Tilberthwaite Fells

'An early summer ramble'

Date: 26 May 2012                                          Start time: 10:06

Start point: Tilberthwaite Car Park - NY305011

Walkers: Mark Illingworth, Emma Lever

Distance: 9.66miles                                        Time: 7:55:49

Route: From car park, follow road N for a short distance to group of houses and follow public footpath around back of these, turning L where track splits. Turn R before small stream and follow path up to wall stile and cross stile. Follow path N/NW, keeping wall on L, down to Greenburn Beck. Cross stream using small wooden bridge. Follow path which arches W up grassy shoulder to Wet Side Edge. Follow ridge line with steep drops to your L, heading S over Great Carrs, around Top of Broad Slack, stopping off at the Halifax Bomber memorial before short walk E to Swirl How. Scramble down the Prison Band to large cairn at Swirl Hause, then take clear path ENE to summit of Wetherlam. Follow faint steep path NE down Wetherlam Edge until ground flattens at Birk Fell Hawse and take path E. Between cairns on slight raise, take path which drops S (faint dotted path on OS Map). Path reaches small ruins in large meadow. Path curves round to S with meadow on your R. Follow path ahead, with Tilberthwaite Gill dropping steeply on your R. You reach a gate, which takes you through to the path behind the houses form the start of the walk. From here, retrace route from earlier along road short way to car park.

Weather: Warm, sunny and windy. Very hot when out of the wind, very strong winds at the top of the ridge. Wind was from SE, but always found a way either form the S or the E to get to you on the route. The sky was cloudless and visibility was excellent - from the Northern Fells, to the Isle of Man, across Morecambe Bay and to Ingleborough in the Yorkshire Dales.

Notes: Although already discussed above, the first thing to note is the quality of the visibility and wide-ranging views. It felt like you could see the whole Lakeland, with views of almost all the major ranges and iconic fells. I enjoyed simply looking around most of all. The first views over the west of Little Langdale valley the Blea Tarn with the Langdale Pikes beyond were brilliant. As was looking between Crinkle Crags and Pike of Blisco toward Bow Fell. To top this off were views of Skiddaw and Blencathra poking through to the north and long range views of Isle of Man and Ingleborough. Heysham Power station was one negative about the views, and Blackpool Tower couldn't be made out on the extreme southern horizon unfortunately.

Greenburn Beck was a real treat for our feet, even though it cam less than two miles in to our walk. The water was clear and mild, reflecting the high temperatures. Plenty of factor 30 was used. The break really refreshed us for the long slow climb up to Great Carrs. On the hill top, I would comment on the number of false summits to our first Wainwright. All are named on the map and to be expected, but Emma wasn't reading the map and found these very frustrating. The tops were rocky enough to find some cover from the very strong winds.

The wind did help blow us towards the Halifax Bomber memorial, which we might have missed on other days. This is where a plane on training exercise crashed in 1944 - a reminder of the danger the beautiful Lakeland can bring. Combine this with views of Coniston Water, synonymous with the ill-fated Bluebird, and the lady we saw who opened her chin falling on the Prison Band, and the variety of dangers is even more apparent.

Summiting Swirl How felt like a personal achievement, if only because of a few previous attempts were foiled by either waning energy, adverse weather, or less willing companions. The summit cairn is notable, a kind of pepper pot like construction. It's large and well sited almost directly central to the sweeping ridge overlooking Greenburn Beck. It looks to have been developed since the sketches of A. Wainwright.

The descents of both Prison Band and Wetherlam Edge were enjoyable and scrambly at times, particularly Wetherlam Edge which seemed to take an age for us but barely any time for the group who left the summit just in front. I'm no climber or mountaineer, but I do enjoy the feel of hands on rock, only at a sensible pace and where ropes and technical equipment isn't needed.

From Dry Cove Bottom (an ironic name for such a boggy meadow type area) Wetherlam does look an impressive hump of rock, but by the quietness of this path I'm guessing not a lot of people see it in this perspective. This is a shame because they miss some interesting disused mining and quarry sites and some well guarded deep in roads into the rock, which appear to have served this industrial purpose, albeit on a smaller scale than you see in other parts of the Lakes. They would also miss the picturesque (and almost tropical-like on a day like this) Tilberthwaite Gill and the waterfall it houses. I couldn't see any obvious way up to the perfect pools which eventually run out over the slate remnants of quarries of yesteryear that line and surround Yewdale Beck.