Dales High Way: Howgill Fells

Sunday 5th May 2024

At the start of the second day of my continuation of the Dales High Way, following my abandonment of it at Easter last year, I was camped on Craven Wold at the top of the pass between Ribblesdale and Dentdale in the Yorkshire Dales. I was woken me up early by the sunlight so I was back on the trail by half seven, which I didn’t mind as it meant I could take my time and focus on enjoying the walk rather than pushing to get the twenty miles done in eight hours. The path took me over the pass and slowly down a rocky lane into Dentdale with good views ahead of me along the valley. Even though it was very misty and overcast, the broad valley still looked spectacular and I was reminded of how it had looked last year in much better weather. On that occasion I abandoned the trail before reaching the bottom by turning right onto a path that took me up the valley to reach Dent railway station, but now I kept to the trail and at the bottom I joined the route of the Dales Way beside Deepdale Beck which was lined with wild garlic whose white flowers shone in the grey weather. Bluebells were also to be found and together they produced a gorgeous sight that lifted my spirits just as I’d remembered when previously coming this way in 2014 from Dent station.

After passing through the village of Dent I followed the road and river to Barth Bridge where I turned off onto a narrow lane, also lined with wild garlic, which took me up the side of the valley past several farm buildings until eventually becoming a grass lane. The guidebook warns that this is muddy in places but mentions an alternative that avoids the muddy section by crossing a field, but there was no path over the tussocky grass which resulted in this being very tiring. I was thankful when I eventually found myself back on the track which was perfectly dry and took me over Long Moor on the western shoulder of Rise Hill before slowly descending towards the town of Sedburgh. The mighty Howgill Fells loomed behind the town, hiding in the mist and I couldn’t help wishing I had better weather so I could appreciate the view across the valley. I had planned to stop in Sedburgh for a while but instead I hardly spent any time there and stuck to the trail which soon had me climbing the hillside past signs that declared: ‘To the fell’, which sounded glorious to me.

With the wooded dell of Settlebeck Gill to my right I climbed steeply onto the open hillside and above the gorse-filled banks of the stream but soon plunged into the clouds. I previously climbed the Howgill Fells from Sedburgh in 2010 but on that occasion I followed the bridleway that is clearly marked on Ordnance Survey maps taking a gentler route of ascent. Wainwright recommends using this route in descent and the route that I was now taking in ascent, but the low cloud provided me with some problems in navigation on the many crisscrossing paths up the hill. I missed a turning that would have kept me beside the stream and instead I headed straight up the hill to join the main path earlier than I should and later came off that to climb steeply straight up to the top of Arant Haw, which the main path bypasses. None of these were a problem, although they needlessly wore me out, as ultimately all the paths were heading in the same direction and eventually I came back onto the main path across the saddle of Rowantree Grains before climbing again to the top of Calders.

There are three tops across the broad summit plateau of the Howgill Fells, all of similar height, starting from Calders with Bram Rigg Top in the middle, which the main path bypasses, before finally reaching the Calf, the highest point in the Howgill Fells. I didn’t stay long at the Calf since there were no views, so after carefully checking my direction I set off along the path heading north east, passing a small mountain lake (a tarn) and soon I began to descend, which immediately felt wrong so I checked my location and found that I had missed a turning at the tarn. When I had retraced my steps back to the tarn I found that the path I should have taken could hardly be seen on the ground and so was easily missed. Soon a path developed and I followed this gently down the hill as the mist suddenly cleared to reveal a stunning sight ahead of me of the broad ridge rising to Hazelgill Knott. With little wind and good views ahead of me I now had a fabulous walk along the undulating ridge over Hazelgill Knott and West Fell before finally descending off the hills with good views towards Great Asby Scar.

While climbing wearily through the mist I had wondered why I do this, but now it was warm with hazy sunshine overhead and I felt tremendous enjoyment on a walk that could only be described as a pleasure. While considering where to camp I wondered whether to keep going and wild camp on Great Asby Scar, but this would have left me with little to do the next day, so I decided to stay in the campsite that I had booked to stay in last year. On reaching Bowderdale I followed quiet roads across the Lune Valley and into the small village of Newbiggin-on-Lune where I left the trail to head towards Ravenstonedale but turned off before reaching the village to stay at the Low Greenside Farm Campsite. This walk was a joy, especially on the descent from the Howgill Fells when the weather improved, but even before then I enjoyed the wildflowers in Dentdale, which is a very special place. On this walk I felt like all my cares were lifted and I could finally relax with the stresses of the past erased. My bad luck in Dartmoor last Easter was now a distant memory.

The Howgill Fells from Cross Keys

Friday 17th September 2004

Having spent the night at the Langdon Beck Youth Hostel an hour’s drive was necessary before I could reach the start of my walk up the Howgill Fells from the small town of Sedburgh. After driving all that way I parked up in the car park in Sedburgh only to discover that my boots weren’t there and eventually I realised that I had left them at the hostel. Therefore I had to drive for an hour all the way back only to find no sign of life in the hostel, which was locked when I got there. After wandering around the nearby town of Middleton-in-Teesdale for a while I returned to the hostel where I found the warden and was able to retrieve my boots. After another hour’s drive, during which I had to fill up with petrol because I’d used it all up, what was left of the morning was gone. Rather than going all the way back to Sedburgh I changed my planned walk, cutting it short, by starting from the Cross Keys Temperance Inn. After all this running around I didn’t start walking until after eating my lunch and I believe the time was about one o’clock in the afternoon, but despite the short time available I was in the prime spot to enjoy the best that this fabulous range of distinctive hills has to offer.

The Howgill Fells sit between the Lake District fells and the Yorkshire Dales, though they lie in the latter national park, but have little similarity to either area. I often imagine that they have taken a little from both areas and combined them to make an appealing and attractive range of hills unique in character. The Howgill Fells radiate from a central hub on smooth, grass-covered ridges that fall remarkably steeply into deeply cut valleys that delve far into the range. My target was all the tops that rise above two thousand feet and to begin this task I had to undertake an unrelenting climb up Ben End climbing from the River Rawthey all the way up to the southern top of Yarlside. Exhausted, I eventually reached the top of the pathless slope and turned north to walk the relatively easy distance to the summit of Yarlside overlooking the northern half of the Howgill Fells.

There is a further top north of Yarlside, Randygill Top, that I technically should have bagged, but since it would have involved two descents and ascents passing over Kensgriff just to get there, and repeated in return, I gave it a miss and turned my attention towards the centre of the Howgill Fells. Descending steeply to Bowderdale Head I climbed the grassy slopes on the far side eventually reaching flatter ground where I could finally breathe a sigh of relief with all the steep climbing completed. The sun was shining overhead as I walked across the broad top of the Calf to reach the highest point in the whole range and the trig point that sits at the summit. From there I headed west towards the distant Lakeland Fells on the horizon stopping off at White Fell Head and Bush Howe on the gently undulating ridge. The greatest type of hill walking is ridge walking and this was hill walking at its greatest on fabulous hills in fabulous weather and with an awesome view towards the Lake District before me.

A small descent across Windscarth Wyke and another short ascent took me up to Breaks Head where the ridge began to narrow pleasingly until it finally ended on an airy perch overlooking the Lune Valley with the Lakeland mountains beyond. This was a fabulous moment and I wish that I had brought a camera with me on this walk to capture that tremendous scene, but in their absence I have had to be content with illustrating with post with pictures from my walk up the Howgill Fells in 2010. Back in 2004, I retraced my steps along the ridge back to the Calf where I turned south to traverse broad tops reaching first Bram Rigg Top and then Calders where I turned left to head across the featureless plateau of Great Dummacks until I reached the cliff edge of Cautley Crag. This is the only extensive crag in the whole range and stretches for almost a mile. I was at the southern end so I turned north and walked along the edge of the escarpment gradually descending to reach a stream at the point where it falls over the edge to create one of the highest waterfalls in Britain: Cautley Spout.

Descending very steeply from there I carefully made my way down beside the waterfall until the terrain finally eased and I was able to walk down the valley and back to my car. Although this walk was shorter than I’d originally planned it was still very memorable and awoke in me a love for the Howgill Fells. These are supreme walking territory and I would love to be able to return to these fabulous hills again and devote myself to the time that they so rightly deserve. Many people pass these hills on the M6, or on the train, and if they have any soul they will gaze in wonder at these highly distinctive hills that dominate the eastern view from the Lune Valley. I have passed these great fells far more times than I have stopped and enjoyed their wondrous delights, and my heart aches at the thought.

Langdale, Uldale and Simon’s Seat

Saturday 10th September 2016

While travelling to Scotland for my holiday last September I had stopped off at a section of the Lake District that had only just been incorporated into the national park, and while coming back I likewise stopped off in a new section of another national park: the Yorkshire Dales. The Howgill Fells were savagely cut in half when the national park was created with the northern fells being missed out. On first August this year the Yorkshire Dales National Park was enlarged by twenty-four percent and now includes the whole of the Howgill Fells. I came off the motorway at Tebay and after a tiny distance I stopped off in the little farming community of Longdale. Although the weather was very good with the sun shining under blue skies, it was quite clear that there had been just as much rain there as I had endured in Scotland and soon I encountered paths that were thick with mud. I was following Wainwright’s direction as given in walk fifteen of his guide to Walks on the Howgill Fells, which directed me across the beck and up through a lovely wooded area into a field full of sheep.

Once I reached a track on the other side of the field I slowly gained height on a long, dreary walk towards the heart of the Howgill Fells that lay before me. After almost two weeks of poor weather in Scotland the sun had finally come out and I had driven south under clear skies but as the day progressed it become cloudier with hazy sunshine, although this was still a welcome change after the poor weather that I had endured in Scotland. The path was initially very good, but after coming across a deep pool of water that blocked my way, the track dwindled away and I dropped onto a tiny path that climbs through the valley of Uldale. This path was very muddy being little more than a sheep trod which made this an arduous trudge as I made my way up the valley. The path never improved and eventually I reached the top of the pass at Blakethwaite Bottom where the dramatic Carlin Gill snakes down the other side of the pass. The top of the pass is marked by the Blakethwaite Stone, which doesn’t look significant, but on a map it is vitally important.

The old county boundary for Yorkshire used to follow the Carlingill Beck up to the Blakethwaite Stone and at that point turned uphill to reach the eastern ridge. The boundary of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, until recently, followed this old boundary line since it was thought that the Yorkshire Dales should be wholly within Yorkshire. However, in 1974 the counties in England were radically changed and the county boundary was moved so that the whole of the Howgill Fells now lies in Cumbria. For many years this old county line marked the boundary between the protected and the relatively unprotected, but now the whole of the Howgill Fells are within the protection of the national park and I turned to climb the steep, grassy ridge following this now obsolete boundary. At the top of the ridge, on Docker Knott, I was so exhausted from the effort of the climb that I stopped for a rest to have my lunch. The walk didn’t get any easier after I had eaten as I then descended steeply into Churn Gill only to climb all the way up the even steeper bank on the other side.

Steep sided valleys and grassy ridges are the hallmark of the Howgill Fells and this walk was treating me to a clear demonstration of these steep grassy ridges. Once I had eventually, exhaustedly, reached the top of Simon’s Seat I could finally relax as the walk was now downhill all the way. I was on the highest peak in the newly incorporated section of the Howgill Fells and I could see the heart of these fabulous hills rising clearly up to the Calf, the highest point in the range. That was behind me as I headed back north along the ridge that drops gradually and narrows slightly before rising to the Ordnance Survey pillar atop Middleton. The view ahead of me as I slowly descended was quite striking and I stopped several times to take in the far reaching vista and enjoy the sunshine that I had so rarely seen in Scotland. At the bottom of the valley is a beautiful old footbridge made of stone that crosses a stream with an oddly familiar name: Langdale Beck.

I was now in the valley of Langdale, which is not to be confused with the Langdale in the heart of the Lake District. At the start of this holiday I walked through a Borrowdale that is not the well-known valley in the Lake District and at the end of this holiday I was walking through Langdale, but not the one the tourists flock to. This Langdale is a pretty little valley with a lovely beck flowing through it and a smattering of trees to add to the charm. However the ground underfoot was exceptionally muddy in places which caused me quite a few difficulties, and added to all the other muddy paths that I encountered on this walk rather sours my impression of the whole thing. The mud was worse than anything I had seen in Scotland and really put me off the walk, which would have benefited enormously from being carried out in drier weather. The walk ended by passing through farmer’s fields and back to the misappropriately named hamlet of Longdale.

The Whinfell Ridge

Saturday 27th August 2016

On 1st August the Lake District National Park was increased in size by an extra twenty-seven square miles and I thought the start of this holiday would be a good opportunity to explore this new area of the Lake District. The walk that I chose was one that Wainwright described in his book on the Howgill Fells. The first five walks in that book are along the Whinfell Ridge, which runs from the A6 road between Kendal and Shap to the Lune valley that houses the West Coast Mainline and the M6 motorway. Instead of following one of the five short walks described in the book, I decided to walk along the whole ridge in one go so after driving up the M6 I came off at Shap and came down the A6 to stop just after Huck’s Bridge over the stream Borrow Beck. My walk started with a steep climb up Ashstead Fell on a narrow, but clear path on wet, boggy ground interspersed with small clumps of purple-flowering heather. Despite some hot spells this summer it has been rather wet so the ground has not dried out after the record breaking heavy rain of the winter.

There is a fine cairn on the western top of Ashstead Fell, but there was nothing to mark the other two tops including the central, highest top. Conifers spoiled the view south, but I had grand views west towards the heart of the Lake District even though it was restricted to the broad slopes of the Shap Fells. The weather was amazing for this walk though the bright sun to the east marred my views of the undulating ridge ahead of me. Many tops are traversed on the ridge and after passing the eastern top of Ashstead Fell a descent and a long climb brought me to the conifer-surrounded top of Mabbin Crag, which is marked as having a cairn on the map (and in Wainwright’s guide), but I don’t remember seeing one. I was either really tired or I had been distracted by the conifers that now blocked my route, however a very wet path that had me wishing I’d worn my gaiters took me through the wood to the start of Castle Fell.

A faint path bypassed the very top of Castle Fell and with hindsight I wish I’d come off the path in order to visit the cairn at the top of the fell. Instead I kept heading along the path through White Moss and up to the top of Whinfell Beacon where a well-built cairn stands guard over a fine view south over Whinfell Tarn, towards the town of Kendall and east towards a hazy view of the Howgill Fells. A steep descent from the beacon, followed by a broad, largely flat ridge, brought me to a pair of transmitters and the service road that serves them. Beyond this scar in the landscape there was no trace of a path so I had to make my own way up the broad, tedious, grassy slopes all the way up to the top of Grayrigg Common where a trig point sits on the highest point on the ridge. By this point I was so tired I decided that this was as far as I needed to go so I followed a path from the top that heads to a wall that I followed north with views east into the busy Lune valley below that is populated by road, river, railway and motorway.

A largely pathless descent took me down the northern slopes into the valley of Borrowdale, which should not be confused with the better known valley in the centre of the Lake District. This Borrowdale is very quiet; there is no road running through it and very few people. It is a lovely farming valley with a track running along the length of it following the Borrow Beck, which I took to walk all the way back to my car. I was very tired going into this walk and I’m not sure I was really in the right mood to truly appreciate this new section of the Lake District. The undulating ridge was very exhausting and throughout the length of it all I really wanted to do was get to the end, which should in no way be a reflection of the quality of the ridge, however something narrower, craggier and less boggy would have probably held my attention more. My walk along Borrowdale in the warm sunshine was exactly the relaxing walk that I needed and maybe something more restful would have been appropriate for this walk. Nevertheless I had now visited this previously neglected ridge that has taken sixty-five years to be incorporated into the national park.

The Howgill Fells

Wednesday 7th April 2010

After my walk the day before, I was really tired and aching so I decided to take things easy for this walk and catch a bus to Sedburgh in order to walk up the Howgill Fells. I previously visited these fells in 2004 when I had a fabulous walk over these wonderful fells that are a cross between the Yorkshire Dales (which they are in) and the Lake District (which is within sight). They're a gloriously complex arrangement of deep, water-cut valleys and grassy ridges that are an absolute delight to walk along with many hours easily wasted exploring their many tops and ridges. When I visited these fells in 2004 I had deliberately walked up every one of the fells that are more than two thousand feet high, and visited the spectacular Cautley Spout, a waterfall on the eastern edge of the fells. I remember the weather was good for that walk and the views of the Lake District were stunning, particularly from the western most top, Fell Head. On this walk I didn't go that far as I was really taking a day off and I wanted a gentle walk without too much exertion, but I still reached the highest point in the Howgill Fells.

My original plan had been to approach the Howgill Fells from the village of Grayrigg, but changed my plans in favour of this much easier, simple out and back route. From the centre of Sedburgh I climbed up Howgill Lane to Lockbank Farm and onto the open fell. Since I was still really tired my progress up was dreadfully, painfully slow as I trudged along the path bypassing all the tops along the way and staying on the main path all the way up to the top of Calders where I had lunch. After the poor weather of the last couple of days I was now blessed with some lovely sunshine that made the walk that much more pleasant and relaxing, but it was still a bit cold at the top. After eating I buttoned up against the cold wind and headed off to the Calf, the highest point in the Howgill Fells. The Calf is more than just the highest point, it is the focal point of the Howgill Fells, and all the other tops and ridges radiate from that central point so that the views from the summit are quite sensational.

After taking a number of pictures from the top of the Calf I reluctantly didn't visit Cautley Spout waterfall but turned around and headed back down to Sedburgh. This walk may have been unimaginative, but I was so tired I needed an easy, relaxing walk in order to get my strength back. On my way back down along the path I stopped off at all the tops that I'd missed on my way up, stopping off at Brim Rigg Top, Calders, the Rowantree Grains, Arant Haw and Winder, all along the way. The descent was thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing, especially once I was below the cold wind that was blowing around the tops; the weather was so warm and sunny that my gentle, relaxing descent was as pleasurable as it gets. Near the bottom I sat down on the grass and simply enjoyed the sunshine, amazed at the difference a bit of sun makes. This was a great walk and was just what I needed to get my strength back.