An aborted attempt at fell walking

I haven’t posted for a while as we’ve enjoyed a whole week’s holiday in the Lake District at half term and the rest of February has simply run away from me. But our holiday has spawned some fantastic outdoor activities and memories for me to share here now.

The weather was the best we’d had all winter with brilliant blue skies, cold and frosty nights but sunny days. Perfect.

We stayed about 10 miles outside Keswick in a holiday village called Whitbarrow which is remote and quiet but wonderfully so. The village is surrounded only by fields and views of Blencathra, one of the high peaks of the Northern Lakes, and at half term, it was still sparkling with snow at the top. We packed all our waterproof outdoor clothes, as well as plenty of thermal socks, boots, wellies, and hats as we were determined to get to the top of another, fell this year.

Our first attempt was an intention to climb a relatively easy fell called Castle Crag at the southern end of Derwentwater in Borrowdale. However, our little trek didn’t go quite as planned on the day.

Fell walking up Castle Cragg - walking poles are essential

Castle Crag is mentioned in Wainwright’s books as maybe too low to qualify as a fell but worth the walk for the beautiful views. We had Alfred Wainwright’s book with us, but even so we managed to get lost following his instructions. Taking a wrong right turn we managed to head up an extremely steep fell (called Nitting Haws, we discovered afterward).

Our suspicions were aroused when we realised there weren’t any other walkers going our way! And as Castle Crag is a well-worn route for families we decided we’d missed our turning. By this time it was lunchtime anyway so we sat on some flat rocks next to a lovely waterfall before heading a bit further up the fell to catch the view of the lake from the corner. The climb was pretty steep in places and we had to scramble sideways over loose shale and retreat our steps carefully to descend again.

Fell walking offers glimpses of beautiful countryside details

It was worth getting lost on the fells though as the views were stunning. Not so sure I’d recommend it with a child though we were well prepared with maps, charged mobile phones, proper walking weather-proof clothes, and food. There had already been reports of walkers being airlifted off some of the higher fells so when we returned to Keswick I bought a book on walking in the Low Fells for later in our week. More on that later…