Lonewalker on Walking Places

Hard Knott up to Harter Fell

Date: 02-Aug-2010

Map: Landranger 90

Weather: Overcast, but dry.

From the road summit of the Hard Knott Pass up to Harter Fell and back down again, then a short walk up to Hard Knott : only 4.8 miles as measured on memory map.

Another couple of Wainwright's ticked off on a short walk, prior to walking the Langdale Pikes tomorrow. I met Paul in Coniston car park, and waited and waited. He had had a walk up to Holme Fell and Black Fell, and had a slight diversion to what should have been a short walk. So I had a chuckle or two as I swapped cars, baid farewell to Mrs RP until later and then drove off via Little Langdale to get over to Hard Knott.We (and I use the royal we here) parked up at the top of the Wrynose Pass and gazed up to the hills on our right - 'that doesn't look like Hard Knott?' - me - 'thats because it's the Pike of Blisco' - the moral of the story is always believe what the Satmap tells you. We had a laugh when we realised we had another couple of miles along Wrynose Bottom and then up the Hard Knott pass before we reached our destination. The Hard Knott pass is great if you like zooming up a really steep gradient that is peppered with many hairpin bends - ok in the summer but I wouldn't fancy getting stuck up here in the winter. We drove up to the top of the pass and Paul found the perfect parking spot, with Hard Knott on one side and Harter Fell on the other. We did a bit of 'ip, dip, my blue ship' etc and decided that Harter Fell should be first as it has more ascent, therefore it would be easier to nip up to Hard Knott afterwards.

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one of two spaces - good timing, at the right place

pointy Harter Fell

looking back at the route up Harter Fell

one of many shots down over Hard Knott

a zoomed in shot on the Hard Knott fort - I think they threw their rubbish on the Eskdale side

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the Furness Fells

It was mostly overcast, but with bits of blue sky breaking through now and again, also pleasantly warm - no big coats required. It's fairly knobbly up here with plenty of little crags to go up and around or over, with the grass in between fairly moist underfoot - a function of groundwater settling between the knobbly bits. I knew why Wainwright chose this one straightaway as behind us the views over Eskdale to the Scafells were superb. The cloudbase was mercifully above England's highest mountain and as we got higher up the slopes to the summit we had a great panorama of hills to stare at. To the north were the Scafells, Eskdale, Bow Fell and the Crinkle Crags, whilst to the south was the Dunnerdale Fells and Morecambe Bay. To the east lay the Furness Fells of Coniston Old Man, Wetherlam and Grey Friar. To the west the views took in the valleys flowing down to the coast at Ravenglass. Most impressive was the views down over Hard Knott Roman Fort - Mediobogdvm - but there's nothing mediocre or toilet like about this place. It's situated on a spur high above the River Esk with commanding views down to the coast, and we had a birds eye view of the lay out from the summit of Harter Fell. The summit itself has two rocky tops, so we climbed up both to be sure of the high point. After a quick snack, it started to get a bit chilly in the breeze, so we didn't hang about and made our way back down the path in a direct line for the car.

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the view from Harter Fell looking north

Hard Knott fort

the view to the coast beyond Dunnerdale

Paul on the summit of Harter Fell

looking over to Hard Knott, with Eskdale lit up and the Scafells beyond

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the view along Wrynose Bottom from Hard Knott

It didn't take long back down to the car where we dumped our back packs and sauntered up to Hard Knott, a very short diversion away from the road. It's probably one of the easiest ascents to a Wainwright that I've made so far. Just a 20 minute walk up to the top from the car. The views were similar to those from Harter Fell, but obviously that much nearer to the big boys. In the middle of the path on the way up is the most useles stile I've seen for a while - no fence either side - ok for sitting on. The views over to the Old Man of Coniston weren't inspiring - not it's best aspect that's for sure. We didn't hang about as we had the Langdale Pikes to consider for the morning and an early appointment with a pint of Jennings - cheers. We took the short cut back to Langdale via Blea Tarn, and oh what a view - definitely one of my favourites of all time - looking down the length of Mickelden.

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