Routes in the Northern Fells–Part 1 of many

In my first post I mentioned that I nearly completed a challenge to run all of the Northern Fells of the Lake District by the end of 2012. The relatively unimposing Meal Fell still eludes me. Here are some brief descriptions of the routes I followed with some helpful tips. For the most part they are around 10km with varying ascent apart from the Old Crown Round which I would highly recommend as a whistle stop tour of the Northern Fells.

Obviously I do not provide any guarantee for the accuracy or current safety of these routes. They are simply a record of my own endeavours and if you decide to adopt them you do so at your own risk.

Brae Fell, Great Sca Fell & Knott

I remember doing this run in the early hours of a morning and watching the sunrise from the summit of Knott. An unforgettable experience.

Statistics

• Distance: 10km
• Ascent: 420m
• Summits: 3
• Difficulty: Medium
• Comments: At risk of sounding like Wainwright, the plateau of Great Sca Fell summit can be confusing if visibility is poor.

Route

• Park at Green Head Farm (NY286370) which is sign posted from the B5299 at the back of the Northern Fells.
• Head SW from the farm ignoring the right fork.
• Just before Charleton Wash (Ford) make a bee-line SE up the grassy slope to Brae Fell summit (NY288351) it gets steeper as you go.
• From Brae Fell you can join one of the numerous paths which skirt around Great Sca Fell towards Knott summit (NY295329) roughly SSE. If you hit the right contour around Great Sca Fell you can avoid unnecessary height gain.
• From your furthest point at Knott you approach Great Sca Fell summit (NY291338) head-on roughly NNW.
• Head N from Great Sca Fell and you can join a motorway of a path. Follow this down with Charleton Gill on your right and Longlands and Lowthwaite on your left.
• When you hit the main track at the N base of Longlands (NY275364) turn right, through the gate and over Charleton Wash (Ford) back to Green Head Farm.

More to come…

Techy Geek Corner

I am still trying to work out a decent way of getting OS Map extracts on here without having to pay large sums of money for Memory Map or the like. If anyone has any ideas, please tweet me @mcinsley83.