Haweswater Wainwrights

Branstree: Artle Crag Cairn

Sunday, November 3 2024

Ascent:       963 metres

Distance:    17 kilometres

Time:          5 hours 32 minutes

Tarn Crag                  664m      1hr 43mins

Gray Crag:                638m      2hrs  9mins

Branstree NE Top     673m     3hrs 38mins

Selside Pike              655m      3hrs 56mins

Branstree                  713m      4hrs 34mins

I started early to collect Keith from Glasgow and headed for the Lakes for three days of walking. We made it to Haweswater by 11:30am after a slow 20 miles on the narrow single-track roads beyond Penrith. We jiggled our way through the remote and tranquil Lakeland villages of Askham, Butterwick and Bampton and the bucolic scenery of Mardale. It was my first visit to this remote part of the Lakes although I had always intended to visit Mardale after browsing photo books of the Lake District as a child. The villages, hotels and houses looked unchanged from the 1950s. Haweswater was flooded in 1935 by Manchester Corporation to provide a water supply for Lancashire and has a rugged wild appearance compared to the more tamed lakes elsewhere in the National Park. 

The long single track to the road end of Haweswater brought us to a crowded car park. We struggled to find a place amidst the Land Rovers and other vehicles that had gathered for the last open day for trail bikes and land rovers to have permission to test their driving skills on the Gatesgarth Pass that climbs to 582 metres as it snakes its way to Longsleddale. John had already arrived and it was almost noon as we began the long ascent up the rocky path chiselled over the Gatesgarth Pass. 

I had previously climbed these hills from Longsleddale and knew that they were amongst the boggiest hills in the Lakes. I had warned John and Keith and I wasn't wrong. We decided to paddle out to Tarn Crag and Grey Crag first and savour the higher drier hills of Braintree and Selside Pike later when we hoped the hill fog may have lifted, our optimism was unbridled. Keith took us on a shortcut from the top of the pass to the col between Braintree and Tarn Crag. The path might have been quicker and certainly easier but hill walking is not about making things easy, it is a gymnasium for nature's freeloaders.

The ascent of Tarn Crag was a walk up a slow-moving horizontal waterfall over grassland. The flat and undistinguished summit of Tarn Crag is embellished by a tall surveying pillar built by Manchester Corporation when constructing the Haweswater Dam. We continued across to Grey Crag and met a couple of other walkers, the conversation turned to the vast number of hill classification schemes that had sprung up in recent years. Keith had disappeared to bag a nearby Burkett, or was it a Nuttall but probably not a Marilyn or a Hewitt, or was that the other way round. The confusion stems from the three factors that determine hill lists. Are they random or rule-based classifications? Do they use imperial or metric measurements? What is the height drop between adjacent possible summits? All the classifications provide some excitement for the tick-box fraternity. 

We had some food and drink before beginning the long up hill and down dale squish to Branstree. Well, not quite, we traversed across to Selside Pike once we reached a suitable height and took in the North East Top of Branstree, It is higher and much closer to Selside Pike than Brantree, but Wainwright had adopted a random classification system that was imperial but took no account of height difference between whatever he sketched in his list. He was a Hill list anarchist, but what do you expect from someone from Blackburn?

The last leg was the trek back to Branstree with its two cone-shaped cairns but the true summit a couple of hundred metres away and is a stone ring in the ground that presumably once held a trig point. There were no rocks in the vicinity to erect a cairn so we began the quick descent to the Gatesgarth Pass as the November light combined with the hill fog made for an eerie descent on the rocky path back to Haweswater. It was one of those occasions when sodden shoes and socks made changing footwear and socks essential before the drive to Keswick. 

There had been a diesel spillage on the A66 and a diversion so it was well after 6pm before we were able to enjoy the splendid facilities of the Keswick Youth Hostel. A hot shower, a well-equipped kitchen, a bar and helpful staff make it a near-perfect base.  Youth hostellers nowadays are not Generation Z or even Millenials, we are mainly the generation called baby boomers but I prefer to stick with Youth as a descriptor, it has the promise of more exciting times ahead. 

Bog trotting in Mosedale towards Tarn Crag

Surveying Pillar on Tarn Crag

Selside Pike