Ennerdale Round (almost!)

Sunday 27th March 2005

The weather for this walk was worse than it had been earlier in my holiday with it staying overcast all day and cloud covering all the tops higher than 2,000 feet. My plan had been to walk all the way around Ennerdale but as will be seen events conspired against me. Leaving the hostel I crossed the fields to the east of Ennerdale Water, passed over the Woundell Beck and climbed up a firebreak in the forest to Lingmell. This was a very steep and exhausting climb that seemed to take me forever, and it probably did. Heading east over Lingmell I crossed the Low Beck and started to climb the Long Crag ridge all the way up into the clouds, onto Steeple and beyond to the top of Scoat Fell. It took me so long to get onto Scoat Fell that I think this must be a major factor in my failing to achieve my original objective.

Heading east along the ridge I passed across the Wind Gap and ascended Pillar, which I was visiting for the second day running though this time in much less agreeable weather. Continuing eastwards I went down the hill, past Looking Stead to Black Sail Pass with Kirk Fell, which I had bypassed the day before, directly ahead of me. Taking a deep breath I tackled the precipitous Kirk Fell Crags trying to remember to follow the rusting boundary posts all the way up. That is without doubt the easiest way up but somehow I still managed to go the wrong way though I soon realised my mistake and returned to the posts. The wind and rain didn't make the scramble any easier though, but eventually I reached the top on my hands and knees. Totally exhausted I staggered up to the summit following the boundary posts all the way through the mist. (The above picture of Ennerdale was not taken during this walk. The weather was no where near this good! I didn't take a camera with me on this holiday so all the pictures illustrating these walks from 2005 are from later visits to the Lake District.)

After lunch I headed down to Beck Head and then followed the Moses' Trod path below the Gables until I hit the fence coming off Brandreth. You will notice that I’d already decided to miss out the Gables even though a true Ennerdale Round should include both Green and Great Gable. Turning left I followed the fence down the hill until it turned sharply left, where I crossed over and continued straight on towards the top of Warnscale Beck. When I reached the main path to Hay Stacks I turned left and headed over Wainwright's favourite hill. Despite it's diminutive stature this is indeed a magical place where the path ducks and weaves around the crags and tarns with stunning views below the clouds across Buttermere.

From the summit of Hay Stacks I descended to the Scarth Gap Pass and realised that it was already quarter past four and far too late for me to begin the High Style ridge. My slow ascent in the morning and the inclement weather had conspired together so that the High Style ridge would have to wait for another year (I wasn't too disappointed, I had been over the ridge before). So I descended into Ennerdale and walked the four miles along the forest road all the way back to the youth hostel.