Starting from Church Stile campsite in Nether Wasdale my son and I crossed the valley and headed steeply up on to, what I had never realised was called, Irton Fell.
Turning left along the ridge we passed the head of Great Hall Gill.
The route ahead
After crossing the summit of Whin Rigg we passed this guy sunning himself. It was another warm day and we already needed to refill our water supplies from the small tarns as we continued on to Illgill Head.
From Illgill Head we took the more northerly of the steep paths down encountering on our way a new walking hazard the Path Squatters. A group of about 10 people had stopped for a rest on their way up completely across the path, we had to pick our way round their legs and rucksacks to continue down.
We walked round the head of the lake and, seeing a sign promising ice-cream, headed in to the NT campsite only to find the shop shut.
In Stuart Marshall's Walking the Wainwrights he suggests that you can walk up Middle Fell from Netherbeck Bridge. We did it, don't anyone else make the same mistake. It is a vile, rocky, bracken infested, lung and leg killing, path free scramble. The views are great but I will never do it that way again.
and the obligatory summit shot
We then headed north from the summit to descend via Greendale tarn on a path which appeared and disappeared at regular intervals though when we met a Mum and young girl heading up towards us in flipflops we assumed it would be OK from then on.
A lovely path by the river then took us back to Nether Wasdale campsite and, shortly after that, the pub.