Cross Fell
The weather for this, the seventh day of my walk along the Pennine Way, was quite a challenge as there was an extremely strong wind coming down off the hills. My host for the night told me that this was the Helm Wind, which used to be quite common but she hadn’t seen it in a few years. Walking out of Dufton along the green lanes I had to battle against the wind even while I had bushes and trees for protection, but once I got out onto the open moorland the wind was quite exceptional and made it really difficult to make any progress. I battled on up the hill taking one step at a time, plunging into the clouds and eventually reached the top of Knock Fell after a long, tiring climb. I had climbed up there three years ago, also in poor weather, but on that occasion I had turned south from the top of Knock Fell towards High Cup Scar.
Now I ventured north along the tops of the hills, but it can’t really be considered a ridge as it’s too wide to deserve that name. Following the path I kept an eye on my compass to ensure I was going in the right direction across the murky, wind-swept grasslands. I passed a tarmac road (the highest in Britain) and eventually arrived at an amazing, ominous looking building, a radar station at the top of Great Dun Fell. This is the second highest hill in the Pennines and it’s blighted by a huge building with tall aerials and enormous white golf balls! Fearing that they were going to fry my testicles any minute (!) I quickly walked past the monstrosity and continued along the path over the exceptionally windy top of Little Dun Fell. My previous visit to these fells was five years ago when I walked from the River South Tyne across the bleak moorland up to the Pennine Way just south of Great Dun Fell. On that occasion the weather was also terrible (I don’t have much luck with this area!), and I remember it being exceptionally windy at the top of Little Dun Fell then as well. At the top of Little Dun Fell I sheltered behind a wind break for a moment to get my strength back after the pounding and noted that the shelter was the wrong way round, because, of course, the wind was the wrong way round. Most of the weather in Britain comes off the Atlantic so the wind across Dun Fell is usually a westerly and that’s the direction the shelter pointed away from. But this wind was coming from the opposite direction, so I was having to shelter on the wrong side. .
I pressed on and continued along the path starting to climb up to the top of Cross Fell, the highest point in the Pennines. Five Years ago I remember having a little difficulty finding the top on the broad summit plateau and this time was no different as the weather was no better. After passing a well-made cairn I eventually managed to find the trig point at the summit where I had my meagre lunch while sat at a cross shelter near the summit before setting off again. Descending the pathless terrain north of the summit I found my way to a bridlepath that crosses these hills and turned right onto the clear track, which I followed for many endless miles across the vast, bleak moorland of Milburn Forest all the way into the small village of Garrigill; this was a long and boring walk but somehow I was able to amuse myself throughout the walk. The wind, which was significantly lighter on this side of the tops, and the good path, made this section quite easy to walk along so I could just relax, take my time, and enjoy the walk and the wide views across South Tynedale. Beyond Garrigill I followed the River South Tyne all the way into the small market town of Alston. This was a pleasant walk beside the river with intermittent sunshine and was a nice end to the day. What had looked like being a horrible day turned out quite enjoyable, especially once I got out of the strong wind. It was quite satisfying to have successfully braved the harsh weather at the summit of the Pennines and I was rewarded with good weather in South Tynedale.
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