Peak & Lake District Sojourn. Day 19.

Ennerdale Round: Six Nuttalls - Great Borne 616m, Starling Dodd 633m, Red Pike 755m, Dodd 641m, High Stile 807m and High Crag 744m.

Summary

Well this was a picture postcard high ridge day doing another high loop above Ennerdale lake but this time with great views. A super super ridge walk but with a long ten kilometre last leg through forests and along Ennerdale lake. Took in a total of twelve listed peaks all together as well inclusive of the six Nuttalls which were a joy to do. Fantastic views down onto Ennerdale lake on one side and Buttermere and Crummock water on the other. The views were superlative even if the going was hard work. Busy little ridge too, especially when you 450 fell runners on it competing in the English fell running championship.

Parking was at the start point. A big free car park with no height restrictions but it gets very busy. From here walk North a little bit and cross the fence onto a path that takes you up behind Bowness Knott where there is a style that goes over the obvious fence. The path takes you to the small cairn at the summit. Retrace your steps and go straight up Brown How hill (If you want to do these little hills that is?). From there drop steeply down to Rake Beck and follow a distinct path that goes up its side. This path is very steep too with a bit of hands on scrambling in places (steepest ascent of the day). As you come over the lip of the beck at the top I went over the short distance West to take in Herdus and then came back to the Beck.

From here you start to tick off the big ones on an undulating hiking fest of joy but I will keep it short and sweet. First is the trig pointed summit of Great Borne, then the cairned summits of Starling Dodd and then onwards to Red Pike. All straightforward enough but with pretty stiff climbs. At Red Pike you drop down very steeply for a couple of hundred meters on loose rocks and shale to take in Dodd and then simply come back to Red Pike. A bit of a slog but well worth it as you have great views of Crummock Water and Buttermere from there. From Red Pike you move along, down and onwards to the steep climb up High Stile and the same goes for High Crag. Finally there is the steep decent down and up to the last Peakbagger listed top of the Seat. Now all of these tops have literally a pretty steep decent and stiff climb but all on good footpaths though very rocky at many points. One thing they all have in common though is a great view.

After the Seat you drop down to the Scarth Gap where you hang a right or South and follow the path downhill until it comes out at a forestry road. Here you have a long last ten kilometre leg of forestry tracks and riverside paths all the way back to the start point. It is all pretty obvious stuff but you might ask why not follow the trail North of the river as it is a tad shorter? Well at one juncture there were no entry forestry signs on a bridge. Anyway, after that last ten k’s I was glad to get back to the van, a nice sight after a great but very hard day in the hills.

Parking: Large free car park at the start.

Route: Good footpaths for 90% of the ridge walk, rocky in places with quite a few steep climbs and steep decent. One section of loose rocks and scree. A last ten km section of mainly forestry tracks and some riverside trails 80/20 split.

Route Statistics: A great 25km day with 1,300 of ascent done in an all in time of 8 hours.