With another cloudless sky in prospect for the day I set off along the forest track that runs through Ennerdale and past Ennerdale Water. After a long and painful walk along the track I passed a car park and climbed up beside Rake Beck and the edge of a wood. Some way up I crossed a broken stile and attempted to go to the top of the viewpoint Bowness Knott, but all I found was a mess of discarded tree stumps, trunks and branches. There is a plan to stop using Ennerdale as a timber factory and just let it go wild, allowing the trees to get on with whatever they want. At the moment I don’t think it’s working, but it could just be early days. The day before I found that the path from the Pillar Rock was overgrown and boggy (and difficult to find if going up), while on this walk the path up to Bowness Knott was similarly impossible. The Wild Ennerdale project might be in its early stages but some areas, like on Bowness Knott, still need some work (indeed the top of Bowness Knott may be in the process of being cleared to allow access). Until then Ennerdale is still not a pretty place to visit. 
On coming back to the fell-side I climbed the ridiculously steep heather-clad fell all the way to the top on an entertaining, but tricky path that was badly eroded in places. A short walk across the boulder covered top brought me to the summit of Great Borne, which left me with just one Wainwright to do. This day was the culmination of several years of determined bagging as I completed all 214 Wainwrights. Over the previous couple of days I had been slowly ticking off my last remaining fells and leaving me with just two more to visit. Across a grassy saddle lay my final Wainwright, Starling Dodd, the very same fell where Wainwright himself completed his series on 10th September 1966. I finished mine on 28th April 2011 at 12.40pm after almost nine years of walking in the Lake District. My first thought upon completion was that I now didn't need to go to the Lake District. Can you imagine a worse punishment? It would be torture to be prevented from going to the Lake District.
On coming back to the fell-side I climbed the ridiculously steep heather-clad fell all the way to the top on an entertaining, but tricky path that was badly eroded in places. A short walk across the boulder covered top brought me to the summit of Great Borne, which left me with just one Wainwright to do. This day was the culmination of several years of determined bagging as I completed all 214 Wainwrights. Over the previous couple of days I had been slowly ticking off my last remaining fells and leaving me with just two more to visit. Across a grassy saddle lay my final Wainwright, Starling Dodd, the very same fell where Wainwright himself completed his series on 10th September 1966. I finished mine on 28th April 2011 at 12.40pm after almost nine years of walking in the Lake District. My first thought upon completion was that I now didn't need to go to the Lake District. Can you imagine a worse punishment? It would be torture to be prevented from going to the Lake District. Unfortunately my last Wainwright wasn’t a great fell being a grassy dome in an area of broad open hills, typical of the far western fells. I had chosen Starling Dodd as my last fell because Wainwright had finished there, but it didn’t turn out to deserve the honour, so I soon left the summit of Starling Dodd and set off across the grassy saddle that leads up to Red Pike. With the sun continuing to shine and a cooling breeze keeping things agreeable I climbed up to the summit of Red Pike where I had my lunch, for the second day running (although the previous day’s Red Pike was a different fell). Now the terrain changed once again from the heather and grass of Great Borne and Starling Dodd I was back into the rock of the Borrowdale Volcanics. Red Pike is at the western end of the High Stile ridge and I had enormous fun crossing the rocky terrain to the summit of High Stile, and then across the top of Comb Crags to High Crag. The High Stile ridge is a fabulous, but popular walk, justifiably so. I wasn’t alone, but that didn’t matter. 
Eventually I got to end of the ridge at High Crag, where, from the northern slopes, I looked across Burtness Comb to the north-eastern slopes of High Stile and saw an incredible looking path that descends the steep ridge. I had originally thought of taking the path that crosses the Sheepbone Buttress, but Wainwright doesn’t recommend it as a descent and I didn’t fancy the look of it (it might be possible in ascent but since I couldn’t see a path I’ll wait for that ascent). The walk across the tops of Comb Crags was so great I wasn’t bothered when I decided to return back up to High Stile from where I descended the north-eastern ridge all the way off the fell. It wasn’t as great a descent as I’d hoped but it was infinitely better than following the crowds down to Scarth Gap. Instead of dropping down to the shore of Buttermere I followed the right-of-way marked on the map, which Wainwright calls the rock-climbers' route, above Burtness Wood, on a narrow path just below craggy ground. It is a good, little-used path that leads to a stile in the woodland-edge fence, and thence down to the lake-shore path.
Eventually I got to end of the ridge at High Crag, where, from the northern slopes, I looked across Burtness Comb to the north-eastern slopes of High Stile and saw an incredible looking path that descends the steep ridge. I had originally thought of taking the path that crosses the Sheepbone Buttress, but Wainwright doesn’t recommend it as a descent and I didn’t fancy the look of it (it might be possible in ascent but since I couldn’t see a path I’ll wait for that ascent). The walk across the tops of Comb Crags was so great I wasn’t bothered when I decided to return back up to High Stile from where I descended the north-eastern ridge all the way off the fell. It wasn’t as great a descent as I’d hoped but it was infinitely better than following the crowds down to Scarth Gap. Instead of dropping down to the shore of Buttermere I followed the right-of-way marked on the map, which Wainwright calls the rock-climbers' route, above Burtness Wood, on a narrow path just below craggy ground. It is a good, little-used path that leads to a stile in the woodland-edge fence, and thence down to the lake-shore path. This walk saw some quite striking contrasts starting with two grassy fells, typical of outlying fells, and within a short distance of some of the best ridge walking in the Lake District. The High Stile ridge is an excellent walk, and I got to do it not only in excellent weather, but some of it twice! What more can you ask?
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