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I had suggested this walk to Jim a few weeks ago but having heard that it was quite a stiff climb he initially baulked at the idea, then one evening about a week before we did this walk he phoned me up and suggested that we could maybe have a go at it on one day of the coming weekend. Well, what a nice surprise as I was going to take E along with me on this same weekend but she had just made other less strenuous arrangements for a day out in Carlisle so Jim's offer of company was readily grabbed and it was agreed that Saturday would suit the both of us.
The weather, as forecast was good, quite cloudy but still sunny and cool as we set off to make our way along the A66 then the A685 to Kirkby Stephen and then the A683 to Sedburgh passing below the massive rounded hills of the Howgills on our right whilst to our left we were being overlooked by Wild Boar Fell and Baugh Fell. From the book buyers paradise of Sedburgh we took the A684 before reverting back to the A683 on the western outskirts of the small town. The A683 follows the course of an old Roman Road that makes its way south to skirt the east side of Kirkby Lonsdale. But we only followed it for around 12 kilometres - 7½ miles - to arrive at the bridge across Barbon Beck from where we turned left immediately after the bridge along a narrow road that passes through Barbon, along Barbondale to eventually arrive at Dentdale and the village that it's named after, Dent.
Although it would be possible to park in the village of Barbon itself to avoid a short uphill section of road walking it would be polite to use the large well stoned up car park that has been made available for walkers and is conveniently situated on the left hand side at SD622 825 as one makes the turn onto the road to the village. There were three other cars parked up as we arrived and whilst getting booted up noted that there was a very cold wind and deciding what to wear didn't take too long to decide as I went for my Primaloft whilst Jim slipped on an extra layer under his jacket. The good thing about the Primaloft is that it is quite light and will pack in my bag easy enough if so required.
We started off by first walking east along and up the metalled road into Barbon, a pretty little village with lots of expensive looking houses, we passed an old chapel on the right that looked in need of some TLC and noting the security fence in front of it maybe it's going to get it. Continuing on we arrived at a second road junction with the leg of the T split by a fine monument - a stone cross sat atop a large stone plinth - quite an impressive affair for a small village. There was also a view of Barbon Low Fell, giving us a hint of what lay before us.
- Barbon Village monument with Barbon Low Fell in the background.
Leaving the monument behind we continued along the road to pass the Barbon Inn and the small but neat and well kept stone built church of St Bartholomew with its square tower looking the largest part of the building. At this point we turned off the road to walk roughly north along a wide tarmac track that crosses over Barbon Beck and then looks like it continues on to Barbon Manor before crossing Barbon Beck and back onto the Dent road further east. After a short distance we found ourselves at a 4 way fingerpost where we turned left to walk across the wooded fields towards the farm at Eskholme.
- Leave the village for the fields.
Eskholme is where I slipped up with my navigation as when we passed through the gate into the next field I spied what I thought was a gate in the top left hand corner of the field behind Eskholme but on arriving at it found it to be a short section of fence with no way out of the plantation behind it. Looking about I spotted a proper gate in the opposite far corner so we followed the intake wall back south keeping our height to rectify said mistake in just a few minutes. Once there it was possible to see that if we had followed a tumbledown dry stone wall up from the bottom gate it would have led us directly to where we were now.
As we entered the open access land we could see no path before us so simply took off up the steep fellside taking the easiest line possible aiming first of all for the lower, but larger rocks of Devil's Crag before the higher ones of Eskholme Pike at 307 metres. As we made our way we were moving roughly east and making our way over to a dry stone wall to our right, the easiest line of passage, when we came upon a path that was gratefully followed up along the right side of Devil's Crag and then just a few metres more to arrive at the summit of Eskholme Pike that bears a decent sized cairn sat on the sparsely grass covered rocky top.
- Jim arriving at the summit of Eskholme Pike.
- The view west from the summit of Eskholme Pike.
As we have been climbing the views across the valley have been opening up giving extensive views west across the Lune Valley whilst swinging around to the northwest the profile of the Pennines and the Lake District could be seen through the haze. Looking south down the Lune Valley there is a fine view of Barbon, Casterton, and roughly about 3 miles away there lies the larger town of Kirkby Lonsdale all of them set in a patchwork of green fields and wooded areas in various states of spring growth. The River Lune is down there somewhere but can't be seen even from this height.
- A hazy view west towards the Lake District.
- A look back at the village of Barbon.
From Eskholme - the farm - to the summit of Eskholme Pike would be the hardest part of the walk with some 200 metres - 650 feet - of steep ground to cover before the ground eased off from Eskholme Pike summit for the remainder of the walk to Calf Top trig column.
After a moment to get our breath back and enjoy the views in the glorious sunshine we set off for the second and unnamed summit following a quad bike track that would remain with us for the remainder of our walk until we left the fellside at Mill House. As mentioned earlier the walk was now easy with this first part from Eskholme Pike across fairly level ground which led to a short and easy climb to a small cairn sat on the next 'summit' probably going by the name of Thorn Moor? Over to the south we had a good view of the long wrinkly top of Barbon Low Fell that looks worthy of some investigation at a later outing around here. A little further around to the left we could see a fair spread of the Yorkshire Dales with Crag Hill, Gragareth, Great Coum, Whernside, and much more in our sights and as we are now at only 490 metres the views can only get better as we climbed steadily higher to the next and third summit of Castle Knott.
- Looking across to Barbon Low Fell from the second unnamed summit.
Although the sun is shining there was a cold wind and I was glad that I started off with my jacket on whilst Jim had cast his off as we climbed up to Eskholme Pike, but now it was so cold and with the walking a lot easier and not keeping a sweat on, he put it back on again. We could see the large pointed cairn sat on the top of Castle Knott as we followed the wide grassy track along the easy slopes. As we climbed we passed an outcrop of broken rock on our left from which a sheepfold had been built many years before and apart from the summit of Eskholme Pike, a small collection of rocks just past the summit of Castle Knott, and the odd small cairn and currick these would be the only bits of stone and rock that we saw and passed on the whole walk.
- Jim taking the lead to Castle Knott.
This is a big hill, massive in fact. Long, broad and wide open, covered in brown grass and featureless, and not a place to be in bad weather. Although the walking is easy it is obvious to see that this would be a very wet place to walk after it had been raining. Although it has been dry and without rain for something like 2 weeks the ground was soft in many places, not up to the laces soft but enough to warrant the supposition of hard, wet, walking after rain. Our suspicions were further endorsed as we continued on to Calf Top summit. Looking back as we arrived at the summit of Castle Knott the view along the ridge proved just how big that this fell is.
- The view south towards Eskholme Pike and Barbon Low Fell to the left.
- Looking over Jim's shoulder to the south and west.
On reaching this third cairn it was found to be quite large as suggested when looking at it from afar and the stones for the cairn either came from near the old sheepfold or the place where we stopped for a well earned break. The place in question was a small sheltered outcrop of rock just behind the summit cairn from where we got a glimpse into Barbondale with the massive bulk of the Gragareth set of fells behind it.
- A glimpse into Barbondale from Castle Knott.
The clouds had more or less taken over from the sun by now making it feel even colder than before so wanting to get moving again just in case the weather turned and we did get some wet weather we set off on the last of the climb to the summit. I say the last of the climb as we had to drop down first of all some 40 metres into what was just now a dry hollow but there was plenty of evidence of the bad ground that it would be after rain. There were large beds of moss now turned almost white through lack of moisture and which broke up into dust as we walked across it. There were obvious signs of bare peat that had a thin crust on them covering the now dry peat beneath it. The thin crusts also broke up when trod upon, a bit like a thin covering of ice on a pool of water does.
We passed along the low area without any mishap to then start the last climb of the day to the pointy summit of Calf Top. From a distance the incline looked really steep but on approaching it it was found to be that particular optical illusion that so often happens when looking at a hill from afar.
- The pointed summit of Calf Top.
As we climbed we drew nearer to a wall that turned from running northwest to northeast that had a small cairn sat just off the corner of it. We turned to follow the wall as it ran unerringly to the very white summit OS trig column that is surrounded by stones that have presumably been taken off the wall top to give a firm and dry place to stand whilst posing for the summit photo.
- Jim at the Calf Top OS trig column with Pen-y-ghent-Whernside and more in the background.
Despite the haze the views are outstanding, with Whernside, Ingleborough, Pen-y-ghent, and many more to be seen as well as the Pennines, Lake District, and the Howgills. We were surrounded by a great vista of magnificent fells and mountains, just amazing.
- The Howgills and Sedburgh from Calf Top.
- Looking northeast from Calf Top-the Howgills-Baugh Fell and Wild Boar Fell.
On our way up to the top we met four other walkers on their way down who had ascended from somewhere along the east face after walking along Barbondale for a while and who were now on their way to Barbon and its place of refreshment for a livener or three. All four of them were from London on a weekend break and climbed it just for the hell of it. Apart from another group way in the distance at Barkin Top we saw no other walkers on these hills.
After enjoying the views for a good few minutes we set off to walk down the west ridge of Middleton Fell on a narrow path that soon reverted back to a good track once again. After some 10 minutes or so of walking the odd looking cloud formation was broken apart by some large round blue holes giving the sky a rather eerie look akin to a science fiction movie.
- Blue holes in the cloud.
The track is wide and easy to follow and we made good progress only making a short diversion to a tall stone built currick that allowed good views across the Lune Valley towards Morecambe Bay and the South Lakes. Although the M6 Motorway can't be seen from here the tall windmills that sit alongside it certainly can and whilst the view to the south is more or less blocked by the ridge of Eskholme Pike looking the other way much can be seen, even the Lakeland skyline just visible through the haze.
- Middleton Fell currick with a view towards Morecambe Bay and South Lakeland.
There was an obvious track to our right but as we were already on one, and a decent one at that, we continued to follow it as it now swung around to the south towards the head of Millhouse Gill to continue down to the white painted cottage of Mill House. At some point after leaving the currick we came across a cairn from where the views towards the Howgills and Pennines were - or would have been but for the haze - quite a worthy sight to behold.
- Looking across the Lune Valley towards the Howgills and the Pennines.
- A view west across the Lune Valley.
We continued to quickly descend and soon reached the head of the gill from where a decent shot of the Eskholme Pike ridge was to be seen.
- Looking across to Eskholme Pike.
The track that we were now on looked as though it was used by off roaders as it appeared to be too rough and rutted for normal farm traffic although it gave us no problems in using it as a way down off the fell. We were soon at Mill House from where the way got a little more complicated as we left the fell by a gate that has two signs on it, one broken with the top half missing giving conflicting instructions. The top sign acknowledges access whilst the bottom and broken one appears to deny it. We went through it to approach two cottages where we were once again confused until looking back we saw a sign fixed to the first cottages wall indicating that the path went between the two buildings to gain access into the field beyond.
Leaving the buildings behind we now had to cross Millhouse Gill or Beck as I think it now is having left the confines of narrow gully that it ran through down the fellside. There is no footbridge but as the weather has been dry it presented no problems as we crossed…
- Well, come on then TM.
and then made our way across the fields towards Low Fellside where we met and passed the time of day with the owners, a nice couple who hailed from Middleborough and had lived at the property for the past 5 years. They were having a few water problems as their water supply was spring water from the fell that went into a large settlement tank and filter before being used in the household, but the spring had run dry after this long period of no rain. They were a bit alarmed about this situation as their supply had never dried up before. Global warming may haps. Well, as is the way of good country folks they were awaiting the delivery of a full 1,000 litre water tank lent to them by one of the local farmers who resides at Barbon Manor and would hopefully keep them going until the spring came alive once again.
Leaving them to their problems we continued on through the fields and along the odd farm track to pass below Sowermire Wood from where we followed a track that took us to Sowermire Farm and then an underpass beneath the now dismantled railway line. From there we then made our way towards Borwens having to ford another small beck that has footbridge that is all but in the bottom of the beck as flood water has washed away the banking on either side of the beck leaving the footbridge in a very precarious state.
- Mm, the footbridge needs a little attention.
- Looking to the ridge of the start of our walk.
Just after leaving Sowermire Farm behind we left the farm track to walk through the fields from where…
- Jim, on England's green and pleasant lands.
after a few metres we took to the tarmac lane as indicated by the marker post. The sun had come out again which was a welcome sight and gave a nice ending to a good walk. We now just had a 1.8 kilometre - or 1.1 miles - of easy walking along the tarmac to arrive once again at the village of Barbon from where we walked the short distance back to the car park.
This walk was easier than either of us had expected it to be and after the initial steep climb to Eskholme Pike was just a stroll along the fells. There have been many sunny days recently and in a sheltered spot has felt really warm but, the warmth has many times been marred by that nagging cold wind that seems to be hanging around much later in the year than it should, or maybe it's my imagination and it's always like that at this time of year. A man forgets sometimes.
The views although extensive in all directions have been spoiled by the haze and some of the photos have been repeated, albeit from a different position but I was only trying to get the best perspective on this very hazy day so apologies for repeats.
