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 made an early start to collect Keith from Glasgow and to head for the Lakes for three days 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 singe track to the road end of Haweswater brought us to a crowded car park and 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 that had been 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 Seaside Pike later when we hoped the hill fog may have lifted, our optimism is unbridled. Keith took us on a short cut 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 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 that was 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 stemmed from three factors: imperial or metric measurement, random or rule based classification and 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 that is higher than the nearby Seaside Pike. The consolation was the firmer ground conditions.

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 that changing footwear and socks was essential before the drive to Keswick. 

There had been a diesel spillage on the A66 and a diversion so it well after 6pm before we were able to enjoy the splendid facilities of the Youth Hostel. A hot shower, 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 would 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