Low Fell and Fellbarrow

Tuesday 23rd December 2025

On my second day in the Lake District last Christmas I continued my quest to bag the Wainwrights that I had previously done only once before. A Wainwright is a hill, known as a fell, in the Lake District that Alfred Wainwright devoted a chapter to in his seven pictorial guides to the Lakeland Fells. To bag a Wainwright means to visit the summit of the fell and the first Wainwright I wanted to bag on this day was Whinlatter, a fell in the north western part of the Lake District, north of the pass that is named after the hill. There is a car park at the top of Whinlatter Pass so after parking there I set off for a short distance along the road to a forestry track that climbs through the conifers north of the road and it wasn’t long before the experience of walking along the track and climbing the hill was easing my mind of the worries and weight of the modern world. At a junction I had a view through the trees, but hardly anything could be seen of the valley below so I turned around and headed along the path that continued the climb until I reached a gate that led me out of the wood and onto the open fell. Initially I had to climb up beside the fence until a clear path appeared heading across the broad ridge leading me towards the top of Whinlatter. The ground was wet and boggy with low cloud all around me, but it was not particularly thick and at least it wasn’t wet or windy, which is all I really ask. Before too long I reached Whinlatter Top, the highest point on the fell, but there was little to see so I turned around and retraced my steps.

However, when Wainwright wrote his guides the only top that the Ordnance Survey acknowledged on Whinlatter was at Brown How, at the western end of the ridge, so that is the location of Wainwright’s summit. I did not realise this when I climbed it last Christmas and looking at modern Ordnance Survey maps the east top is now shown as higher than Brown How and named as Whinlatter Top, so that was as far as I went. When I previously visited Whinlatter in 2007 the weather had been good and I traversed the entire ridge as far as Brown How as part of an epic walk. Bagging summits is a rather pathetic activity in this way, up and down in less than an hour for no other purpose. Who cares if I actually ‘bagged’ the Wainwright summit? Back at my car I drove down the other side of the pass into Lorton Vale and parked at Lanthwaite. My goal now was a pair of hills that I had previously climbed Christmas 2010 and I began with a pleasant walk through Lanthwaite Wood to reach Scalehill Bridge before branching right across a couple of fields and up towards the steep slopes of Low Fell. An interesting woodland path took me across the foot of the hill before finally turning left to ascend via a diverted path which did little to relieve the steep gradient, so after working up a sweat I finally reached the top of Low Fell.

Despite the misty conditions I had great views south across Crummock Water and towards the Loweswater Fells, so I lingered for a while, eating my lunch, before finally setting off along the path that traverses the fells, which was an enjoyable walk because it was clear and not too muddy along the gently undulating ridge. Eventually I climbed up to the northern top of this pair of Wainwright fells, Fellbarrow, soon turning around and branching left across the top of Meregill Beck to reach a clear track, an old drove road, that provided me with an easy and pleasurable descent all the way down to the tiny community of Thackthwaite. A lengthy walk along a narrow, country lane brought me back to Scalehill Bridge where the bridleway through Lanthwaite Wood led me back to my car. Now, it was only two o’clock and even at this time of the year I still had a couple of hours of sunlight left, which is the same problem I had fifteen years earlier after climbing Fellbarrow and Low Fell for the first time. My solution on that occasion was to climb Binsey, a small hill on the northern edge of the Lake District, and this seemed to be my best option again. I made my way past Bassenthwaite Lake to a side road off the A591 road, and parked in the same place I had parked in 2010, not far from a muddy track that directed me up the hill towards Binsey. After crossing the fell wall I found a good, firm path that led me all the way up to the windswept summit of Binsey.

I had previously visited this fell twice before, first in 2008 in the dark and then in 2010 while the sun was setting. Although it was also late afternoon for my third ascent, the time stamp on my pictures indicates that I was now at the summit more than half an hour earlier than in 2010 so I had better light and much clearer views towards Bassenthwaite Lake and towards a small body of water that I had not noticed before, Over Water. I was overjoyed at having a proper view from the summit and during my descent down the other of Binsey, back down onto a road and along the quiet, country lane to my car while the light held. Although the weather on this day was not as good as on the day before, it was good enough for walking as it wasn’t windy, except on Binsey and that was not so blustery. It was very satisfying for me to be revisiting fells that I had not climbed in a long time, that lie on the edge of the Lake District and are difficult to reach without a car.