Stay at home

[poppiesrara]

Long overdue after two months not leaving my own (pretty rural) county, the first mountains of the year and a few more steps towards a long and slow Hewitts completion – picking a break in an area which seemed reasonably safe from any prospect of a crowded path.

chapelfell.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts

Chapelfell Top is an outlier among most North Pennines climbs – a plausible circular rather than an out/back slog, and a start in a pretty valley with some fine trees instead of a remote moor. Strike uphill from Swinhopehead towards a big sheepfold and then a ruined hut (grandly 'Cockran's Cabin') on the horizon over decent grass and most of the ascent of this route is done in half an hour. The summit ridge itself is flat, wet and featureless, with a few cairns to pick the summit from.

Westernhope Moor over Swinhopehead

Fendrith Hill ski slopes

Westernhope Moor

Cockran's Cabin

North over Weardale from Chapelfell Top

A dry ditch and then a well-enough trodden fenceside path head fairly pleasantly over Fendrith Hill and the ski station back down to the road summit at 609m.

Chapelfell Top, back along the ditch

Mickle Fell & Meldon Hill from Fendrith Hill

Following the fence down to Westernhope Moor

Swinhope ski tows

The rest of the route to the next tick on Westernhope Moor is far more typically tough NP going, unmistakable along the fence but flat, marshy, and very long. Another walker seen (and safely distanced) though! - one of only two all weekend...

Fendrith Hill & Chapelfell Top

North from Westernhope Moor 'curricks'

Westernhope Moor summit

Claypit Burn

Swinhope Plantation

Time left on a decent afternoon to fit in another hill.

dead_st.gpx Open full screen  NB: Walkhighlands is not responsible for the accuracy of gpx files in users posts

While signed only as a bridleway, the road up from Ashgill to Priorsdale and the 'foot' of Dead Stones is fine for a car and doesn't leave too much work – a loose following up of Hunter's Cleugh and then a beeline for a small but navigationally-helpful 'mushroom hag' on the skyline gets you within sight and range of the tall summit cairn and a painless-enough uphill walk.

Helpful mushroom

Dead Stones summit...

...and the hazy view north

[johnkaysleftleg]

These are the closest 2,000ft tops to me and yet I've never got around to climbing them Chapelfell Top and Fendrith hill look quite nice in all honesty.

[poppiesrara]

Hi JK - I'm not going to honestly say that you shouldn't continue to travel a little further to the Dales or Lakes for a good day out! But save this for a nice day (and dryish underfoot) and it'd be a decent enough little circuit. One of the nicer corners of the North Pennines high ground.

The thing is, the more of these you climb, the more you feel you need to climb the rest of them...

[johnkaysleftleg]

The thing is, the more of these you climb, the more you feel you need to climb the rest of them...

I think you've hit the nail on the head

[trailmasher]

Nice one Poppy and a bit of a different day to when E and I went up there a few years ago when the ditch was sodden and greasy It was also very windy and we had to miss out Westernhope Moor for a better day. A good walk with some fine photos