The Kentmere Horseshoe

Saturday 18th September 2004

After a week in 2004 spent walking up the hills of the Yorkshire Dales and the North Pennines, on the final day of my holiday I moved west to sneakily tag onto this holiday a walk in the Lake District. I had stayed in the market town of Kendal just outside the Lake District and not far from the Howgill Fells where I had been walking the previous day and now delayed the start of this walk to go around the shops in Kendal. As far as I can recall I was looking for a hands-free set for my phone, but I could not find one due to the obscurity of my phone. Giving up I drove into the Lake District and up the Kent Valley to the tiny village of Kentmere where there is a little amount of parking near the church beside a telephone box, assuming the box is still there. Since everybody uses mobile phones these days telephone boxes have become redundant, but it was still there in 2004. Setting off along the road I slowly climbed the old Garburn Road to the top of the pass where I turned right and followed the wall north towards Yoke. There is a good, dry path a little way over the pass, which I assume was there in 2004, but I’m sure I took the boggy path beside the wall that doesn’t improve until steeper ground is reached below Yoke.

Northwards from the top of Yoke the walking is excellent striding out along a fabulous ridge with great views in the west down to Windermere and on the eastern flank over the crags that defend Yoke above Kentmere Reservoir. I returned to this area in 2006 in glorious weather and I took some amazing pictures of this ridge as it passes over Yoke, Ill Bell and Froswick in rapid succession. Ahead of me was the high fells of Thornthwaite Crag and High Street, but in 2004 I was not interested in them having my eyes only on the fells that fringe the Kentmere valley so keeping to the top of the crags that head that valley I made my way all the way round to Mardale Ill Bell. I don’t have any memories of this fell in 2004 and though I returned on Christmas Eve 2014 it still hasn’t left any lasting memories. Any other time I have visited this part of the Lake District it has also been at winter and so has not produced great pictures. I did not take a camera with me on this holiday so I have been having difficulty finding adequate pictures to illustrate it. 2006 has provided me with excellent pictures for this walk of the western half of the Kentmere Horseshoe, but the eastern side has proven to be lacking.

Descending from Mardale Ill Bell I reached Nan Bield Pass whose abiding memory is of mist, such is the walks that I have done in this area. I did not have mist on this occasion and I was able to enjoy the walk up the craggy ridge to the ominous cairn that adorns the summit of Harter Fell, complete with fence posts that stick out in all directions. The character of the walk changes dramatically at this point as the dramatic steep crags of Lakeland begin to soften into the typically English boggy upland. The ridge south from Harter Fell is significantly broader than the Ill Bell ridge with wide marshy areas to negotiate. A relatively dreary time later after the top of Kentmere Pike has been passed the ridge begins to narrow and craggier ground is reached once more, around the top of Shipman Knotts. This is the only time I have ever walked over this fell and so I have no pictures of it or much of a memory of its characteristics. I do remember clambering beside the wall that follows the top of the ridge around some rocks as I slowly made my way down the ridge to the pass that goes from Stile End to Sadgill.

Rather than following the byway to Stile End I took the footpath that cuts the corner crossing the north-western slopes of Hollow Moor to reach Green Quarter above Kentmere. I remember descending the path on this walk in good weather at the end of a great day on the fells. I had great views up the valley that I had just walked around and I knew that this had been a great day. I made no notes on this walk at the time so it has lain unrecorded and almost forgotten all this time until I drenched it up from my memory of this holiday in 2004. I have been putting off describing this holiday because I had no pictures or notes from it, but now that I have been reminded of this excellent holiday I am keen to return to the places I had visited and reacquaint myself with these great hills. It is tragic that there are no youth hostels in this far south-eastern corner of the Lake District so the only time I have been able to walk them is when I’ve had a car, and that has often only been at Christmas when the weather has been poor. These fells deserve much more.