This was a "clean-up" exercise, to climb two Wainwrights which reside on the end of the Buttermere range to the west of Red Pike, and which we had cravenly omitted from our tour of Buttermere some weeks earlier. Although we could have tackled them from Buttermere, that would have implied crossing one of the boggier Mosedales, and both AW and Bill Birkett recommend an approach from Ennerdale, which seemed a good idea, since we hadn't been in Ennerdale all summer.
Here
are the pictures
(click on any picture for
a larger version):
|
We parked under
Bowness Knott half-way along Ennerdale Water, and walked back to climb
up around the forest under Herdus, the fell in this picture. |
| Having climbed to
the level of Bowness Knott, which is out of sight on the right, we
could see most of the high fells on the other side of Ennerdale,
notably Pillar, with Pillar Rock in profile. |
 |
 |
The
eastern end of Ennerdale Water (and lots of trees, of course) |
| You
will not have seen this view before, I am sure, since nobody to date
would have been foolish enough to choose this route up Great Borne
(which is on the left). We should have gone straight up Herdus,
and then across to Great Borne, but I thought I would try a
short-cut! Underfoot the conditions changed from bracken ( I can
do bracken now) to a mixture of boulders, heather and bilberry bushes,
all on an increasingly steep slope. The larger boulders were
almost too much for Sophie, and we had to find a route suitable for
both her and me, which was not easy. But isn't the heather
pretty...? |
 |
 |
Some
considerable time later, we arrived at the summit of Great Borne.
Sophie was a little tired at this point, as was I. The best way
of making the ascent, for me, had been to pull myself up by the heather
and bilberry bushes at chest level in front of me. Sophie is not
too good at pulling herself up anything, and she had to JUMP up and
over the plants, for many minutes on end. And she was still
wagging her tail at the end of it... |
| The
view south-east from Great Borne, with Starling Dodd in front of Red
Pike (the pointed fell-top) and High Stile. |
 |
 |
Closer
up. |
| The
metal cairn on top of Starling Dodd. Makes rather a nice change,
I think... |
 |
 |
Lokking back
down on Ennerdale Water from the top of Starling Dodd. |
| Mellbreak,
Crummock Water and Grasmoor. |
 |
 |
Looking back
up at Red Pike, as we were dropping sharply down to Ennerdale off
Starling Dodd. |
| The view from
the forest path at Gillerthwaite, looking up at Starling Dodd.
Lots of bracken, but in fact the path was wide and clear enough for it
not to be a problem. You can (?) see that the forest is now not
entirely evergreen fir trees, thank goodness; we saw quite a variety of
deciduous trees, including a surprising number of silver birches (what
are they used for?). Incidentally, I was recently being
rude about fir-trees to a family friend and she was horrified!
She is German, and delighted in gloomy forests (and also thoroughly
disliked all these bare fell-tops she was being subjected to).
Takes all sorts... |
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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!