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Lake District: Red Screes and Hart Crag round from Hartsop

Lake District: Red Screes and Hart Crag round from Hartsop


Postby jonathan - norfolk » Mon May 03, 2021 8:14 pm

Wainwrights included on this walk: Dove Crag, Hart Crag, Hartsop above How, High Hartsop Dodd, Little Hart Crag, Middle Dodd, Red Screes

Hewitts included on this walk: Dove Crag, Hart Crag, Little Hart Crag, Red Screes

Date walked: 25/04/2021

Time taken: 8

Distance: 19.5 km

Ascent: 1275m

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This turned out to be an excellent day's walk, albeit with a slightly brutal start straight up the hillside through the woods. The path is marked on the 1:25000 OS map and is very easy to find on the ground. The woods were a delight, no people, lots of birdsong.

Once above the treeline the views were extensive across the valley and onwards along the ridge.
web 01 Hartsop Valley from Hartsop Above Howe.jpg
View across the Hartsop Valley from the Hartsop above How ridge

The obvious onward route from Hartsop Above How (an indistinct high point along the ridge - you could hardly call it a "summit") lis up to the summit of Hart Crag (large cairn) and onwards round to Dove Crag and Red Screes, descending down over Middle Dodd, however, given that the weather was good, and that I'd previously overlooked High Hartsop Dodd, I made the excursion out to its viewpoint at the end of the ridge via the much more worthwhile Little Hart Crag. High Hartsop Dodd is marked by a small cairn from which there good views down towards Ullswater. It's not a "summit" in my estimation, and scarcely worth the (significant effort required to return to the ridge,) but as a means of ascent/decent from either Hart Crag or Red Screes it would make for a good, shorter round.
Red Screes, by contrast, feels like a real Lakeland summit.
web 02 Red Screes.jpg
Red Screes summit cairn

Descent from Red Screes over Middle Dodd feels like a very logical continuation, and its cairn gives a fine retrospective of the route.
web 03 Middle Dodd and Red Screes.jpg
Retrospective from Middle Dodd to Red Screes

Once off the ridge, the Hartsop Valley and the walk alongside Brothers Water provides a very pleasant finish to the day.
web 04 Hartsop Valley.jpg
The Hartsop Valley

It's a good walk, but the amount of ascent and descent make it quite a strenuous day.
Length: 10.8<11.6 miles 17.4<19.5 km Ascent: +1275m c. 4,000' Naismith: 5h 45m
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jonathan - norfolk
Mountain Walker
 
Posts: 342
Munros:100   Corbetts:15
Fionas:11   Donalds:22
Hewitts:242
Wainwrights:214   Islands:3
Joined: Aug 3, 2013

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