb again at some stage. I'm sure I came across Lobstone Band, two parallel rock outcrops running downhill towards Low Scawdel. I got to a point where I decided I wasn't going to find Joe Bank's Fold, there was a steep slope downwards that I didn't want to descend if I wasn't going to find it so I decided it was time to climb the hill.

As I climbing up the wet, green slope the mist came down, I was on a compass bearing heading uphill in a westerly direction with no clues as to exactly where I was. As I reached a path there were other walkers there but which way is it to High Spy - I chose to go left because, well I just guessed. Suddenly the mist cleared but it became very windy and quite chilly but I knew I was close to the summit of High Spy. I stopped at the tall cairn on the summit and while I was standing there some stones were blown off the top of the cairn. I sat a little bit away from the cairn while I put on my gloves and waterproof trousers, this time to keep my legs warm rather than dry.

I was a cold and windy walk along the ridge to the summit of Maiden Moor but as I got to the roughest part of the descent the sun came out and I had to stop and take off my gloves and waterproof trousers. It became a very pleasant walk to Hause Gate where I turned left towards Little Town; an easy green path at first and then a loose eroded path as I got to the mine workings around Yewthwaite Gill. I didn't go as far down as Little Town but turned left and ended up walking on the wide track by the side of Newlands Beck heading up the valley.

It was now a very warm afternoon on a good track in a very pleasant valley that I had all to myself. I had expected to have some navigation problems with my chosen route but from half way up the valley I could see the path rising up to the right hand side of Gable Crag on Dale Head. This wide track and the obvious path ahead must have been more useful than walkers' routes at one time. Shortly after I passed the spoil heaps of the Castle Nook mine the path split, one branch heading directly for Rigghead but I took the right hand branch for what would hopefully get me closer to the summit of Dale Head.

Newlands Beck is still quite wide and there are plenty of places with stepping stones to get across easily today in spite of the earlier rain; I suspect in winter in may be more difficult. I crossed at approximately the place where I could see that the path upwards started from and it seemed to be in a groove, this is more than a trod but I couldn't see a good reason for a well-made path. This is a deliberate path, not too steep but aiming deliberately at the highest part of the valley. I could see more mine openings in the valley floor and eventually I came across the remains of Dale Head Mine.

The ruins of a building and what seems to be a gravel covered area are in the middle of nothing, no spoil heaps and no mine workings. The path though continues onwards, slanting uphill and crossing the top of Gable Crag until eventually it reaches the path coming up from Rigghead to Dale Head summit. I had hoped the path would have brought me closer to the summit but I suppose the old quarrymen and miners who built the path had little time for summits.

The final steep slog got me to the summit of Dale Head in time to capture the wonderful view of the Newlands valley just before the rain swept in across Hindscarth. The descent to Rigghead is down a reconstructed path, one of the kind that are good for ascent in dry weather but with stones that are too small or larger ones that slope downhill making it difficult at best and usually dangerous to descend when they are wet. This is another example where you have to walk down at the side of the path causing more erosion and defeating the object when a better designed path would help walkers and protect the hill.

The wet ground near Dalehead Tarn is a bit better served by stepping stones these days and I'm surprised that the shelter in the lee of the crags doesn't have a name. After crossing a more youthful Newlands Beck you have to cross the width of Rigghead, it's wet but not a swamp, at least not at this time of year. The descent back down through the quarries by the side of Tongue Gill is straightforward enough. Then at the non-existent footbridge don't cross it anyway but carry on down the same side of the gill, straight down through a wooden gate over fields until you eventually reach a level path where you follow it to the right.

Eventually you cross a footbridge and immediately there is another footbridge on the right but go left and you you will find New Bridge again and you are back at Rosthwaite.

Andy Wallace 13th August 2005