Fleetwith Pike and the Loweswater Fells

Sunday 30th May 2021

After spending the night wild camping in Ennerdale, I awoke to clear blue skies and knew that this was going to be a hot day with stunning weather. Setting off, I left my camp spot beside Sail Beck at the foot of the path from Black Sail Pass and headed onto the path beside Loft Beck that is part of the Coast to Coast walk. It was already hot and I stopped several times to have a drink of filtered water from the stream to cool off from the exertion of the climb. At the top I kept on the route of the Coast to Coast, but I now had a major distraction in the views to my left, towards Buttermere, which were sensational, though hazy. Once the path started to descend I had other things to distract me as the path is littered with piles of stones every ten metres, which is totally unnecessary. There were also large numbers of people coming up the path drawn to the area by the Bank Holiday weekend and the good weather. At the site of the drum house on the old tramway, I was able to leave them all behind as I kept going in the same direction to reach the edge of the escarpment above Honister Pass where I turned left to follow the broad ridge up the heather-covered slopes of Fleetwith Pike. 

Although a right-of-way is marked on maps, I found very little on the ground, until eventually a clear path appeared from the nearby quarry and soon I reached the top of the Honister via ferrata, which is something I have never done before and I’m not sure I would ever want to do it as I don’t have a head for heights. Continuing up the ridge I passed the remains of old quarries and reached the top of Black Star from where I now had a clear view along the heather-covered ridge to the top of Fleetwith Pike, which is a fell that I have previously climbed twice, both times up Fleetwith Edge, the steep ridge from Gatesgarth. Unfortunately, by the time I reached Fleetwith Pike the lovely sunshine that I had been enjoying was gone as dark clouds had come over, though fortunately they wouldn’t last. With much relish I began my descent of Fleetwith Edge reflecting that the last time I had come up here was New Year’s Day 2010 when there had been a lot of snow on the ground, which amazes me now as this ridge is a proper scramble so you wouldn’t have thought it could easily be done under snow. This time I had a thoroughly enjoyable descent slowly making my way down the rocky ridge until eventually I reached the crowds at Gatesgarth where I started to walk around Buttermere, which was quite a challenge to keep a proper distance from everyone.

 

Slowly I made my way along the footpath through Burtness Wood, ignoring the turning for Buttermere village, I continued past Scale Bridge and veered left after crossing Far Ruddy Beck to take a higher path that I hoped would avoid the notorious bogs of the lower path. This was still not always a clear path and was not completely dry, but it did eventually lead me to Scale Force, the highest waterfall in the Lake District, where I had my lunch. Soon after I set off again along the path, my feet complained so much I had to stop. I had been suffering from sore spots on my feet for most of the holiday due to my boots letting in water during the wet days and the problem with waterproof footwear is that they don’t dry out very quickly. My solution at this point was to take off my wet socks and put dry socks on, though it would not be long before these socks would also be wet. Setting off again, I now entered an area that I hoped would have much less people than the crowds I encountered around Buttermere: the Loweswater Fells that lie north of the Floutern Tarn Pass. There are five Loweswater Fells including Mellbreak in front of me that I have done twice before, the last time in 2013, but I have only done the other four once, under snow at Christmas 2009, so they were my target.

The, at times, boggy path slowly rose towards Floutern Tarn, but at a fence I turned off it to slowly climb north towards Hen Comb following a narrow, increasingly steep path over many annoying false summits until I eventually reached the top where I was rewarded with stunning views including back towards Fleetwith Pike. Coming back down the path I could see a fence that crosses the top of the valley to the ridge opposite that I thought would be an excellent way, but the name of this area is Whiteoak Moss and is abominably boggy, which begs the question why does there appear to be a path? Is it because of other idiots like me, or because of idiots like fellrunners? I should have kept to the high ground over Floutern Cop (near the top of the pass) and Banna Fell, but instead I just got my feet wet again. Turning north I followed a fence up to the top of Gavel Fell where I was frustrated to find the large summit cairn is across a fence that doesn’t have a stile, but after much grumbling I found that the fence is easily crossable. Since my socks were now wet I changed back into my previous socks that had dried while hanging off the back of my rucksack.

With the day lengthening, I followed the fence around the Loweswater Fells passing over Fothergill Head and up to the top of Blake Fell where I had taken a memorable picture in 2009, when I had previously done these fells, that looks back over the snow-covered landscape towards Fleetwith Pike in the distance. Now, when I got to the top of Blake Fell I was frustrated to find the terrain didn’t match my picture, but after much moaning I eventually realised the picture was taken from a small outcrop a short distance away from the summit. Unfortunately the view, without snow and with haze, was not as good as it had been in 2009, but was still awesome. Continuing north along the broad ridge I came up to Burnbank Fell and my fourth Loweswater Fell of the day, which had been my first in 2009. Crossing the fence I made my way to a pile of stones that overlooks Loweswater and turned left to descend steeply onto an excellent terrace path following Wainwright’s directions. In 2009 I hadn’t followed this route so I was happy to finally have a chance to do this terrace path and take in the brilliant views across Loweswater towards Grasmoor and the other North Western Fells.

 

Soon after crossing Holme Beck I took a path that descends steeply through the stunning woodland of Holme Wood that was decorated with many wild flowers, including bluebells, until eventually I reached the bottom of the path beside Loweswater. There I changed my socks again and considered my options. I needed somewhere to camp, but there didn’t seem to be any places in the valley to do that. I did consider going up onto Low Fell on the other side of Loweswater, but this seemed to need a lot of tiring road walking back and forth to get to the entrance, though with hindsight it may have been better. Instead, I walked along the road past Loweswater village and down to Scalehill Bridge where I turned onto a bridleway that climbs through Lanthwaite Wood up to the Buttermere road near Lanthwaite Gate below Whiteside. I had now been walking for over eleven hours and I was tired. I just wanted to stop and eat, but I had not been able to find anywhere I could wild camp without anybody seeing me. Eventually I climbed up to Liza Beck in the narrow cutting between Whiteside and Grasmoor and found a spot soon after a sharp turning, out of sight, where I could stop and put up my tent. The start of this walk was great, going over Fleetwith Pike, but after that the walk deteriorated due to the crowds and later the grassy Loweswater Fells with aching feet.