Threlkeld Camping Trip: Part 2

 I awoke, having slept like a hibernating hedgehog. Last night I went to bed early. I'm fresh. Fresher than I should be after camping on a packed site. But I feel good and ready to go. My main aim is to tick off the remaining members of the Skiddaw group. I'd long since ticked off Latrigg and Dodd, the two little fellows on either extremity of the range. Today I was gunning for the big lads, the biggest being Skiddaw, the fourth highest and most ancient fell in the Lake District. 

But going straight over to the skiddaw range would have been too easy. I decided to fit another one in before then. Ever since I first climbed Blencathra, I had wondered what the sloped hill was called which I could see from the summit on the opposite side of the A66. That fell is called great mell fell. It is in Matterdale, James Rebanks (The Shepherd's Life) country. It sits near its little sister, little mell fell, which I bagged the previous evening. I just about managed to get my car parked in a space by the side of the road. Great mell was a nice and easy start to the day. 

I then made my way over to Keswick and parked on Brundholme road. A few years ago I walked two fells on both extremities of the range: Latrigg, whose grassy slopes are a perennial attraction to visitors of Keswick  and Dodd, the small wooded hill that overlooks Bassenthwaite. Today, I am aiming for, in order, lonscale fell, skiddaw little man, skiddaw, carl side, long side and ullock pike. 

My route was from east to west. I crossed the A66 and took the path up the eastern slopes of Latrigg fell. Rather than bearing right up Latrigg, I continued forward on the path which leads to a car park. The car park was packed, vindicating my decision to park in Keswick. From the car park I veered right to take the path up to Lonscale Fell alongside whit beck. I soon came across an interesting monument, reminiscent of a grave stone with a celtic cross on top.   (see below): 

The writing is still fairly clear, despite its age, but here it is anyway: 

IN LOVING MEMORY OF TWO SKIDDAW SHEPHERDS

EDWARD HAWELL, OF LONSCALE

BORN OCT 21st 1815, 

DIED JUNE 2nd 1889,

AND HIS SON 

JOSEPH HAWELL, OF LONSCALE, 

BORN 24th 1854

DIED FEB 20th 1891

NOTED BREEDERS OF PRIZE HERDWICK SHEEP

Then on the top of the foundation stone there is the following inscription: 

ALSO TO ROBERT WALKER HAWELL

BORN 16 MARCH 1851 DIED 29 DEC 1911

On the front face of the foundation stone, there is a short poem: 

GREAT SHEPHERD OF THY HEAVENLY FLOCK

THESE MEN HAVE LEFT OUR HILL,

THEIR FEET WERE ON THE LIVING ROCK

GUIDE AND BLESS THEM STILL

H.D.R

H.D.R, the author of the inscribed poem, was Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley. Rawnsley was a key figure in the movement to preserve the history, landscapes and heritage of the Lake District and is probably best known for being one of the founding members of the National Trust. Based on the research I have done, several people have reported that Rawnsley had this monument erected. The inscription shows that Joseph Hawell sadly died young, apparently after contacting tetanus following a dental procedure. 

From the monument, I continued to follow whit beck up to its source on the col between lonscale and little man. I veered east over to Lonscale fell, where I decided to stop for some dinner. Nothing fancy. A pot noodle and the remainder of the coffee that I'd been carrying up in a thermal mug. Once finished, I retraced my steps back to the top of whit beck and continued westward on the skiddaw path, departing briefly to tick off skiddaw little man, then continuing on to the summit of Skiddaw. 

Skiddaw unfairly gets a bad rap. I've heard it described as boring and a slog. But I have to say I really enjoyed the walk. Skiddaw has a certain grandness about it to look at, as it stands aloft in between the smaller peaks that make up the skiddaw range. It has the notability of being the oldest fell in Lakeland and one of the tallest. The views are decent, though not as impressive as those found from the scafell and Langdale ranges. And it has to be said that it does not offer the dramatic crags and aretes that mark out the likes of helvellyn and blencathra. So by no means a contender for the greatest fell in Lakeland, it is still a very good one. 

After summitting skiddaw, I descended down a steep, scree ridden path toward carl side. As I was descending the path, which was a difficult one due to the steepness and scree, I could see mountain bikers above about to descend. Being considerate, I moved off the path and sat down to take a few sips of my coffee, giving them free reign to ride down. They came down one by one sending scree flying as they descended. It was great to watch. Most of the group stopped about half way down the slope, as they awaiting a young woman who seemed gripped by trepidation. She was obviously scared about the prospect of riding down, but this didn't stop the rest of the group egging her on. 

Fortunately, she made the sensible decision to walk down. I stayed put to allow her to pass me and rejoin her group. Once she reached them, rather than proceeding down the slope they remained where they were, chatting. Fair enough. But I decided I might as well walk down. Like I said, it was a difficult path to navigate with all the scree, but as I tried to pass them, the apparent ring leader of the group just maintained his position with his bike completely blocking the path, meaning I had to navigate the bear scree to get past. Then, about 30 seconds after passing, he shouted down asking to pass. This boiled my piss a bit. I'd already given way to them and did he not possess the common sense to start descending as he saw me approaching? As much as I really wanted to tell him to bugger off, I settled for shouting "well go on then!" in a disgruntled tone of voice. 

As the ground levelled out near the summit of carl side, I veered right as I would be passing carl side on the return. I continued along the ridge summitting long side and ullock pike. After stopping for some food, admiring the impressive views over bassenthwaite, I retraced my steps, summitted carl side, then descended the fell to arrive at Millbeck. I then followed the road into Keswick. By this time it was getting late and I had a 20 minute drive ahead of me back to the tent. I decided to stop by the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas Wetherspoons in Keswick for a bite to eat and to save me needing to cook upon my return. 

Once I returned to the site, I settled into my sleeping bag to watch what has become a regular feature of my camping stays, the 1979 cult film The Wanderers starring Ken Wahl. It is pure nostalgia for me, not because of the plot line - the film is a coming of age story about rival highschool gangs set in the US in the early 60s - but because, for whatever reason, I used to watch it prolifically when I was younger. It has, in my opinion, one of the greatest soundtracks consisting of classic early sixties pop songs. I will close this blog post with some lines of these songs, Dion and the Belmonts' The Wanderer: 

I'm the type of guy that likes to roam around, 

I'm never in one place I roam from town to town

[...]

Yeah I'm the wanderer yeah the wanderer

I roam around around around

Further reading: 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ministry/6748779207 - the post contains an interesting comment by someone purporting to be a descendant of the Hawells, to whom the monuments on Lonscale Fell are dedicated to. 

https://www.walklakes.co.uk/walk_18.html