Words & Photos Vivienne Crow

January 01 2011

I’d walked the fells above Greendale on several occasions in the past, but I’d never visited Greendale Gill before. So on a gloriously sunny day I eschewed the delights of Middle Fell, despite the promise of a wonderful view of the mountains at the head of Wasdale, and headed for the confines of the ravine instead.

It’s a surprisingly wild spot, with a sense of remoteness that’s totally disproportionate to its distance from the road. The narrow path climbs high above the eastern side of the boulder-littered stream-bed while, to the west, slender waterfalls tumble down into the beck.

The gill gradually opened out as I continued upstream to lonely Greendale Tarn and crossed boggy ground to the north. From here to the top of Haycock, there were only faint paths – I wouldn’t want to cross this featureless, grassy shelf in fog. But there was no need to worry about visibility today – I could clearly see the fells ringing the head of Nether Beck: Haycock, Scoat Fell and Red Pike. At last, I had a sense of moor giving way to mountain, but there was still a lot of grass to cover.

Crossing high ground to the west of the depression containing the Pots of Ashness, I looked out across vast, empty grasslands – upper Blengdale, Stockdale Moor, Kinniside Common. Sheep country. But the scree-covered dome of Haycock, looking uncomfortably steep, promised a little more in the way of excitement. I ascended a grassy rake between the scree-runs, a steep but straightforward way to the summit.

Heading north-east, I then decided to make a short detour. A pleasantly narrow, rocky spine leads from Scoat Fell’s rounded top onto Steeple’s pointed peak. Now, I really felt like I was among the mountains. The dark crags to the east seemed to crowd in on me, while the view north was dominated by the High Stile range; a wonderful antidote to all the grass that had gone before. But the best was yet to come.

From Scoat Fell, I headed south-west. As I descended bouldery ground, the sun, which had been playing hide and seek since lunchtime, suddenly lit up Red Pike, throwing into sharp relief the dramatic way in which the fell suddenly drops away into Mosedale far, far below. With cloud shadows chasing each other across the fearful buttresses of Scafell Pike and Sca Fell behind, it was a scene that literally stopped me in my tracks. When I eventually got going again, I made my way along the rim of the fell to the summit cairn. With the ground plummeting more than 2,000ft into the abyss to the east, and very little lying between you and England’s highest peaks, this is a truly awesome place to stand and linger.

Lakeland mountains may, on a global scale, be rather small, but they seem like giants from Red Pike.

Distance: 10 miles/16km Ascent: 3370ft/1027m Time: 5.5-6.5 hours Start/finish: Overbeck Bridge car park, Wasdale (GR: NY 168068) Map: Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer sheets OL4 (English Lakes NW) and OL6 (English Lakes SW) – both required Information: Whitehaven, 01946 598914 Travel: Taxi service from Gosforth to Wasdale Head on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Phone 019467 25308.

Technical Spec
Turn R from car park. Keep R at fork in road. After 2 miles of road walking, turn R along path at Greendale. Keep E of beck until Greendale Tarn. Cross beck, walk parallel with tarn and cross top of feeder stream, 0.2 miles N of tarn. Head N. As ground on R drops away more steeply, veer NNW. Keep to W of Pots of Ashness and head N. Climb SW slope of Haycock and swing N to summit cairn. Turn R alongside wall. On top of Scoat Fell, strike off SE and then join Red Pike path. Bear L at fork for summit cairn. Descend SSE to Dore Head. Turn R (SSW) to follow Over Beck downstream. Cross ladder stile and turn R beside wall. Follow path L to return to start.