We set off from York very early in the morning and after couple of hours driving through the Dales arrived in Sedbergh at the village car park. As soon as we got booted up we walked along the main road to start our walk. It was not long however before the alluring smell of bacon and eggs was detected wafting from the local café. After very short deliberation we decided to stop and have a quick bite to eat. A Full English later, and now late morning, we emerged from the café feeling nicely bloated and ready to sleep it all off. But, remembering our cause, we resisted and turned resolutely towards the hills.
The main path out of Sedbergh to the Fells follows Settlebeck Gill. After a long but pleasant pull up we reached our first summit Arant Haw. We were greeted by the most spectacular view of the Howgill fells presenting our route ahead before us.
Now on the spine of the Howgills, the path taking in each consecutive summit was quite obvious. Next was Calders, followed by Bram Rigg Top, and finally reaching The Calf, the highest peak in the Fells. This fine ridge walk was surrounded by the most impressive scenery on both sides. At one point we caught a glimpse of the wild horses that famously inhabit these fells.
Following the ridge past The Calf we spotted an odd white feature a short distance from the path, so we headed over the gorse to investigate. As we got closer we saw that it was a sheep on it’s back! Obviously it wasn’t out sunbathing so it most have rolled onto it’s back by accident and was now stuck and in some distress. Not wanting to get crippled by the animals thrashing hooves we thought about just leaving and hoping it would right itself. But eventually I reached over, grabbed its fleece and heaved it over onto it’s feet before legging it. Fortunately the sheep ran in opposite direction and continued thanklessly on with its life.
Having done my good deed for the day we continued on. We decided before the walk that we wanted to see Cautley Spout, England's longest waterfall above ground. (Gaping Gill on Ingleborough falls a greater distance but into a pothole). The broken cascade of falls tumbles a full 580 feet. There is no obvious path to Cautley Spout so we headed off piste over the fells following the main beck that feeds the Spout. Although the terrain got progressively more difficult we clambered down and finally reached our target.
We had to drop quite a bit further than anticipated to get a good view of the falls, and not wanting to re-trace our route back up, we decided the tranverse across Cautley Crag, to the left of the falls, and back up looked easy enough. But this proved to be difficult terrain across a 45 degree scree slope and progress was slow. It was now late afternoon and time was against us, and unless we pressed on the daylight would soon run out. We knew we had to get off the scree slope and the only way was up and so we bit the bullet and headed upwards. This was very hard going. For every 2 yards gained, we slipped back a yard. But eventually we made it back to the fell and fell exhausted in a heap on the grass gulping for air.
We could have happily spent the next hour there recovering, but unless we going to spend the night on the hills we had to keep going. At this point we didn’t know exactly where we were but knew that we were on the slopes of Great Dummacks and if we kept going upwards we would reach the summit and rejoin the main spine of the Howgills. So gathering all our reserves we pressed onwards and upwards. As the light began to fade we reached the summit and with much relief rejoined the main path. A routemarch against the clock followed as we retraced the ridge path, oblivious to the magnificent scenery in the evening sun.
Finally with aching legs we made it back down to the car park just before sunset. As we sat down exhausted and prised off our boots, we marvelled at what we saw. Our feet were so hot and sweaty that clouds of steam were issuing from our boots...
We looked forward to our next encounter with the Howgill Fells with great anticipation.
(Map image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland)
