Crag Fell and Lank Rigg

Thursday 23rd December 2010 

On this walk I returned to the spot where I undertook my walk last Christmas Eve, near Ennerdale Water, visiting the lake before starting the walk. Last year was the first time that I’d actually been to the water’s edge of Ennerdale Water and I was glad to make the acquaintance again of this beautiful lake. Rather than taking the route over Anglers' Crag, which I took last year and was fraught with difficulty, I climbed beside the stream, Ben Gill, on a faint but fun, little path that climbs the steep hillside. This is a wonderful, brilliantly made path that made the climb a sheer delight for me as it ingeniously wound its way up the hillside. On the main path I crossed the gill and climbed the steep hillside up to the top of Crag Fell, which has awesome views up the valley of Ennerdale, but sadly on this day the higher fells were shrouded in hill fog, though fortunately the mist was keeping mostly away from me. Leaving the summit of Crag Fell I descended the grassy slopes and passed through a wood before climbing back onto the open fell. After passing over the uninteresting hill of Whoap I climbed steeply to the wind-swept, bleak and isolated fell of Lank Rigg. Ever since Wainwright left a two shilling coin at the summit of Lank Rigg, later visitors to this remote fell have left similar coins for others to find. I however didn’t find any buried treasure (though I didn’t look very hard), nor did I leave anything there myself. I stopped for lunch in the shelter of a cairn, southwest of the summit, and gazed out over the West Cumbrian landscape, towards Sellafield nuclear power station and out to sea. When I returned to the summit of Lank Rigg I found that a bitterly cold breeze was now blowing. For most of this holiday there had been little or no wind, so this was an unwelcome addition that prompted me to put my cagoule on as protection against the wind while descending the steep slopes of Lank Rigg before climbing over Whoap again. Passing through the wood once more I climbed back up to the top of Crag Fell where the wind was just as cold as it had been on Lank Rigg. Slowly I descended the long western slopes of Crag Fell back over Ben Gill and into a wood where an excellent path dropped me gradually down to the valley floor. 

This was a nice, relaxing walk in excellent, but cold, weather. The fells however, were not at the standard that would have made this a great walk. Crag Fell has a great, craggy, northern side but the rest of it is a dull as the entirety of Lank Rigg. My previous day's walk, over Fellbarrow and Low Fell, suffered from this as well. They were good as a short, relaxing, walk, but were not very satisfying as an all-day walk in the Lakes. My only real reason for going up these fells was because they are Wainwright Fells. Five years ago I started setting myself the target of going up every fell that Wainwright had written about in his Pictorial Guides. After going up Lank Rigg I had just four Wainwrights left to complete the list of 214 fells. These small, outlying fells may not have the stature of the bigger fells, but as Wainwright's they have equal standing with Helvellyn and Bow Fell and all the rest of the Lakeland Fells. Next Easter I aim to return to the Lake District and complete the Wainwrights

Fellbarrow and Low Fell

Wednesday 22nd December 2010 

I tried to go up these fells that are on the western edge of the Lake District last year only to be thwarted by a washed away bridge (which still doesn't appear to have been replaced). This year, with less snow on the ground, and taking a different route, I was finally able to accomplish what I’d failed to do before. I parked at the Lanthwaite Wood National Trust car park and set off along a side road to the small hamlet of Thackthwaite where a charming, tree-lined track took me steeply up the hillside onto the open fell. At a bend in the track I veered off and headed towards the most northerly point of this complex system of fells. Eventually, and with much effort wading through the bracken and snow, I reached the top of Hatteringill Head where I turned around and beheld the higher tops of Fellbarrow behind me. 

Striding forth from Hatteringill Head I passed along the top of the fells in glorious sunshine to the trig point at the top of Fellbarrow and on over other tops in the range, Smithy Fell and Sourfoot Fell. Eventually, after stopping at Watching Crag for the awesome views it affords of the Lorton Valley, I climbed up to the top of Low Fell, actually the highest point in this range of fells. The Wainwright top is further south, but even Wainwright himself didn’t think it was the highest point suspecting that the north top was even higher than Fellbarrow, as the Ordnance Survey have now confirmed. Onward I walked to the cairn that marks Wainwright's top, and it affords an amazing view across Crummock Water with the fells of Buttermere as a backdrop. It was sheer perfection spoilt only by the sun directly in my eyes. All that remained for me now was to descend steep slopes to Crabtree Beck and contour Darling Fell down to the road. A long walk past Loweswater (lake and village) took me back to my car. 

This was a fabulous little walk spoilt only by its shortness. With much of the afternoon left I considered doing my next day's planned walk but eventually abandoned it just after starting. In the end, with the sun quickly setting, I went up Binsey, a small hill that I walked up a couple of years ago in the dark. This time I also returned to my car in the dark.