Great Shunner Fell

Tuesday 14th September 2004

After spending the night at the Kettlewell Youth Hostel I left Wharfedale behind taking a different route back to Hawes. The day before I had driven from Hawes along Wensleydale as far as the spectacular waterfalls of Aysgarth where I had turned into Bishopdale travelling all the way to the end of the valley, over the pass and down into Wharfedale at Buckden. This time I took a more direct route branching off onto a minor road at Buckden into Langstrothdale before climbing steeply to the top of a high pass on the ridge that contains the old Roman road, the Cam High Road. Dropping steeply down the other side into Sleddale I eventually drove into the village of Hawes where I had spent the night two days previously. I don’t think I was desperate to start walking and may even have wandered around the village looking in on the weekly indoor market that is held in the village hall every Tuesday. My memory of this walk is vague as it was a long time ago and I had made no notes at the time or even took any photographs. It’s quite possible that I didn’t look around the market until after the walk.

Whatever time I started this walk my goal was Great Shunner Fell, which is a broad hill that covers a vast area to the north of Wensleydale and is traversed by the Pennine Way. When I first started planning this holiday it had been my intention to do the part of the Pennine Way that passes through the Yorkshire Dales and the North Pennines, but eventually I decided that all I really wanted to do was climb to the top of the hills as long distance trail walking held little interest for me. I remember thinking that my attitude may change in later years when I got older and then I could do the long distance thing, but at that time I had some mad ideas about trying to climb all the highest hills in England and Wales. Funnily, it wasn’t long before my thinking began to change and in 2009 I did the originally planned walk along the Pennine Way from the southern edge of the Yorkshire Dales all the way up to Hadrian’s Wall. Now, such ideas of bagging lists of dreary hilltops seems rather pathetic to me.

With no such thoughts in 2004, when I was still young, I set off along the course of the Pennine Way, across the River Ure and over the fields to the tiny village of Hardraw. In 2009 I came off the path at this point to pay a visit to the tall waterfall of Hardraw Force, but there was no stopping me in 2004 in my single-minded goal to reach the summit of Great Shunner Fell, despite the poor weather. I have since returned to great Shunner Fell twice, firstly in the aforementioned 2009 trek along the Pennine Way, and again in 2014 when I retraced my steps along the Pennine Way from Hawes to Keld. The second time I had good weather for much of the walk but dark clouds hung over the vast bog that is the top. Mist also covered the top in 2009, but both paled in comparison to the dismal weather that accompanied me in 2004. Much of the sprawling top of Great Shunner Fell is marred by ugly peat hags and extensive areas of wet moss that mean it can never be considered a great hill, though the route of the Pennine Way is clear enough. Slowly I made my way along the increasingly wet path gradually gaining height for mile after long mile, plunging into the clouds and blindly following the sometimes vague path up the hill.

While I remember the low cloud I don’t remember whether it was raining though it wouldn’t surprise me, however I have no doubt that it was windy since it is almost always windy at the top of high hills. At the summit of Great Shunner Fell is a cross shaped shelter providing respite from the wind no matter which direction it may be coming from. When I reached the top I remember making my way to far side of the shelter, in the lee of the wind, only to find a small group of walkers already there. One was bending over and cried out when she saw me prompting me to put my hand up and beat a hasty retreat. I have no idea what I had interrupted and I was in no hurry to find out. From the safety of the other side of the shelter I had my lunch before setting off back down the hill. I think I had considered alternative routes of descent, but they would all have involved taking to the boggy ground with no path to follow in the poor weather and low visibility. The gradients are so gradual on Great Shunner Fell that route finding would have been horrendously difficult without the sure guide of the Pennine Way so I took the only sensible option.

Returning along my route of ascent I headed back down the hill finally emerging out of the clouds and away from the bogs to reach firmer ground that would eventually take me all the way back to Hawes. This was a really simple, and easy, walk following a very popular path up a hill that should have had far-reaching and widespread, albeit distant, views. The summit was a long time in coming, and in the rain and mist never seemed appear. The top was not an appealing place to be so I was not sorry to come back down even though it left me with plenty of time to explore the markets of Hawes. This hill deserves good weather and since it is as a viewpoint that it excels then, on this occasion, I was not able to appreciate it at its best.