3 Wainwrights from the West - Gavel, Blake, Burnbank Fells
Posted: Sun Jun 13, 2021 9:41 pm
Started from Lamplugh as it was a shorter drive for me compared to driving round to Loweswater, plus I didn't fancy my chances of getting parking anywhere popular in the Lake District given it was a weekend and the forecast was good. The forecast was so good I would have fancied doing a longer walk, but I'd picked these 3 as a handy half-day walk to do before meeting up with an old schoolfriend in the afternoon who lived nearby.
The route I ended up doing was :
So got parked easily, opposite the church where there's room for a handful of cars, and went over the stile on the right of way through a field. Thought I'd be able to go straight up the hill facing the village (Owsen Fell). Alas, no ... I've got used to life in Scotland with the freedom to roam, but being back in England reminded me that I can't just see a nice hill and walk up it if the landowner refuses and there's no right of way. Signage made clear that was the case here, so I stayed on the path hoping it would take me round to Cogra Moss reservoir instead. Unfortunately not, and I ended up back on the minor road I'd driven in to Lamplugh on, so had to go along the road past the caravan park instead and head up to Felldyke, where there was a walkers car park. 45 minutes of walking and I was probably just where I should have started from in the first place!
Things got a lot more straightforward after that. From the Lamplugh Felldyke car park, it's an easy walk along a signed track up to Cogra Moss, passing by the foot of Murton Fell / Knock Murton (not a Wainwright but a nice looking hill). At the far end of the reservoir I left the main path and took a path branching off on the right up the hill which eventually reached a forestry track - went across this (just to the right) and over a gate into open grassland, then headed up left alongside the fence to Low Pen, onwards to High Pen , then down a bit to reach the worn path which runs between Gavel Fell and Blake Fell (people doing the walk from the east, the Loweswater / Maggies Bridge side, arrive at this point too) .
I headed right first to do the there and back to Gavel Fell, then returned to the same spot and headed the other way up Blake Fell, the more impressive of today's 3 Wainwrights with it's steep cliffs and scree slopes going down to the west.
Certainly from this side, Burnbank Fell looks fairly non-descript and is a surprise to rank as a Wainwright ...but it's little extra effort to tag that on to the walk, though Carling Knott off to the right looks more interesting. From there, continuing west to descend over Owsen Fell would have been nice, but as that would be going down the fell of "No access to open fell" signage, I made do with heading south west down Burnbank Fell's slopes, crossing the fence at the bottom by a gate, and joining the track taking me back to the initial right of way and the parking spot by the church (turns out this track wasn't a right of way, but there were no "No entry" signs coming from the fell!).
The route I ended up doing was :
So got parked easily, opposite the church where there's room for a handful of cars, and went over the stile on the right of way through a field. Thought I'd be able to go straight up the hill facing the village (Owsen Fell). Alas, no ... I've got used to life in Scotland with the freedom to roam, but being back in England reminded me that I can't just see a nice hill and walk up it if the landowner refuses and there's no right of way. Signage made clear that was the case here, so I stayed on the path hoping it would take me round to Cogra Moss reservoir instead. Unfortunately not, and I ended up back on the minor road I'd driven in to Lamplugh on, so had to go along the road past the caravan park instead and head up to Felldyke, where there was a walkers car park. 45 minutes of walking and I was probably just where I should have started from in the first place!
Things got a lot more straightforward after that. From the Lamplugh Felldyke car park, it's an easy walk along a signed track up to Cogra Moss, passing by the foot of Murton Fell / Knock Murton (not a Wainwright but a nice looking hill). At the far end of the reservoir I left the main path and took a path branching off on the right up the hill which eventually reached a forestry track - went across this (just to the right) and over a gate into open grassland, then headed up left alongside the fence to Low Pen, onwards to High Pen , then down a bit to reach the worn path which runs between Gavel Fell and Blake Fell (people doing the walk from the east, the Loweswater / Maggies Bridge side, arrive at this point too) .
I headed right first to do the there and back to Gavel Fell, then returned to the same spot and headed the other way up Blake Fell, the more impressive of today's 3 Wainwrights with it's steep cliffs and scree slopes going down to the west.
Certainly from this side, Burnbank Fell looks fairly non-descript and is a surprise to rank as a Wainwright ...but it's little extra effort to tag that on to the walk, though Carling Knott off to the right looks more interesting. From there, continuing west to descend over Owsen Fell would have been nice, but as that would be going down the fell of "No access to open fell" signage, I made do with heading south west down Burnbank Fell's slopes, crossing the fence at the bottom by a gate, and joining the track taking me back to the initial right of way and the parking spot by the church (turns out this track wasn't a right of way, but there were no "No entry" signs coming from the fell!).