On our Wainwright bagging journey, there have been some fells which we’ve felt more trepidation about than others. Some, like the Mosedale Horseshoe, I’ve worried about the length of the walk and my fitness, while others are notorious for being dull (Mungrisdale Common) or in many cases, supremely boggy. High Tove and Armboth Fell fall firmly into the final category, and I’d seen many Facebook horror stories of boots awash with bog and soggy feet within next to no time. But Wainwrights they are, and so on a sunny August day last year we set out to tick them off.
We followed a four mile route from WalkLakes taking in just High Tove and Armboth Fell, having already bagged other fells which after often combined on a route with these two, such as High Seat and Walla Crag. Given that we did this walk on a sunny weekend in August, we were surprised that there was plenty of space in the car park, a pay & display along the shore of Thirlmere – especially given that all of the car parks for Raven Crag that we drove past on our way there were full.
With the sun shining down it was fairly warm as we set off. The climb uphill starts almost immediately, with a fairly steep incline which carried on for longer than I was expecting. I don’t know why I assumed that the bogginess meant there would be very little uphill! Happily, there was quite a bit of shade as we ascended, helping to keep both us and the dogs cool. Eventually the climb eased off and the trees receded, and it was at this point that I noticed it becoming a little squelchier underfoot.
The trees were suddenly swapped for ferns and heather, and the path gradually deteriorated from a surfaced track into a faint trod running through bog, in some places vanishing completely. We aimed towards where we knew the summit of High Tove waited, heading gently uphill through increasingly boggy terrain. However, and I might be the only person to ever say this, we didn’t think the bog was too bad! Yes, it was squelchy and wet pretty much ceaselessly from this point, but we both had our boots on and at no point did it go over the tops or soak through. That might have been a different story in winter or if it had been wetter in the preceding days though…
At the top of High Tove there’s a small cairn, and OK views across to the distant fells and over to our next target, Armboth Fell. With the path being mainly invisible, we took a ‘direct route’ approach and aimed for the rocky outcrop of Armboth Fell in the distance. This was probably a bit deeper and wetter than the walk up High Tove, but still not unmanageable – although I did start placing my feet with more care, aiming for firmer and more solid looking bits of ground.
The plus side is, Armboth Fell is smaller than High Tove, making the walk across very easy (bog aside). The Birkett of Armboth Fell and the highest point isn’t actually the Wainwright, with the Wainwright top being another 200 metres further on. The Birkett is still worth visiting though, as we actually thought the views were better from here than from the Wainwright, especially with the heather in bloom in mid-August.
For our return we pretty much free-styled it back to the main path from the car park, walking wherever it looked least boggy. A handy tip is that heather likes drier ground, so walking closer to the heather it is at least slightly less boggy than elsewhere. Of course, the dogs weren’t bothered by the bog at all, and it had the handy effect of helping to keep them nice and cool with the warmer weather. Then, once we’d regained the outward (mercifully surfaced) path, we were treated to some lovely views of Thirlmere on our way down.
Dog friendly rating: 5/5. This was actually one of the most dog friendly Wainwright walks we’ve done. There were no stiles, plenty of water underfoot keeping them cool, and no livestock, as well as being very quiet. Of course, as with any fell walk in the Lakes you should be prepared for there to be sheep even if we didn’t see any!
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