A slightly bigger horseshoe around Hart Fell

[Zathras]

Solo walk on a warm Thursday in May. For the record I am almost 60 and only reasonably hill fit so a slow walker.
Decided not to start from the point detailed in the main route but from the foot of the Spoon Burn on the A708. There is a much bigger layby here to park in which was critical given the number of forestry trucks going up and down the road.

Layby at the start of the walk. Bottom of Spoon Burn

Left the car at 10:20. From the layby there is actually a wee sign pointing up the hill and a stile. Immediately on the other side of the fence by the stream there is a memorial to 2 shepherds who used to work the hills in this area.

Shepherds' Memorial

I left the memorial by crossing the stream and then the fence on the east side with the aim of heading straight up the hill with the Spoon Burn on my left and the new planted wood on my right. Was very grateful for the gaiters as although it was a nice day, the ground was rather wet from early morning fog. The straight up was a bit of a slog for the first few hundred meters as there is no path and it is all hillocks, bracken, bogs and steep, though there are nice view of the Spoon Burn.

Right side of Spoon Burn. Slog straight up the hill.

Waterfall in the Spoon Burn

But then you spot an overgrown quad bike track which zigzags its way up the hill through the wood making it much easier. (On more detailed maps you can see the start of the quad bike track which is a about 200-300m further along the A708)
Once clear of the steep section I then followed the fence (bit of a theme here) up to the top of Peat Hill (arrived 11:25). I chose the left side of the fence and to start with there was again little in the way of a path until near the top when I picked up a quad bike track again.

Top of the Spoon Burn looking along the fence to Peat Hill

From Peat Hill, it was more fence tracking, heading along the saddle to Saddle Yoke. The ground was rather boggy in the flat bits which was as surprise as there had not been much rain in the days leading up this walk. Would hate to think what it would be like after a lot of wet weather.

View from Peat Hill looking towards Saddle Yoke

I chose to go for the hard way and went straight up the side to the Saddle Yoke. Hard work with quite a few rests. There is an easier way to do it by turning left just after you start the really steep bit. You can see a path which traverses around the steep section to join the "normal" path up the hill. Arrived at 12:10. Great views of the craigs which make up the horseshoe route from here.

From Saddle Yoke looking towards the Swatte Fell craigs

From the Saddle it was down and up the next top and then I followed the main path for the Horseshoe round towards the Redgrid Craig. This is one of the few sections when I was not following the line of a fence. But I wanted to take a slightly wider route so nearing the Craig I took off to the north-east, cross country heading across the saddle roughly towards Raven Craig. There was an obvious intersection of fences marking the district border to head for and then I headed up alongside the fence to the height marked as 709 on the map. Lunch

From Rotten Bottom looking down at saddle and up to Hartfell Rig

Sharp left here to continue following the border fence. A very wet peaty and boggy saddle as I then started the slow slog up Hartfell Rig and then around to Hart Fell itself.

On Heartfell Rig looking down the glen and craigs

Hart Fell trig point

Arrived at 14:20. Another bite to eat and more following the rather new fence along the tops of the craigs past Swatte Fell. Finally met up with the famed wild goats which inhabit this area.

Wild goats

Once past the Nether Coomb Craig, the descent proper begins.

Panorama looking up the glen from top of Nether Coomb Craig

Here you lose the fence but initially the path is obvious. I followed it down to the Hang Gill. The section just before getting there was awful - absolutely saturated with water. I took to going cross country beside the path to avoid getting soaked.
Hand Gill is worth a look at. The top end has a lovely wee waterfall.

Waterfall at Hang Gill

At this point I made a mistake and followed a path leading away from the line the stream was following. This zigzagged a bit but ended up heading eastwards. The correct route is to stay with the stream and follow it down. I ended up at the top of a very steep section to get off the hill down to the Capplegill Farm area. A lot of careful traversing later I finally got down OK but not recommended. If I had kept going east I would have got to the spine of the hill down and this would have been (a bit) easier. At the bottom it was easy to follow the fence alongside the Blackhope Burn to the road.
Back to the car. Arrived at 16:45.