Eskdale weekender

Eskdale Weekender

It's just been under a year since my last mission to the Lake District, I have been busy finishing off other areas of interest such as the Southern Pennines and the caves of the Yorkshire Dales, also last year I did a big mission of an exploration to France and the Vezere Valley in the Dordogne. Now I can concentrate more on the Lakeland missions. 

So it was good to be back in the lakes since the last mission was to finish off the Coniston Fells, what are now done,  so the next stage of the exploration of the southwest came about when a friend of mine got a summer job at Eskdale Youth Hostel this was good timing and gave me the chance to start the exploration of this valley.

13/05/2011.

So with a car loaded with two friends and a dog, we arrived at the Eskdale Youth Hostel late Friday afternoon and we soon got settled in for the weekend, this gave me a chance to get an evening walk in.
Wainwright's introduction to Eskdale; 

‘But precedence must be granted to Eskdale, the one valley that gives full allegiance to the Southern Fells and in some ways the most delectable of all. This is a valley where walkers really come into their own, a sanctuary of peace and solitude, a very special preserve for those who travel on foot’.

Harter Fell, 21409 (ft), 652m.

8 miles circular  

I and Paul Dial left the youth hostel for Penny Hill and crossed the river Esk at Doctor Bridge and then started a lovely climb out of the valley leaving the trees behind and the enclosed land to views of the valley and then the plateau at the top of this glaciated valley, what I find interesting, up here among the rocks, bogs and rough grasslands, is the flora, and one plant I discovered was the bog-bean Menyanthes trifoliata we had wandered off course while seeking out the plant life of these boggy areas.

Upper Eskdale

Bogbean 

We had wandered somewhat away of course so we had to push on to find the path to take us up Harter Fell.

The cloud had started to come in by the time we found the path to the summit, so we never got the view we wanted, so we headed off the mountain in the direction of Wynose Pass and back out of cloud we could see the road below us the sun was setting in the sky so we knew there was not much daylight left, but we had made it to the road and we knew now that the last section of walk was going  to be in the dark but we were safe now just a road walk back to the hostel, we passed the Roman fort enjoying the twilight as we reached the bottom of the valley and last the 20 minutes of the walk was with our head torches on to finish off the walk.

Scafell, 3162 ft, 964 m and Slight Side, 2499 ft, 762 m.

10 miles circular 

A big walk planned today, so an early start from the hostel and a six-mile walk to the summit of Scafell and another seven back.
Scafell is one of the big mountains in the Lake District National Park, originally known as Scawfell, but this name once covered all of the bulk of the higher ground but now that mass is split up with each peak getting its own name such as the highest peak in England is known as Scafell Pike and the second highest is Scafell this is the sister peak what I was climbing today.

So it was back along the road what we used last night, it was a morning of sunny spells, and we soon left the road behind for a footpath through the rocky scenery with pink granite on show, we crossed many boggy areas on the Terrace Route, and on the way we stopped to take stock of where we were heading, and at our feet was a plant that took our interest, it was the Round-leaved sundew Drosera rotundifolia, this interesting  plant is a ‘meat-eater’ it catches insects and uses their nutrients to compensate for the lack of nutrients found where it commonly grows. The glands at the tip of each leaf hair secret a gooey liquid. This then traps the insects and they become entombed and the nutrients absorbed. 

Round-leaved sundew.

The next section of the walk gave us our first view of Slight Side as we headed for it, and as we started to climb, the views opened up to Burnmoor Tarn, we carried on climbing Slight Side to the summit on a grey overcast day. We stopped for a short break. From the summit we set off again into the cloud, we went, on a compass bearing and seen very little on the way to the summit of Scafell.

Slight Side

We did not know we were on the summit of Scafell, I was just working it out as another walker turned up out of the mist, and answered our question for us, that we just passed it. This is another summit to do again in better weather.

East Buttress

The next stage of the walk was the descent to Cam Spout through a rocky gully, the might of the East Buttress of Scafell came into view towering above us as we made our way down a scree slope, and came back out of the cloud and then it started raining, this rain stayed with us for the rest of the walk. Has we got to Cam Spout and beyond, we passed many nice waterfalls on the way down to the valley bottom.

Waterfalls

Next section was along the River Esk before leaving it for higher ground again, a path took us along a rocky route in places and areas of bogs, and then back to the road and the youth hostel and the end of a long walk.

In the evening we took the car with a group of friends to visit the Roman fort of Hard Knot, all I am going to say on the site is that it’s an impressive fort, I will not go into its history. 

The next day we had planned a walk to visit the stone circles on Brat’s Moss above the village of Boot and it was also my birthday, we took the car to Boot on this wet morning we were hoping it would stop raining by the time we booted up and got onto Brat’s Moss, but the rain just got heavier, so by the time we got onto Brat’s Moss it was so heavy and with no views we just called it off. And that is it for this weekend in the Esk Valley.