For this walk we climbed from St Martin's Church in Martindale up onto High Street, travelling south to High Raise, then took in five more Wainwrights in quick succession before descending via Bannerdale back to the church. A good day's walk, which included another chance meeting with someone from the OFC, this time the Hileys with Harry and Bethan.
Here
are the pictures
(click on any picture for
a larger version):
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St
Martin's Church,
Martindale, with High Street up there in front of us. |
| And
this picture shows most of the rest of our route, around the top of
Martindale, with The Nab prominent at the end of the valley. The valley
directly ahead, between The Nab and High Street, is
Rampsgill, whilst the other side of The Nab drops down into Bannerdale,
our eventual descent route. |
 |
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The
path up from Martindale cuts up the flank of Steel Knotts.
This is the view back over Steel Knotts, with Pooley Bridge just
visible at the end of Ullswater. |
| We
are now on High Street, looking north towards Wether Hill, which we visited
a few days ago. |
 |
 |
The
top of High Raise, with High Street (the fell-top) in the distance. |
| Round
to the left you can see the Nan Bield Pass, between Mardale Ill Bell,
on the right, and Harter Fell, which we traversed as part of the Kentmere
Horseshoe walk |
 |
 |
The
walkers are on High Street, about to cut around the top of Rampsgill on
the right. The fell-top, unsurprisingly, is Rampsgill Head,
which is one of our objectives. |
| But
first we cut across the grasslands from High Raise to the top of Kidsty
Pike, overlooking Riggindale. |
 |
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Riggindale,
and Haweswater, from the summit of Kidsty Pike. |
| The
crags on the other side of Riggindale, with Harter Fell behind. |
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We
then walked back to High Street and cut across onto the
top of Rampsgill Head. This is the view over Martindale, with
The Nab protruding in the foreground. Is that Blencathra in
the far distance? |
| Looking
down Rampsgill, with The Nab on the left. |
 |
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Kidsty
Pike jutting out towards Haweswater. This part of the route
also forms part of Day 5 of the Coast-to-Coast walk, which takes you
from Patterdale to Shap (16 miles) via Kidsty Pike. In fact,
Kidsty Pike represents the last serious fell-top on the CtC; from now
on, it's moors and dales. Think I'll stay this side, myself... |
| We
have now turned right across the end of Martindale, and are on the
summit of The Knott, looking north over Rest Dodd and The Nab. |
 |
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Hayeswater
from the top of The Knott. |
| Sophie
posing again, this time on the top of Rest Dodd - which gave us the
only serious climb today, from the depression leading from The Knott. |
 |
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Looking
south from Rest Dodd you see the path cutting up from Hartsop, down on
the right, past The Knott towards High Street in the distance. |
| The
Nab jutting out like the prow of a battleship below Rest
Dodd. But not many battleships have peat hags on their
fore-deck... |
 |
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Down
in the peat, looking back up at Rest Dodd. |
| Here
it was that we met up out of the blue with Ann and Roger Hiley of the OFC,
and Sophie made further happy and boisterous acquaintance with Harry
and Bethan. Small world... |
 |
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After leaving
the Hileys, who were going in the opposite direction, we
decided to track down the western side of The Nab, which is a deer
sanctuary. We saw quite a few red deer - in fact,
you can see two in this picture... We also found a good path going in the right direction, down through the bracken into Bannerdale |
| where
we came upon Bannerdale Beck, a welcome refreshment break for Sophie |
 |
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and we could
look back up at The Nab. |
| Dale Head
Farm, the last habitation on this side of Martindale, and the beginning
of the road back to the car. |
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If
you would like to
sponsor me and the dogs in our quest to walk all the Wainwrights for
the Great North Air Ambulance Service, please click here
- and thank you for your
generosity!