Date completed: 1st April 2021, with Joe. No fooling; my first Lakeland walk for nearly four months.
Weather conditions: Dry, mostly grey. Some patches of sunshine that seemed to stay in the same place all day, particularly over Steel Knotts (as the image above illustrates) and the head of Fusedale. This was strange, bearing in mind how brisk the winds were, especially up on the ridge. You’d have thought they’d have moved the clouds around a bit more.
Summits bagged: Hallin Fell (1271 feet above sea level, number 268 of my second round), Steel Knotts (1414’, no. 269), Wether Hill (2210’ [but see the note on the fell page], no. 270).
Hallin Fell was first bagged on walk 32 in February 2011, the other two on walk 42, August 2011.
Brownthwaite Crag, at 1,457 feet, counts as a Birkett (#397 by altitude on that list).
Start and end point: Started and finished in Howtown. Precisely where depends on how this village is reached. In normal times Howtown can be reached on the Ullswater steamer service that connects with Pooley Bridge and Glenridding. In that case, the walk would begin at the pier.
However, if arriving by car — which we were obliged to do today — I do not think there is anywhere to park around there (there wasn’t today, anyway). Cars must instead congregate around St. Peter’s Church, Martindale, up at the top of the precipitous zigzags, at around NY436191. This does save some climbing on the day.
Distance walked: The OS map, Wainwright, Joe’s step counter and my own all suggest different figures today. I’m going to plump for about 8 miles approximately.
Total ascent: 2,780 feet approximately. Add another couple of hundred feet if starting at the pier.
Pub at end: The Howtown Hotel is worth visiting. It is the most old-fashioned place, and not in a fake way. It genuinely looks as if it hasn’t changed since the 1920s, although you can probably pay by contactless these days. Not that we did so today; it becomes the latest local business I have been prevented from giving money to, thanks to the arbitrary restrictions imposed during the Great Fear.
Route: On the whole this is a good walk in very fine scenery. Hallin Fell and Steel Knotts are among the best of Lakeland’s smaller summits. However, hauling yourself up to the top of Wether Hill adds nothing to the day except time and effort. On the other hand, this is the most convenient way of bagging that summit from valley level, rather than embarking on a traverse of the whole High Street ridge. Done by this route, it’s probably safe in mist. There are occasional soggy patches. No rocks have to be handled, but some of the grassy paths are very slippery, so take care anyway.
If you start at the pier you need to take the path to the right, along the lake shore for a short way, then turn left before reaching the house and ascend up the side of Hallin Fell to reach the top of the zigzags, where the cars will be parked at St Peter’s church.
From the church, the ascent route up Hallin Fell is obvious. Variations are possible: as on walk 32 we could have swung more to the right, starting past the water works building. But we didn’t bother today, just coming up and down the same way. The obelisk on the summit has been repaired since I was last there, ten years ago. The great view remains the same.
Back at the church, drop down the road to the right, away from Howtown, then take the road to the left. Just before the next church (known as the ‘Old Church’, not that St Peter’s is exactly modern), take the path on the left, which quickly divides into two: stick to the upper path. This slants up the side of Steel Knotts, with superb views of The Nab and the valley of Ramps Gill ahead. When this path reaches a wall, clamber up to the left to attain the ridge, and then the sharp and attractive summit of Steel Knotts, with its pointy rock crown known as PIkeawassa, is unmissable on the left.
From there, backtrack and continue along the ridge path, which provides a steep climb up to the the subsidiary summit of Brownthwaite Crag — passed over by Wainwright, but a Birkett, and actually higher (albeit less interesting) than Steel Knotts. This path then drops down to the ruined shepherd’s hut visible at the head of Fusedale. This provides some reasonable seated accommodation for lunch.
The hut is the point at which you must decide whether or not to add Wether Hill to the day. If it is deemed an excess, just descend down the valley (see below). If one must bag it, then the way lies first to the south, crossing the main channel of Fusedale Beck and then taking a faint, but followable path up the slope. The climb is unexciting but good views open up to the Helvellyn range and Blencathra.
On reaching the top, the summit cairn skulks on the rise to the left (north). In bad weather, incidentally, if the path is lost, I would just keep heading uphill until reaching the ridge. There are no natural hazards to worry about, and the same applies on the descent.
Descend back to the hut, and this time, head north down Fusedale. The way passes a second ruin, with a seat, and then reaches the enclosures of Cote Farm at a very wet bit that needs careful negotiating. Cross the beck by the footbridge and follow the edge of the enclosures until coming out onto the farm lane.
Shortly afterwards there is a signpost, and your route from there depends on whether you came by car or boat. For the pier, head straight on, following the sign to Howtown. But cars will be parked at Martindale Hause, so drivers, turn left at the sign and you have ¾ mile more of climbing to do; fairly gentle climbing, but still, this rather finished Joe off. Bear right at the top of the slope and you suddenly come upon the church once more, and thus the car park.
600-up commentary: Wether Hill was easily the least exciting aspect of the day’s walk but we definitely wanted to attain a third summit, as it brought up two neat little milestones. It was my 270th fell in the full secound round, of 330. 330 plus 270 is 600, which is a nice round number to trumpet; and I’m now more than 90% of the way through my double round (having reached that point at Stickle Pike, in fact).
Somewhat tedious though the fell is, pleasingly Wether Hill also became Joe’s 50th Wainwright, that milestone coming on the 25th of these walks that he has done with me, as an occasional, but consistent, presence throughout this project. I hope he continues with walking in some form, independently. I think he’ll admit that he needs the exercise — but then again, don’t we all.
It’s been 117 days, or nearly four months, since I was last in Lakeland, on December 5th (walk 186). From January 4th – March 29th we were told that we were not allowed to travel more than five miles away from our homes for the purposes of exercise, even if we were doing it in an entirely solitary fashion. The more I type this, each time, the more ridiculous it seems, the more angry I get.
Since that last Lakeland visit I have completed nine County Top walks, the last six of which have been under conditions of house arrest (it’s not ‘lockdown’ while Amazon can keep their warehouses open, while construction projects go ahead). Liverpool was the furthest I had walked away from home in 2021, prior to today, and probably some curtain-twitcher somewhere thinks that was criminal.
I don’t know what to say about this attitude, any more — except to note that for possibly the first time in my life, I agreed wholeheartedly with a Daily Mail headline, on Tuesday 30th March. Vis-a-vis the continued repression of pubs and those retailers who lack political clout, it stated: “What Are We Waiting For?”. What indeed?
I type this the day after the walk, on Good Friday, the start of what should have been one of the busiest periods for the many tourist- and walker-related businesses that sustain a considerable portion of the economy of Cumbria. But on the way into Howtown, the caravan parks at Park Foot, and the Sharrow Bay and Howtown Hotels, all stood empty. Whether with ‘social distancing’ in place or not, these businesses should be open this weekend.
That they are not is just another big ‘fuck you’ to the small business owners and local economies around the country by an inept government that has never had the plot, let alone lost it. If anyone seriously thinks that Boris Johnson & co., and global capital generally, have the interests of places like Lakeland at heart — whether the landscape or the communities that live there and visit it — and will express these interests in whatever ‘recovery plan’ they may cobble together, then my God, I seriously do hope you’re right. Sadly, I cannot agree with you. The country in which I will complete the last 10% of this project is not the same one in which I began it.
The 214 Wainwright fells: without a car 
I love your description of the current situation as The Great Fear because that is exactly what the goverment, due to their own ineptitude, have made it. Under no circumtances can someone walking or camping alone at any distance from their home be considered a danger to others. That is clearly ridiculous.
Good to see you getting back out there! I finally made it back into the hills on 1 May having been stuck in London for months. Wether Hill was the 2nd one done that day after Loadpot. I agree with your comments about the whole situation – why were we still stuck at the beginning of April?!