Wetherlam

Thursday 12th April 2012

On my second ever day in the Lake District I travelled from Grasmere to the Coniston Fells. On this walk I repeated part of that day with some interesting variations but also with some disappointments. I left Elterwater along the Little Langdale Road and down to the tranquil setting of Little Langdale Tarn. After crossing the picturesque Slater Bridge I started exploring the disused quarries in that area. Wetherlam has had more mining activities around it than any other fell in the Lake District and on this walk I visited some, but by no more means all of them. A striking example is Black Hole Quarry near Slater Bridge which is approached along an overgrown ravine to a wide opening with an arch overhead and an opening onto the fellside above. The work that was done in these parts, mostly in the 19th Century, to extract stone from the fells is astonishing. It can be quite unnerving standing on the edge of one of these huge quarries, so care was definitely required. Any mine levels that delved horizontally into the fell were peered into, but not entered.

I climbed above the quarry and crossed an old miner’s road to enter a vast area of disused quarries. It was fascinating looking around these old quarries, but it wasn’t long before I lost the path and consequently spend quite a while backtracking myself as I tried to work out where I’d gone wrong, and still I could not find the correct route. The first edition of Wainwright’s guides shows an intermittent path above the quarries but I could find no sign of one, while Chris Jesty’s revision indicates a winding course around the quarries but no path. What started as an interesting climb ended up in frustration at not being able to follow the correct route. With hindsight I probably shouldn’t have been so keen on finding Wainwright’s original route and instead I should have just picked my own route through the quarries.

The fellside I emerged on was a delectable place, far from any clear path, and left me with a feeling that I was walking through an area that sees few visitors (not a common occurrence in the Lake District!). Wainwright described this area as one of the loveliest square miles in Lakeland, and in this tranquil seclusion I found myself in I could see what he meant (despite the nearby quarries). Climbing the pathless fells brought me to the top of Birk Fell where I dropped onto the clear path that climbs from Tilberthwaite Gill. I had been undecided on my route at this point. In 2002 I had climbed from Tilberthwaite Gill onto Wetherlam via the scramble of Wetherlam Edge, but I had a desire to climb Steel Edge. This is a route that Wainwright never mentioned and has been highly recommended elsewhere, but I was already much higher than the bottom of the edge and I didn’t want to lose that hard-won height. In the end the rocks of Wetherlam Edge won me over as it is the logical route up from where I was standing so I followed my route of 2002 climbing up to the top of Wetherlam along the satisfyingly prolonged scramble of Wetherlam Edge.

Ten years ago I had stunning weather for my first big fell in the Lake District, but now the weather was much colder with frequent hail showers that battered me while I was near the top of the fell. I have a lot of affection for this fell as it was my first and I remember the view as being particularly stunning. Returning ten years later after doing all the other fells I can see that the appeal of this view is in its variety as it affords views not only of fells but also of lakes, fields and the sea. Lying as it does near the southern edge of the high fells it provides the best of all worlds from the broad sands of Morecombe Bay to the craggy peaks of the fells. Descending south from the summit I dropped down to the top of Steel Fell. I don’t know what I’d really intended on doing there as it was really too late to climb the edge and after wandering around I eventually returned to the top of Wetherlam.

The Coniston Fells is an area that previously I had not stayed in for long. A walk around the tops of the fells can easily be done in a day and then you move on looking for more tops. For this walk I was expecting to be able to entertain myself for a whole day with just one of those tops and that was proving hard to do. I was disappointed with this walk as I felt like I was just wandering aimlessly around killing time, so after reaching the top of Wetherlam for the second time I set off along the path to Swirl How, but it wasn’t long before I veered off this path onto the intervening top of Black Sails. The path to Swirl How doesn’t go over Black Sails and since it’s not a Wainwright the summit is rarely visited; I don’t think I’d been to the top of it before. The summit is not great but the south ridge is fantastic. I had a wonderful time strolling down the craggy ridge; it’s a great way of coming down a fell, so why did Wainwright never mention it? There is a faint path but when I started blindly following it I realised that it is better not to follow it. You should go where you want, do what you want, and don’t follow the crowd. If you’re not following a path you’re looking around you at the scenery and picking your route, noticing things that you’d never see if you had your eyes locked on the path in front of you.

At the foot of the ridge I dropped right to avoid Kennel Crag down to Levers Water, and as it was still quite early I thought I’d follow a route around the Coppermines Valley that Wainwright recommended. Crossing the dam of Levers Water I climbed slightly to the top of the Boulder Valley. You miss so much if you just walk along the tops of these fells as down in the valley are huge boulders the size of houses. The Boulder Valley is an incredible sight with rock everywhere; it is quite unlike anywhere I’d been, and I was beginning to learn that there is more to the fells than the summits. Wainwright’s route took me down to Low Water Beck and then along the foot of Grey Crag down to the extensive mine workings in the Coppermines Valley, including the Coniston Coppermines Youth Hostel. This walk was disappointing in places because I hadn’t planned enough for me to do, but when I was doing something I had a great time. The quarries leading up to Birk Fell were fascinating in the morning sunshine, and the descent of Black Sails was thoroughly relaxing, with the day was capped off by a great walk around the old copper mines.