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PICTURES AND TRIP REPORTS FROM MY WALKS IN THE ENGLISH LAKE DISTRICT
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E-mail - karl@karlswalks.co.uk |
A return to the Stainton Fells for a quick overnighter squeezed in between work and the football.
The conditions couldn't have been more different from last week as Emily and I made our way up the gentle slope by the wall headed for Buck Barrow. We arrived around five to avoid the hottest part of the day but it was still around 28 degrees. The heat wasn't our only problem though as every step brought flies and other stinging bugs up out of the grass and with no breeze at all we were both soon stung and bitten.
Looking back down the path over the small bump of Stoneside Hill and the trees of Charity Chair to White and Black Combe.
A slight breeze got up as we reached Buck Barrow which gave us a few minutes of respite from the bugs. Unfortunately the breeze disappeared as we dropped the short way down across Littlecell Bottom and the critters resumed their attack.
Thankfully as we climbed the slope up to Whitfell the breeze returned and as well as blowing the bugs away now walking was a lot more comfortable.
There is an extensive view of the high fells from Whitfell ranging from Seatallen and Haycock on the left to Pillar, Kirk Fell, Great Gable, the Scafell group then Esk Pike, Bowfell and Crinkle Crags.
Stainton Pike where we are hoping to camp is the cairned top above Holehouse Tarn.
And here we are at Holehouse Tarn with Great Gable and the Scafell's in the background.
On arriving at Stainton Pike we managed to find some shade on it's eastern side so had our tea there and waited a while for the temperature to drop before we pitched our tents.
Looking from the summit to Yoadcastle and Woodend Heights.
And looking over our camp to Redgill Head which I wanted to visit on our way back tomorrow.
Whitfell and Holehouse Tarn.
Zooming in on White Pike with the layers of fells beyond. The nearest layer is the Whin Rigg/Illgill Head ridge then Seatallen and finally Caw, Scoat Fell and Haycock. The little bump to left of Haycock is Little Gowder Crag.
A lovely end to the day.
After the sun had set a fairly strong breeze started blowing from the east which cooled things down considerably. Normally the wind comes and goes in weaker or stronger gusts but this was like having a fan behind the tents as it seemed to blow at the same speed all night. It wasn't strong or noisy enough to keep us awake and the temperature was just perfect so we both slept well.
We were up quite early not only to catch the sunrise but we wanted to make an early start to avoid the heat.
We were a bit short of water for our breakfast brew so I walked down to the tarn for a top up
After enjoying our brew we quickly packed away and retraced our steps down from the fell past the tarn.
We contoured under Burn Moor following the occasional sheep track and unlike last week navigation wasn't a problem. I had seen that there was a small tarn on Redgill Head which might be nice to camp by but when we arrived the tarn was not what I'd hoped it would be.
A nice view of the coast and Eskmeals from Redgill Head though.
From Redgill Head we had another pathless tramp across the hillside until we met the path descending down towards Buckbarrow Beck.
We diverted of the path to follow the beck downhill.
In January 2025 I had walked up this way and had passed this pool and waterfall. January was too cold for a swim but today definitely wasn't so we both had a splash about under the falls and in the pool which was about five foot deep.
The only downside of following the beck down was that we now had to walk back up the road to the car which is parked just to the left of Stoneside Hill which is the hill in the centre of the photo. We decided to cut the corner which was very wet but did gain us quite a bit of Height.
We still had a steep section of road to climb though.
As the Buck Barrow group of fells came in to sight we knew we couldn't be far from the summit of the road and the car.
Previous walk -- Hallthwaites to Ravenglass