Muncaster Fell

I’ve never been up Muncaster Fell before, so this is a new one for me. A Wainwright bagged, a Marilyn bagged. Muncaster Fell is an elongated lump of granite, separating the valleys of the Eskdale and Miterdale. The highest point is Hooker Crag, a mere 231m high but offering fine views over the west Cumbria coastline, from Black Combe to the nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at Sellafield. I had climbed up from Ravenglass, a quaint but very quiet backwater situated at the confluence of the three estuaries of the rivers Esk, Mite and Irt. The village boasts three pubs but no shops and with the terminus of the Eskdale narrow gauge railway its main attraction. A far cry from the 15 blacksmiths it once had crafting iron from the medieval bloomeries higher up the dales and trading with Ireland and Scotland.