Tag: fells
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Blackarse sheep
Spotted near Coniston. You will have heard, of course, of blackface sheep, well these are blackarse sheep, a truly rare breed. Those were my first thoughts but then noticed the patches were of a material “sewn” onto the fleece. Ah, must be a sheep’s chastity belt. Hasn’t stopped the tups trying. A farmer fellow confirmed…
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Threlkeld Knotts
A morning run up Clough Head before the weather turned. The 2,381 feet fell stands at the northern end of the Helvellyn ridge, a sentinel overlooking Threlkeld and the Glendermackin valley. It’s an out of the way hill I think I have only climbed a couple of times before, Blencathra across the valley always the…
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Cat Gill
Cat Gill separates Walla Crag and Falcon Crag on the east side of Derwent Water. It provides a steep climb up Bleaberry Fell alongside waterfalls and through plantations of larch and birch still hanging on with their autumnal colours. The view is looking west to the Derwent and Coledale Fells, the highest summit is Crag…
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Blease Fell and Blencathra
Blease Fell is said to be the easy way up Blencathra. Starting from the Blencathra Centre, the complex of slate buildings bottom left in the photo, it is at first a seemingly relentless climb but then follows a pleasant ridge to the highest point at 868 m or 2,848 ft in old money. The Blencathra Centre is…
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Bowscale Tarn
Cirques are giant hollows scooped out of the fellside by glacial ice. They are typically referred to as corries in Scotland, as cwms in Wales and more often as coves or combs in the Lake District. But the cirque in which Bowscale Tarn sits is un-named despite it being arguably the best example of a…
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Trusmadoor
Looking down on that distinct cleft of Trusmadoor in the Great Cockup/Meal fell ridge. Wainwright wrote of it: Nobody ever sung the praises of Trusmadoor, and it’s time someone did. This lonely passage between the hills, an obvious and easy way for man and beast and beloved by wheeling buzzards and hawks, has a strange…
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Miller Moss
When the summer of 2018 began it was just an un-named nondescript knoll in the Northern Fells of the Lake District with a spot height on the Ordnance Survey map of 609m. At the end of the summer, it was a nondescript mountain of 610m. Entitling it to be classified as Nuttall, a listing of…
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The Girt Dog of Ennerdale
Today there are many graphic images of farm animals having been mauled by out of controlled dogs. This is not just a modern phenomenon. On 12th September 1810, a dog was shot near Rowrah at the bottom end of Ennerdale. It had been on the rampage all that summer eluding many hunts and attempts to…
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Wasdale Head
A view that never fails to fascinate me, especially on such a glorious day. Wasdale Head, an oasis of lush, higgledy-piggledy fields. No design went into them. I am above Stirrup Crag on Yewbarrow. Everything is much greener and wetter than when I was last on these fells in June. Wastwater must be at least…
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Coppermines Valley
A small reminder of what man has done to the planet. Elizabeth I was Queen of England when mining for copper began in this valley above Coniston. Heavy mechanical hammers driven by huge water wheels crushed and broke the ore. A cacophony of bangs, rumbles and growls. Women and children picked over the rock separating…