Online Fellwalking Club - A Starling and a Gale

A Starling and a Gale

Written by Peter Burgess

Friday, 06 March 2009

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Jo's photos from the day

Caution: Squirrels

This walk initially included a walk up to the famous Mosedale Holly Tree as marked by Ordnance Survey on their maps. Along with Ann, Jo and the three dogs Jodie, Holly and Bethan, the three of us had a pleasant walk out to the upper reaches of Mosedale. I didn't really want to leave the others, but I had an idea for a longer walk myself and when Ann asked where I wanted to go next I asked if I could split from them to ascend Gale Fell by a rather direct approach.

With Ann, Jo and the dogs disappearing over the skyline I dropped briefly to Black Beck before traversing onto the steep northern flank of Gale Fell, the northern buttress of Starling Dodd. The ascent was uneventful, but the summit of Gale Fell gives an excellent northerly prospect up Mosedale framed by Hen Comb to the north-west and Mellbreak to the north-east. I guess little visited, but the summit is graced by a small tarn and offers that one tonic for an urbanite - solitude.

The Mosedale Holly Tree

Southwards from Gale Fell the mountain plateaus out before the concave slope gradually rises to Starling Dodd 400 feet higher. The architecture of the mountain gives rise to something you'd expect in much larger massifs, it's an alp in miniature.

Sadly, photographic contributions from the next section of the walk were few and far between as the clag had really set in above about 1750'. However, I was surprised to see a number of walkers traversing the ridge from Great Borne to Starling Dodd. Having a brief stop on Great Borne for refreshment, I took a compass bearing just to confirm my intended descent route onto Steel Brow. Keeping right of the fence I descended the steep grass heading for Floutern Tarn and on a couple of occasions took an impromptu anorak slide (this time without snow!).

Starling Dodd

Floutern Tarn may be derived from the Old Norse word flówe meaning 'a watery moss' which would not be inappropriate. The tarn is long and narrow in character and is accompanied nearby by the small peak of Floutern Cop or hill. Why does this top have a name from Afrikaans (Kop=hill) or is it some other root? Whatever the origins of the names, it's a wild and desolate place as you head down towards upper Mosedale and seldom visited by walkers who prefer the more inviting environs of Buttermere, Loweswater and Ennerdale. This is an upland no-man's land surrounded by defensive uplands and a morass like mud-filled wartime trenches - it's a seeming road to nowhere.

Descending from Floutern Tarn, the two becks (Red Gill and Floutern Gill) slowly converge but not before they create an interesting geographical feature in the form of a narrow spur of land falling away sharply on both sides - you can imagine a mountain arete in miniature. If the Saddleback in Charleton Gill, Great Sca Fell gets a mention then why not this? Perhaps AW was not as far-ranging in his walking in these north-western fells, a long way from home.

Kirkhead, loweswater

The becks finally converge and the infant Mosedale Beck falls sharply into the morass of the flówe. From here I simply had to return back towards Loweswater following the course of the ancient roadway that seems to wander this way up the valley. Quite why an engineered road had to come this way seems strange although there were mines in Red Gill and it would also prove a good route to Ennerdale and later the sea (you can nearly trace a straight line from Buttermere to Whins in Ennerdale). Was this the route that Boethar could use in his attempts at remaining free from Norman conquest and so hold on to his Saxon traditions?

After passing under Thrang Crag, I bridged the Mosedale Beck and rejoined the much more trodden way north of the holly tree. A group of walkers were wandering aimlessly on the flanks of Hen Comb until finally they seemed to get their bearings and followed the wall directly up the fell! I again passed the earthworks above Kirkhead pausing once more to wonder at their purpose. A walker passed by and stated its Saxon origins - could this really be the last fragments of some Buttermere and Loweswater kingdom, the last stand against a Norman invader? With these thoughts in my mind and the crags of Grasmoor illuminated bythe setting sun, I ambled down to Loweswater just in time for some afternoon tea. What more could you want? It was the end of yet another excellent Lakeland venture.

Audio visuals from the walk:

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"On Saturday we met up with Ann and Roger Hiley, John Paterson and Terry Gargrave for a walk up High Rigg and on Monday we met Paul Harrison on Pike O'Stickle. It was a real pleasure meeting everybody and we enjoyed every minute." Dave Leslie

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