Borrowdale and Derwentwater

Derwentwater and Newlands from Dodd

Watendlath from Great Crag

Reenacting pushing John in during the descent of Scafell Pike in 1991

Borrowdale and Derwentwater from Seathwaite Fell

Keswick and Derwentwater from Latrigg

Last year I wrote about my almost complete round of the Wainwright Hills and this weekend I came a little closer to finishing.  I attended a moving remembrance celebration lunch for Robin in Bolton le Sands on Saturday and then drove back into the Lake District to meet Gregor at Grasmere. He had managed to climb 10 hills including Helvellyn after I dropped him at 11am at Penrith on the way down the M6.  I was keen to climb a hill when I picked him up at 5pm but he declined and I left him at a pub in Keswick where he could watch the FA Cup semi-final.

I climbed Dodd, not a hill I had been looking forward to, it is clothed in coniferous trees and looks like a runt of a hill sitting below the conical splendour of Skiddaw.  But like all hills, it has its virtues, good tracks most of the way to the summit and superb views from the summit towards Derwentwater and the Vale of Newlands in one direction, Skiddaw behind it and Bassenthwaite below it to the west. The summit had been recently shaved of trees so it was a bright sunny platform to enjoy a spring lakeland evening.  On the descent, I passed the Osprey nest but no birds were on show so a return to Keswick and then a drive along Derwentwater to Borrowdale to the campsite in Stonethwaite that we had used last September.  It was getting cool but the site was fairly full and the smell of food drifted from the campfires. We elected to go to the nearby pub and enjoy the excellent fayre on offer.

It was a coolish night and by dawn, we were shivering in the tent so we decided to make an early start just after 7am.  We walked back to Stonethwaite and ascended Great Crag via an excellent but steep man-made path up Lingy End and to Dock Tarn.  Great Crag was hardly worthy of its name but it provided an excellent view of Watendlath.  We had spent many an afternoon here when the children were young. They would enjoy paddling in the beck and then we would have rum butter scones and ice cream in the hotel before I dashed off over the fells to get back to Langdale.

We returned to the campsite, packed and then drove to Seathwaite where hundreds of cars were parked below the starting point for Scafell Pike. Our objective, Seathwaite Fell,  was a lot nearer and involved a walk to Stockley Bridge and then taking the path to Styhead Tarn before climbing the steep slopes to the summit.  At Stockley Bridge, we passed the pool where the six cousins, then aged 7 to 12, had bathed after an ambitious and successful expedition up Scafell Pike in September 1991.  Gregor had pushed his Uncle John off the rock and he recreated the act in the photo above. I recall that John was not well pleased at the time but will probably enjoy this reminder.  We were surprised at the volume of walkers on the route not many of whom looked like they would get to Scafell Pike.

Summoning the energy for a third excursion of the day is never easy so we decided to take in Latrigg, a minor hill that sits above Keswick and which I had surprisingly never climbed. Like Dodd, it was a saunter through coniferous plantations but even in the heat of the day it was pleasant and the summit was a grassy meadow that would make a perfect golf course.  We sunbathed for ten minutes admiring the beauty of Derwentwater, Newlands and Borrowdale. We took a direct descent through the densely afforested slopes.  We were suitably tired and despite my intention to take in Beda Fell near Ullswater it was getting too hot to make a fourth climb of the day so we returned to Glasgow arriving back before 5pm.