Never ones to resist the siren call of the Lakes District, we were back in the Lakes for a weekend at the start of August. Thankfully, we managed to get much better weather than our week in June, which meant that we successfully bagged a few more Wainwrights (although happily I won the length of route argument with ‘I’d rather tick off fewer new summits and enjoy the walk than bag loads and be knackered and miserable’). So, quantity of new Wainwrights was fairly low, but quality of enjoyment was very high.
Our first day was a bit of a compromise: a 6.5 mile route tackling the infamous Melbreak and its neighbour Hen Comb. Usually, I think these fells are tackled individually, while our Walking the Wainwrights guide groups them with three others (hence doing just the two of them was the compromise). Although, I’m not sure it was that much of a compromise as we’d already done the three others in the longer route!
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Towering over Crummockwater, Melbreak appears rather imposing and I must admit it was one of the Wainwrights I’d been feeling most anxious about. After much consultation of online walk reports, Sam had convinced me it probably wasn’t as bad as it looks, and so we set out on the 6.5 mile route detailed on Treks and Tors. And yes, we were going via ‘the steep bit’.
Wainwright outlined several possible routes up Melbreak in his guide to the Western Lakes (which was handily provided in our Airbnb). He is very clear though that the best ascent is via the direct route, starting from Loweswater, and I must say we probably agree with him after our fantastic outing. The less steep path starting from Buttermere is described by Wainwright as ‘NOT RECOMMENDED… Melbreak should always be climbed from Loweswater.’ His caps, not mine.
We got to Loweswater seconds too late to nab a parking space (the people who’d managed to get them were still putting their boots on), and so drove half a mile down the road to the car park at Maggie’s Bridge. Annoyingly, as we were sorting ourselves out, said hikers from earlier walked through the car park and decided to move their car here as it was nearer their walk. We’d timed it terribly!
Setting out down the road, we walked back through Loweswater to very quickly pick up a footpath heading uphill. The trail gets steeper and steeper, handily joining the infamous scree before I’d had too much time to freak myself out about it. However, it’s not as bad as I thought it might’ve been: the path does remain visible almost all the way up, you just need to pay attention and make sure you don’t accidentally end up off-course. Despite sinking back a foot from time to time, it was really not a scary experience, and the views back over Loweswater are marvellous. There was only one short stretch of a few metres which had the sheer drops on both sides that make me feel wobbly, and thankfully it’s actual path on these sections rather than scree. Altogether, it was no worse than the scrambly sections of the Pap of Glencoe, which we climbed in Lochaber last year. I wouldn’t come down this way though!
Surprisingly, the top of Melbreak is actually quite plateau-like. After lovely views all the way up it was great to see the heather blooming as we traipsed across to the summit at the other end, and a welcome relief to have more manageable gradients after an hour of hauling ourselves up the scree. A small cairn marks the highest point, and then we began our descent down off the fell. I’m not sure if it’s steep or if I just had jelly legs after such a strenuous start, but there was soon a fantastic view down over Buttermere, Crummockwater and Fleetwith Pike which distracted me and kept me happy.
What goes down must go back up, or so the saying (kind of) goes. I think people often do Melbreak and Hen Comb separately because the path linking the two is fairly boggy, however after such a dry spring and start to summer it was actually mostly dry or just marginally squelchy. And, I don’t think it will ever be as bad as Armboth Fell, if that’s a helpful frame of reference for anyone. It was also great for the dogs, with a few streams for them to splash in to cool off. The way was easy enough going until we reached the uphill path to climb up Hen Comb (which was incorrectly plotted on our OS, nearly resulting in a ‘direct route’ assault up the side – keep going and you see a grassy path branching off before you get to the fence at the end).
After the slog up Melbreak, Hen Comb really didn’t feel too bad in comparison, but it is undeniably a steep climb. Fortunately, it’s also over a lot faster! The views at the top aren’t quite on the same level as those from Melbreak and I can’t help but think Wainwright was correct when he wrote that Hen Comb is unfortunate to have Melbreak as a neighbour. However, throughout the whole walk it was great being able to look across to fells we’ve already climbed, including Gavel Fell, Felbarrow and the High Stile Ridge.
With two steep climbs and a descent already under our belts, we were all feeling pretty tired (expect Merry, who as a spaniel has a never ending supply of energy). Happily the descent from Hen Comb is a pleasure, very gentle as far as descents go and with a constantly improving view across to Loweswater and Felbarrow. The descent finished off with a stream with a pool deep enough for the dogs to have a swim: perfect.
Dog friendly rating: 2.5/5. There’s no denying that having a dog with you does make the climb up Melbreak harder, but it’s not impossible – you just need to be confident your dog is well behaved enough not to make it unduly difficult. I wouldn’t have been able to do this with Merry without my canicross harness taking the edge off his lunges. There’s water in-between the two fells but nothing on the hills themselves, and we were glad to have taken extra water for the dogs. There’s one stile on the route, which has a gap for dogs to bypass the stile. Expect to see sheep throughout the route.
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