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Date & start time: Easter Sunday 12th April 2009.10.45 am start.

Location of Start : Peter House Farm near Bassenthwaite Village, Cumbria, Uk ( NY 249 323 )

Places visited : Dash Falls, Little Calva, Great Calva, Knott, Great Sca Fell, Meal Fell, Burntod Gill, Dash Farm, Dash Falls again, and back out on the Cumbrian Way to Peter House Farm.

Walk details : 10.25 ml, 2550 ft of ascent, 7 hours 15 mins. (Click here for tracklog)

Highest point : Knott 2,329ft ( 710m)

Walked with : Ian and Megan, Simon and Beth, John, Ann and the dogs, Polly, Harry and Bethan.

Weather : Blue skies again for the Easter Holidays . . . Welcome to Cumbria !

Turn right and follow the bridleway to Dash Falls

 

To escape from the crowds today we headed north of Skiddaw.

These are wide open grassy fells with extensive walking and are a delight on a beautiful Easter Sunday day like today.

Will we meet anyone in this quiet area, that is the question ?

The road to Dash Falls starts at Peter House Farm and twists and turns through the open fields towards the fells.

Simon is out front with Ann, Ian and his daughter Megan are next, John in the one in the sun hat, Beth (Simon's daughter) and I bring up the rear.

Binsey behind us with the Solway coast coming into view as we climb gradually.

Ahead, the turn onto the bridleway to Dash Falls and Skiddaw House, the remote hostel now open again for business.

Dash Farm and through the gap, Meal Fell.

Both will be visited on the return leg of our walk.

That looks like Bob Ashton up ahead !!!  . . . . .   :o)

One or two people are about today as this route is a great alternative if you chose to climb Skiddaw from the north.

One or two early starters are on the way down. It looks like someone ahead too !

[ Hold your cursor over the photo to see who we meet. ]

It's a little hazy but there's Scotland in the distance behind Binsey.

Our route has been following the track to the left under the morbidly named Dead Crags.

At the top of the short climb, Megan and Ian take a beak to admire the falls.

   
Harry living on the edge.
Relaxing sunshine and the soothing sound of water.

Time to be moving on . . .

John waits at the stream crossing so the dogs can stop for a drink before the next climb.

A drink we said . . . not a bath !

This next bit is rather steep to say the least.
Tricks like this are safer with a safety net.
   
Did I tell you the heather is quite tall . . .
. . . but the view of the Skiddaw track is improving all the time.

As the path levels out there's scope for a horizontal photo of Skiddaw rather than a vertical one.

The footpath opposite leads up to Bakestall, Broad End, Skiddaw and Skiddaw Little Man in the distance.

Zoomed in further to the left are the crags of Lonscale and the summit of Helvellyn.

John contemplates the pool as we make our way over to the first summit.

Beth and Megan claim Little Calva.

It's a nice spot for more chat . . .
. . . but I hang back in order to get the summit to myself.

The World as seen from the summit of Little Calva.

Click here or on the photo above for a 380 degree annotated panorama.

 

Reaching the fence on the ridge John firstly, then ourselves are recognised !

Tony and Martin, currently living down near London are up in the Lakes for their holidays. They turn out to be keen Loweswatercam viewers.

We stop for a chat and a photo. Harry seems to be on the wrong side of the fence for some reason.

Skiddaw across another peat land pool

The same view but now from the top of Great Calva.

The partial cloud cover is forming fast moving shadows over the surrounding fells.

One covers us as we look down into St John's in the Vale and Thirlmere.

The summit shelter looks out onto the back of Blencathra but there's no stile and so it is not readily accessible for lunch.

Further round, the sunshine and shadows cross Knott, our next top of the day.

Firstly though it's time to eat . . . John wonders off to find a dip for lunch.

Personally I've brought sandwiches !

Retracing our steps slightly after lunch, we make our way back along the fence then head north (right) for Knott.

New growth and bright yellow grassland flowers.
It's a great day for conversation.

Down the dip, this was our view back to Great Calva and Blencathra

Simon catching the view down towards Bassenthwaite Lake.

Arriving at the broad top of Knott Fell.

We seem to have another dog but it belongs to an acquaintance, Rosemary, who wet met at the summit.

Beth claims the second major summit of the day.

Megan and Beth deep in conversation.

Easy walking now, down towards the seemingly highest fell of them all . . .

Across the damp and peaty moorland . . .

To Great Sca Fell summit . . .

and time for a very slight seasonal refreshment break.

Happy Easter . . . are those for me ?

It's more or less downhill all the way now as we contemplate the view over Meal Fell and Burntod Gill.

Meal Fell, one of the more stoney of the tops around here has enough spare to make a good cairn.

The memorable feature of this fell, though not at it's summit, is the stone shelter across the way . . .

. . . from where we can look back at the two Sca Fells

and Knott which we climbed earlier.

Over Water and Binsey as we descend to Trusmadoor.

Trusmadoor is an old dry valley with rather pronounced crags. It's origins are lost in the mists of time.

It could have been a glacial overflow channel or more likely just an abandoned river outlet, dry since the Burntod Gill chose a more direct route south.

South it is for us too, as we follow the stream down.

Winter erosion hasn't made the path any easier.

A few small stream crossings make life simpler.

. . . and cooler.

John exiting the narrow valley.

We now headed for Dash Farm and the road directly ahead of it, hopefully a simple route back to the car.

Simple but for the apparent attitude of the local land owner.

No entry to this gate is fair enough as it would be intrusive, but the previous fell gate also had the same signs.

Looking back to an earlier photo . . .

We walked down the valley to the left corner of the photo, found the gates closed to walkers, so had traverse all the way to the right back to Dash Falls following the Open Access land boundary.

It would be no trouble to the farmer to allow a permissive path, 100 yards or less across the open field to the left, in order to access to the adjacent farm road

. . . or is that too much to ask ?

Still it's a nice day and the sun is shining . . . but it's rough going, it's been a long day, and it's an extra mile or more we didn't need.

Ford the stream or walk the plank . . . Ian makes his choice.

Ever the gentleman . . . making sure Beth is okay.

We've been here before today except that we were walking in the other direction.

Journey's end . . . and time for John to take his socks off . . . No really he's a nice guy !

- - - o o o - - -

 

Technical note: Pictures taken with with my Cannon G7 or Ann's Ixus 75 Digital camera.

Resized in Photoshop, and built up on a Dreamweaver web builder.

This site best viewed with . . . portable Easter eggs for the fells.

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Previous walk - 7th April 2009 Low Ling Crag on a windy afternoon

A previous time up here - 7th April 2008 Back O' Skiddaw with the Hush Puppies