Staveley Fell, seen from Gummers’ How in August. Bracken ahoy!
Summit: 870’ above sea level.
Volume: Book 8 (The Outlying Fells).
Date bagged: First visit: 10th April 2015 (walk 95).
The woods of Staveley Fell, and that area’s dominant lifeform
Second visit: 5th February 2019 (walk 158).
Bagged as number: First round: Staveley Fell has the distinction of becoming fell number 300 from the full list of 330 Wainwrights. [ << Faulds Brow (299) (301) Cartmel Fell >> ]
Second round: 185 of 330. [ << Gummer’s How (184) (186-7) Whit Fell (part) >> ]
Route of ascent and descent: First visit: Came up from Staveley-in-Cartmel, as described in Wainwright’s volume 8 (page 51), and you need to follow this advice carefully. Descended back to the forest road and then went on to Cartmel Fell, which is nearby.
Second visit: Tried to come up from, and back down to, the forest road as quickly as possible.
View from Staveley Fell summit, with Gummer’s How above the foot of Windermere.
What Mr Wainwright says (from page 49 of volume 8): “Strictly it has no name, not even locally, being referred to on Ordnance maps as Astley’s and Chapel House Plantations, which are new forests severely encroaching on it…. The top has not yet become a write-off for peak-baggers, however. Which is as well, for it commands a fine aerial view of the foot of Windermere. The summit ridge is pleasantly attractive and it appears so in the eyes of visitors down in the valley.”
Felled plantation — view from the summit of Staveley Fell
What I say: Staveley Fell is probably the messiest fell in the whole 330 (see the picture). Despite its modest height, attaining it involves hauling oneself over the litter of felled plantations, both on ascent and descent. I tried bagging this back on walk 86, into which it would have logically fitted, but without following the advice in the book exactly it was impossible to find the way to the summit. The summit ridge is attractive once up there, and the view pretty good, but the approaches to it are grim, both because of the visual devastation, and the litter of tree debris which you have to cross. In the end this can only be recommended as a climb if you are on a Wainwright-bagging expedition. How much more pleasant it might be if not defaced by industrial forestry, mind you.
The 214 Wainwright fells: without a car 
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[…] as well. Still, on top of Gummer’s How itself, I rebagged three more Outlying fells — Staveley Fell, Cartmel Fell and Newton Fell (North) — and have now passed the halfway point of that volume, […]