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As I only had a couple of hours free from a cheekily-grabbed flexi-time afternoon, once I'd flounced out of a particularly tedious meeting, this hill seemed worth a quick potter, of a sunny late-August Friday afternoon.
The ascent was via the 'normal' route from the Cross Keys and up to the north side of Cautley Spout, then working my way up the pathless (but not particularly rough) side of Yarlside from Bowderdale Head.
The route as far as Bowderdale Head is self-evident - brief but fairly steep and tiring, it has to be said, but not difficult.
- Climbing past Cautley Spout
The views that gradually open up are superb, both of the Cautley Spout but also of Mallerstang and Baugh Fell to the east, and then as you gain altitude, over towards the Cumbrian Fells.
- View SE
Yarlside itself, while not an awe-inspiring craggy peak, is an attractive hill, and the panorama in all directions is in my view one of the best in this part of the world. (Unfortunately my actual panaroma picture is way too wide for me to be able to post - or to do much with really, now I think of it, other than stand as a reminder to compose photos better......!)
Rather than coming back from the summit the same way, I simply cut south-eastwards down the edge of Yarlside to lose about 200m in altitude and join the path that comes in from Randygill / Kensgriff to the north, after which the path continues gradually to lose height down the fell-side.
- The way down
- Dropping the NE side of Yarlside to the humorously named Backside Beck... the path back is also visible on the hillside
- View up to Randygill to the north
- Descending back to the valley of the River Rawthey
- This is what the path looks like dropping down towards Backside Beck, Narthwaite and the starting-point
Turning east after about 1.5km-ish, around the wall, the drop steepens and the path comes to a bit of an end, but again it's easy enough just to cut ESE diagonally down the gradient to join the track from Backside Beck (fine name!), which leads very easily and quickly back to the footbridge from the Cross Keys.
- ... and around the corner back to the footbridge and the Cross Keys
None of the ground was particularly wet under foot, and while moderately steep and a bit of a slog up Cautley Spout side and on to Yarlside, not 'technically' difficult in any way - so a very relaxing alternative to being in the office for an afternoon...
