Rambling Pete on Walking Places

Place Fell revisited

Date: 12-Oct-2012

Map: Landranger 90

Weather: Overcast, with a little sun late on.

From the school near Patterdale, along to Rooking and up the path to Boredale Hause. Turn to the higher path to the summit of Place Fell. Walk down to the NE and up to High Dodd, drop down the slopes, and returning via the shore path alongside Ullswater : 7.5 miles as measured on Satmap GPS

Continuing on with my pursuit of clear summits for my web walks, I picked out Place Fell for a visit. The last time I was up here it was minus 15 degrees, knee deep in soft snow and breezy enough on the summit for us to loose height as fast as we could - it was a tad chilly
I drove up the night before and had a very enjoyable evening that also involved Wainwrights - the beer not the book, and after a good breakfast we were ready for the off. The car parking at Patterdale is limited unless you want to pay for it, so we drove to just beyond the school and parked by the council building. It's ok here as long as you don't park in front of the farmers gate. After we had finished the walk an angry looking young farmer jumped out of his tractor and proceeded to tow away a carelessly parked car. I thought he was quite restrained actually, so obviously he was used to it. If it was me I'd have been a little more careless in moving the offending vehicle - oops just a slight bump here and there. The weather to start the day wasn't great, a little bit moist, but passable and we could see the top of Place Fell. Last night it threw it down, thumping down on the roof, so anything today was already better and the BBC forecast was pretty much spot on, as it cleared as the walk progressed, leaving us to finish in sunshine. The Autumnal colours are not quite at the peak yet, and I expect a couple of weeks time there will be glorious fells in the sunshine, crisp frosts and maybe an inversion or two - I can always hope.

We set off along the road passing the Patterdale Hotel and the White Lion before crossing the bridge at Goldrill Beck, and along the track leading up to Rooking. The coast to coast path passes here and took us up to Boredale Hause, with me stopping frequently for photo stops over to Helvellyn and chums. It's a fine view from the path up to the hause with plenty to stand and stare at, a real pleasure to have a view. Over to Helvellyn the cloudbase was gradually rising higher and patches of blue were showing through, but the wind was quite blustery and I was glad to be wearing my Paramo Central Heating smock - a bit sweaty at times but wonderful when it's cold. Up at Boredale Hause it's a right turn up to Angletarn Pikes for the coast to coasters or a left for Place Fell. A stone cairn marks the way to a well laid path that wanders up the southern end of Place Fell to Round How, also marked with a cairn. On the way up there the views over to the south east are wonderful, with the ridges of Beda Fell, The Nab and High Street all laid out before us, with the steep peak of The Knott peeking over the top. Like all Wainwrights the views can be breathtaking in the right weather conditions, and you can stand and stare for a long time in all directions. From Round How it's a fairly flat walk across to the summit of Place Fell that is marked with a trig point that gives 360deg views. By now the weather was improving to the west, but was still a little grey and windy on the top. We headed north west down over Hart Crag and on towards the sheepfold at Low Moss, and what a slippery path it is - down went Dibble, slithering on her bum - I didn't laugh though, but I think Lexi the collie gave a Mutley the dog type of snigger. It is a little treacherous though and I very nearly went A over T, but saved that for later on. Down at the sheepfold we decided to go a little off piste and sent off up a well defined sheeptrod towards High Dodd, a nice grassy slope up to thye top and the reward is a fine view down over Ulswater, where the steamers were plying their trade up and down the lake. The sun was coming out now and the braken took on a reddish hue - great if you can catch a sunset or sunrise. We could see a good path down below us so we carefully descended the slopes until we were back on track, and walking down a beautiful grassy slope to intersect the path from Sandwick. From here it's a little gentle roller coaster of a path that undulates with the fellside above the lake. It's densely wooded along here with thick stands of Silver Birch, and higher up the slopes thick Juniper bushes that are an ideal refuge for any camera shy deer roaming the slopes. A couple told us they had heard the herd, but couldn't see them, so every bush we saw on the skyline resembled a deer - sneaky bushes. A couple of miles along we walked around to Silver Point above Silver Bay which was a fine place to sit in the sun for some refreshments - I imagine it's pretty busy here at weekends, as the path is a popular wander from Glenridding.

From Silver Point we headed south beneath towering crags above us, passing by a fine campsite (nobody camping though) and on to Side Farm where we exited the fellside and walked back to the cars at Patterdale. A cracking little walk of 7.5 miles with 2500ft of fairly easy going ascent.