Words & Photos Ian Battersby

December 03 2009

A preacher, with a reputation for delivering “dry as dust” sermons, was carrying one of his scribbled homilies across the moor, when he was savagely attacked by a wild boar. Instinctively he drove the parchment deep into the boar’s gullet, and it promptly died of a terrible thirst (or perhaps a severe case of lack of interest). Don’t believe me?

Well, the moor is now known as Wild Boar Fell. Admittedly the popular explanation for the hill’s name derives from the claim that England’s last wild boar was killed here by Sir Richard Musgrave. Okay, so this version has an actual name, his grave lies in Kirby Stephen, and a boar’s tusk was plucked from the tomb, but the story remains unproven. I prefer the first theory.

Whatever the true explanation, lack of interest was not on the cards for me. The fell rises to a wonderful gritstone edge from the Vale of Eden, but I’d taken this approach before, so I decided to tackle both it and Baugh Fell from Uldale, to see what I’d been missing. I wasn’t disappointed.

I set out, unwavering, over Flint Howe to Sand Tarn, formed as a result of quarrying for millstone grit. It sports a sandy beach, once used to sharpen tools, and a stunning view over to the neat folds of the closely cropped Howgills, which glowed orange in the developing dawn. Wild Boar’s grasses are rougher, but there’s little heather and the gentler slopes make wandering at will over the trackless land almost graceful.

I took a direct line for the walled trig point, playing on gritstone on the way. My route lay south, but it’s well worth the short detour to The Nab, for the grand view into the Vale of Eden, and the return south along that plunging gritstone edge to the standards that line the eastern summit. The pace felt good along the minor paths to Swarth Fell Pike, but Holmes Moss sounds wet, and its occasional small bogs soon had me dodging and weaving a more convoluted course.

The River Rawthey was a joy. I rested, drank from it, and marvelled at its small, black dragonflies, before crossing its moss-green rocks to follow the far bank for the most part, occasionally hopping back when the going got rough. Deep pools and frothy cascades hid around each cherished bend, along with cheerful rowans, red with berries.

You have to head over to Tarn Rigg Hill for the true summit of Baugh Fell, before veering west to bag the trigpoint. You can pick out Ingleborough and Whernside along the way, before dropping north to Uldale. For the most part this was an easy descent, but it then plunges into the Rawthey, which flows through a spectacular gorge and is littered with more startling waterfalls in these lower reaches.

Distance: 13 miles/21km Ascent: 3180ft/950m Time: 8-10 hours Start/finish: Uldale, near Needle Ho (GR: SD 728972) Maps: Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer sheet OL19 (Howgill Fells and Upper Eden Valley) Information: Sedbergh, 015396 20125 Travel information from Traveline: 0871 200 22 33, www.traveline.info

Technical Spec
Climb NE over Flint Howe to Sand Tarn. SE to trig point on Wild Boar Fell. NE to The Nab. Follow eastern edge generally SW then drop S to tarn. S then SSE to Swarth Fell Pike. Cross stile and descend WSW over Holmes Moss, then SW to Rawthey Gill. Follow Rawthey Gill SW then SE to Tarn Rigg Hill. WSW to Knoutberry Haw. N to tarn. NE for 500m. Descend N to River Rawthey. Pick up vague path NW to bridge. Cross river. Bridleway ENE to track. N then NW to parking space.