Meal Fell and Brae Fell

Sunday 27th August 2023

After a spending a night at Skiddaw House Hostel, I set off across the vast heathery landscape of Skiddaw Forest, leaving the hostel that seems to lie in the middle of nowhere, certainly with no civilisation in sight, surrounded by purple-flowering heather and, on this day, low clouds. The weather looked ominous with rain surely not far away, but for now it was not raining so I was happy while walking along the access track, over the young River Caldew and beside the foot of Great Calva to reach the waterfall of Whitewater Dash. Frustratingly, the waterfall was not visible from the track until after I had passed below Dead Crags and by then it was too far away to be seen clearly. Despite losing the height that is the benefit of staying at Skiddaw House, this was a great walk through awesome scenery with the low clouds adding an atmospheric and moody feel to the surroundings that I quite enjoyed. I had only once before been on this track, at the beginning of 2008, so I was keen to do it again, but after a while the track became tarmac, passed through dull farmland and went on a bit too long until finally I reached the public road where I turned right. After passing Cassbeck Bridge and Horsemoor Hills Farm, I turned right onto a bridleway by which time it had started to rain, which was a problem as it was so warm and humid I soon began to sweat inside my waterproofs.  

The track slowly climbed across the western slopes of Great Cockup while ahead of me, up the valley, Whitewater Dash could be seen in the distance. I climbed Great Cockup from this direction in 2015, so, instead of repeating myself, I kept to the bridleway passing around the southern slopes, over Brockle Crag and down to Burntod Gill. I was now completely surrounded by clouds and it was raining, so navigation was very tricky. The landscape ahead of me was confusing so I checked my map which revealed that although the bridleway crosses the stream and heads up alongside Hause Gill into the surround of hills ahead of me, I needed to turn left to follow Burntod Gill through a narrow, steep-sided valley. I loved walking through this valley where loose rocks covered the slopes to my left and heather decorated the hillside elsewhere while the path, though tricky and eroded in places, was always interesting and eventually brought me to that amazing gap in the hills known as Trusmadoor. With the weather showed no signs of improving, I left the confines of Burntod Gill and climbed the hill on the far side of the pass to eventually reach the summit of Meal Fell.

Despite thinking that I must be the only one stupid enough to be out in this weather, I found quite a few people in the shelter at the top of Meal Fell and there were more on the eastern ridge heading towards Great Sca Fell. Perhaps the Bank Holiday had attracted everyone. Before reaching the top of Great Sca Fell I turned left and headed up a grass shelf to Little Sca Fell where I found even more people. From there I headed north across the broad, featureless hillside to the top of Brae Fell, which I had previously visited just once before, in 2008. The other fells in the area had been revisited in 2015, but on that occasion I had missed out on Brae Fell, so I corrected that oversight now even though I couldn’t see anything from the summit. After lunch I retraced my steps back to Great Sca Fell even though I had planned to descend the eastern slopes into the valley of Dale Beck. The weather was not right for that plan, however the rain stopped briefly soon after I left Brae Fell and I even thought I saw the sun trying to burn through the clouds. Nevertheless, I followed the clear tracks back across the broad hillside, somehow finding myself on a path that keeps to the eastern edge of the fell and bypasses the summit, so when this became obvious I ploughed through the grass to reach the low cairn that marks the top of Great Sca Fell.

With a much wider and clearer path now under my feet and the weather closing in again, I headed south across a broad muddy col that was well-remembered from when I passed this way in 2015. Eventually I passed beyond the bogs and began to climb towards Knott following the path which veered to the left to reach the cairn that is at the summit. It was still quite early in the day at this point, but I had run out of hills to do. In 2015 I had crossed a very boggy saddle to Great Calva and, in the other direction, High Pike was climbed in 2021, but I don’t like to repeat myself, especially from relatively recent walks. So instead I kept to my planned route of descent, heading east from the top of Knott along a clear path before veering right to descend past the cairn on Pike. The skies now began to clear, just as I was coming off the fells, which was very frustrating, but I could not see what else I could do. What I should not have done was to try descending over Pike as there is no path and the slopes are defended by thick heather so it was very tough trying to make my way down. With hindsight, I should have stayed on the east ridge of Knott until I reached Coomb Height and descended from there over Cocklakes where there is a clear path.

Eventually I reached the bottom of the valley where I was able to join the clear path that crosses Wiley Gill and heads back to Skiddaw House reaching there about three o’clock despite much better weather. I had been rained on too much in this walk so I was glad for it to end. I loved the start along the Hostel access track, past Whitewater Dash falls, but once it started to rain this walk, more than anything else, was just a navigational challenge. There was no view, just grassy hills and the occasional cairn, with the path beside Burntod Gill being the solitary highlight. I was quite happy to finish the walk early.