Bigland Barrow summit: willow tree and observation shelter, in formation
Summits: Although two summits are described in the text the only one to be listed as a Wainwright is the southern summit at 630’ above sea level.
Date bagged: First visit: 23rd August 2014 (walk 86).
Bigland Tarn
Second visit: 2nd October 2018 (walk 153).
Bagged as number: First round: 268 out of 330. {<< Whit Fell (264-267) (269) Newton Fell (North) >> ]
Second round: 167 of 330 [ << Pillar (166) (168) Finsthwaite Heights >> ]
Route of ascent and descent: First visit: Followed the route of ascent outlined on pages 72-73 of Wainwright’s volume 8, from Newby Bridge. This applied to descent too, until reaching Hazelrigg, at which point I veered off to the east and headed for Newton Fell (North).
Second visit: Came up via Bigland Tarn, having started at Cark & Cartmel station. Reversed the route of ascent, going down to Newby Bridge.
The north summit. Gummer’s How is behind the cairn with Finsthwaite Heights to the left.
What Mr Wainwright says (from page 70 of volume 8): “Bigland Barrow rises to the south of the foot of Windermere, not sufficiently to make much impact on the landscape; and it lacks visual appeal in comparison with nearby heights. In spite of its merits as a viewpoint, which are considerable, it is probably most often visited out of curiosity to determine the nature of the unusual man-made adornment on the summit.”
What I say: Unusual it is, a concrete cube that looks like a water tank but which is apparently a wartime observation tower. It does make Bigland Barrow the only Wainwright so far where one has to use a ladder to reach the highest point — and it doesn’t feel like a very solid ladder, either. Otherwise I quite liked the topmost acres of this fell, with plenty of purple heather blooming in the August sunshine and a few good rock formations. Good exercise if you find yourself in Newby Bridge. But even better is to come up the way I did the second time, from Cark & Cartmel station: five and a half miles, but good, easy walking with fine views.
The 214 Wainwright fells: without a car 
[…] done on this project thus far, today’s walk 153 was the one that reached the lowest altitude. Bigland Barrow, the first summit reached on the day, stands at only 630′ above sea level. And that was as […]