Scaw'd Fell

[McMole]

With a choice of parking spots available we chose a spot just before the bridge over the river. There was already one car there and room for a couple more.

The first half of the walk followed the Southern Upland Way and along a track that then led us to within a kilometre of our objective. We didn't anticipate any difficulties on the track, but a herd of cattle was on it where it did a zig-zag past cattle sheds. So we hopped over the fence and walked along a path in the woods parallel to it. As the track zagged back we continued inside what was now a well-built wall. We looked for a gate or stile, but none appeared, so we had to climb it. We did so to find a double stranded barbed wire fence within a foot of the wall which required a bit of care to limbo our way under it. On our return the cattle had wandered off into the distance and we followed the track without any worries. Since it is the SUW I'd expect the cattle to have been 100% friendly - probably! At about 3.2km from the start the SUW headed down to the left and we continued on until we reached the felled area below Scaw'd Fell. Here the question was where best to leave the track and start climbing uphill, and I failed.

My first forey upwards for a few metres revealed thick young forest ahead so I retreated and we tried again about 80m later. What appeared to be a path led us into the felled and replanted area then abandoned us. From there it was waist-high thistles, fireweed and other vegetation mixed in with stumps, brashings and the occasional ditch.

Definitely not the best way on.

Once we battled through that onto the more open hillside it was knee-deep heather all the way with a fair number of blaeberries ripe for eating. Once on the crest of the ridge I had half-expected to find a path to the summit, but managed not to. Instead it was a continuing struggle over what must normally be bog, but it had completely dried to leave a most uneven surface. This had a large population of cloudberry plants. For a while there were masses of leaves with no berries, then I started to see some - mostly red with a proportion ripened to orange.

The summit is marked by a particularly thick post in the fence line with a well-built cairn about 70m to the SSE and 5m lower.

The cairn with the summit's fencepost on the horizon

We stopped for a snack at the summit with a fine view of Croft Head, Capel Fell and Loch Fell to the northeast and the distant Criffel on the Solway Firth away to the southwest.

L to R: Croft Head, Capel Fell and Loch Fell

Jungle Formula was freely used in an attempt to ward off the local cleg population. A quick snap of Jaywizz revealed 19 of the blighters silhouetted against the sky in the original high resolution image.

Jaywizz surrounded by horseflies

Reversing our route we found and followed a narrow groove through the heather which once on it could be seen as a faint line running down the ridge ahead of us. That made easier walking until we turned to the left to head back down to the track. We aimed for the stream so as to bypass the felled area and as we neared the track headed to the right to avoid the trees, cross the stream and regain the track.

Best avoided.

An easier descent route

We'd followed the left hand bank of the stream down (looking uphill) and had just crossed the stream again with 50m to go to the track.

A much better route that our upward struggle. From there is was a gentle mostly downhill stroll back to the car with the predicted late afternoon rain only arriving about half an hour later as we drove up the M74.