Fisher’s Wife Rake

Saturday 7th April 2012

After the tremendous time I spent in the Lake District last Easter it was an easy decision to return this Easter. The weather last year was stunning with virtually no rain all week; unfortunately I was not so lucky this year. After travelling to the Lakes Saturday morning I got off the bus in the village of Threlkeld and headed across the River Glenderamackin onto the open fells over Threlkeld Knotts. Following the fell wall I passed the remains of an ancient settlement (and there’s not much of that left, if the map hadn’t said there used to be a settlement there I wouldn’t have known that the stones and mounds dotted around had once been where people lived). I followed an old quarry track around Threlkeld Knotts while enjoying glorious views of the various Lakeland Fells before me, and actually ended up higher than I wanted to go. When I crossed a path that climbs Wanthwaite Bank (which looked like a good path that would have been tempting if I didn’t have my sights elsewhere) I realised my mistake and dropped steeply below Wanthwaite Crags to the foot of Fisher’s Wife Rake.

Coming to the foot of the rake I climbed the very steeply up the centre of the rake on Wainwright’s original route. Chris Jesty’s revision suggests turning left after passing a rowan tree which would have taken me up a much nicer slanting route along the foot of the crags. As it was I struggled up the crumbly rake to the start of clearly defined zigzags that took me onto the broad grassy slopes of Clough Head. Fisher’s Wife Rake is a climb I’ve wanted to do for years but never been able to fit it in, and even on this walk it was a stretch. This was a fabulous climb, but all I was left feeling at the top of it was that now I wanted to do it again, but along Jesty’s revised route. Once I reached the top of the zigzags I was exhausted but still a long way from the top of Clough Head. I had expended all my energy getting to the top of the rake so I had nothing left for the remainder of the fell. Lunch helped only slightly as I wearily dragging myself up the dreary, grassy slopes to the trig point at the top of Clough Head. Is it possible that I had lost my hill-walking fitness, that my winter fat that was slowing me down?

After all the heat that had poured off me following my climb up Fisher’s Wife Rake it was a surprise as I set off from Clough Head to find a cold breeze that prompted me to wrap up. Putting my gloves on I set a steady pace along the ridge-top by-passing Calfhow Pike, Great Dodd, Watson’s Dodd and Stybarrow Dodd along the way. I had no inclination to visit the tops of these grass-covered Dodds and in fact I found that by not visiting them I gained good views of the valleys that radiate west from the ridge. Beyond Stick’s Pass the terrain improves considerably with rock becoming much more prevalent so the fine cairn at the top of Raise was not bypassed even though clouds had now descended onto the highest peaks. Beyond Whiteside I dropped down ridiculously steep slopes into Brown Cove. This is not an orthodox route but I wanted to come down somewhere new so I thought I’d explore the disused mines in Brown and Keppel Coves. Actually there’s not much left except the remains of the dams and leats that used to drive waterwheels to provide power for the mines. After looking at the dam in Brown Cove I wandered along old miner’s tracks to Keppel Cove and passed the concrete dam that burst in 1931 and is still there with a breach in the wall more than eighty years later. You used to be able to walk over the dam, but the National Park Authorities have now fenced off the top of the dam.

This was a bit of a mixed day. I was very tired before the walk due to lack of sleep and my agony while climbing Clough Head from the top of the rake is best not remembered. But Fisher’s Wife Rake was a fun climb even if it was steep, and it was good to be walking in Brown Cove where few people tread. Apart from the dreary walk along the top of the Dodds this was really not a bad walk, and after all it’s always nice to be back in the Lake District. It was good to be climbing mountains again.