29 April 2018
Haycock from Ennerdale
Filed under Ennerdale, Great Borne, Haycock, Starling Dodd, Western Fells · Tagged Western Fells
Height: 2615 feet
Bible Position: Copeland Forest
Conditions: Mostly fine, misty at the top, warm and sunny descent
Viewranger Stats:
Haycock from Ennerdale on Viewranger
Position: 8th highest in Western Fells
Other Wainwrights on this walk:
With only 6 tops left to do the plan is to do one a month until September so we get them finished this year. All the walks left are in or around Wasdale, so we were planning on Haycock today. As I have done for the last few walks I planned a route using Viewranger so I could download to my phone. There was a route from Ennerdale which looked about the same distance but it would be a shorter drive. Peter was driving so he picked me up just before 6 am and we headed for Ennerdale. Whilst we have been travelling to the Lakes for many years, Ennerdale was not a Lake we had spent much time at. We arrived at a car park at Bowness Knott around 8.15 am had our Scotch Eggs and started walking.
Start of the walk
Early morning Ennerdale
The first two miles were walking alongside the lake until we turned right, crossed over a little bridge, up a lane and into a wood.
The first part of the walk was walking alongside Ennerdale Water
Crossing the bridge over the River Liza
Looking the other way from the bridge with our destination in the distance
The path into the woods, with our destination just coming into view
We walked through the wood and began to climb gradually by Silvercove Beck.
Walking through the woods towards Silvercove Beck
We crossed the beck and continued walking. A little further up the stream we crossed it again. At this point I realised we were drifting away from the path I had plotted. It turns out if you have your iPhone upside down, when you think you are going left, you are actually going right. Who knew? Clearly not me, so we crossed the stream yet again and began climbing a steep stretch to get back on the path.
Crossing Silvercove Beck for the first time
….and for the second and third time!
The terrain was tough under foot, bracken and heather but at the 3 mile point we were back on track. Although we had probably wasted 45 minutes!
Looking back to Great Borne and Starling Dodd
Looking back down the valley we could see previous walks Great Borne and Starling Dodd. We were now walking along a shoulder for about a mile towards Silver Cove and Little Gowder Crag. It was time for a bait stop and to put on another layer as it started to hail stone.
View of Haycock, flanked by Scoat Fell on the left of picture and Little Gowder Crag on the right
It was not particularly cold, just nice to walk in, neither was it too wet with the hail, just enough to keep us cool.
Great Borne (in cloud) and Starling Dodd from a little higher
Now there was a new dimension to this challenging walk as we began scrambling over rocks on the way to Little Gowder Crag. Then the final push to the summit was clambering over small rocks all the way to the top.
Approaching the summit, just appearing over the top of the rock in the middle of the picture
Looking back to Little Gowder Crag as the mist clears
Haycock summit
All we had to do now was follow the fence for about 300 metres to the summit. There was a shelter at the summit and the summit cairn just over the wall.
Haycock summit, number 66
From the summit we could see down the other side into Wasdale and also another top left to do, Scoat Fell. Would we be able to get Scoat Fell done today as well?
The descent
We had to descend to a col between Haycock and Scoat Fell around 300 feet. It had been a long, difficult walk so far and the additional ascent and descent from Scoat Fell were just too much. It would have to wait for another day.
Looking across to Scoat Fell and Steeple, a little too far for today
All that was left was a little 4 mile walk back to the car heading in the direction of Tewit How. It was now warming up again and clearing so time to take some layers off again.
View of Ennerdale water on the descent
From Tewit How the descent was quite steep over rocky ground, always a favourite of mine after a long, hard walk!
Two of the tops still left to do. Pillar in the far distance on the left and Scoat Fell just to the right of the pointy Steeple. Haycock on the right
After we finally got back through the woods on the descent we just had the two mile walk along Ennerdale Water back to the car. A long walk over 9 miles and over 8 hours. Happily, only 5 walks left to do, but a wake up call after today that there is still some hard work to do.
Haycock from Ennerdale on Viewranger
See you on the next one sometime in May.