2023 has been a really busy year for us – and so day trips to the Lake District to bag a few Wainwrights have taken a bit of a back seat. It’s seemed like every weekend that we’ve been around, the Lakes have been forecast rain, and I’m not a fan of dragging myself up a hill if I don’t get to enjoy the view at least. We hadn’t made it across to the Lakes since our trip there in September when we bagged the Coledale Round – however, last weekend, after a week of anxiously watching the weather forecast, we finally hopped in the car and drove across to climb a summit or two.
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When I looked at the weather forecast on Monday, Sunday was forecast for lovely sunshine all day and no wind. Over the course of the week, this gradually changed to ‘cloudy’, then ‘cloudy with a bit of rain later on’, until it finally got to ‘cloudy in the morning and rain in the afternoon’. Initial plans to walk the Fusedale Round were discarded and replaced by Plan B, a 5 mile circular route from WalkLakes taking in Branstree and Selside Pike.
The Far Eastern fells are one of the areas we’ve not yet explored much. This walk reminded me a bit of some of the routes we’ve done in the Northern Fells like Carrock Fell and High Pike, following faint grassy trails with views of gently rounded fells. And of course, being much quieter than the more famous fells in the centre of the national park.
Parking (honesty box) is in a reasonably large car park at the end of the road leading to Mardale Head. Watch out for red squirrels on the drive down – one shot out in front of us on our way there, and then hung around on the drystone wall next to the road to give us a bit of a show. Setting off on the walk, we headed uphill pretty much straight away up the Gatescarth Pass. Enjoy walking on this stony track despite how deceptively steep it is – as it soon disappears into nearly invisible grassy trails!
After climbing steadily for a while we left the pass, turning left to follow a fence line up to the summit of Branstree, which we arrived at fairly quickly. The fence is a handy navigational aid, especially if the weather is poor: just keep it on your right and you can’t go far wrong. From Branstree, it’s a straight forward walk (mostly pathless) across to Selside Pike. If it’s clear like it was when we did this walk, you’ll be able to see it in the (not so far) distance, or if it’s foggy you can fall back on the fence line to aid your navigation (although this might make it a bit of a longer walk rather than taking the direct route).
This was one of those walks which is worth saving for a cold snap – the amount of frozen bogs we walked over without sinking up to our ankles had me very much appreciating the cold weather. After sweating my way up the Gatescarth Pass, the walk across to Selside Pike was lovely and gentle in comparison. There is a small summit shelter at the top, with some OK views over the surrounding area, and we dropped down to the Corpse Road to begin our descent back to the valley.
Most of the views up to this point had been ‘fair to middling’. Not show stopping on the scale of the views on routes like the High Stile ridge, it was a nice enough walk with the joy of getting a few more Wainwrights in the bag. As we descended though, we were treated to a cracking view over Haweswater Reservoir – and you get to keep this view (with various angles) for most of your return back to the car. The descent hardly feels steep at all when you’ve got a great view to stop and admire!
When the path joined the road, we crossed over and passed through a gate to pick up the ‘Lakeside Path’ which would return us to the car park. Said Lakeside Path turned out to be very hard going, a grassy track running perpendicular along a steep slope and constantly undulating up and down. We decided pretty quickly to abandon the path and to walk back along the road at the first chance we got! Happily this chance came fairly soon and we had a nice, flat, easy walk back along the very quiet road down to Mardale Head.
Dog friendly rating – 4/5. This was a great dog walk, with no stiles, no livestock and no drops. We were able to have Coal off-lead all the way around and he loved it! We did see some ‘evidence’ of cows but no cows themselves. As with all fell walks you should expect a sheep to pop up at any moment: Coal’s recall is spot on and he always comes back first time (presence of sheep, birds or other distractions included), whereas Merry’s recall is unreliable and therefore he stays on the lead on the fells. If you’re unsure and want to give your dog some more freedom, we sometimes use a longline for Merry – we have this 30 metre one, which lets him explore both near and relatively far, with the peace of mind that we can always reel him back in if a distraction appears. They aren’t ideal in all situations and not great for using if you’re likely to see a lot of passers-by, but if you’re wanting to work on recall without the risk of losing your dog, these are a great option.
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