Last updated 09:43, Thursday, 19 June 2008

Enough of this softie fell-walking, it’s time to start the serious stuff. A strenuous walk with Vivienne Crow

Making an early start: Early morning on top of Cross Fell

MAP: OS Explorer map OL31.

START: Garrigill, near Alston. Please park considerately in the village.

REFRESHMENTS: Thortergill Tearoom and George and Dragon Inn, both in Garrigill.

DISTANCE: 19.3 miles

TOTAL ASCENT: 2,970ft

TIME: 10-12 hours

GRADE: Hard/strenuous

OVERVIEW: What better way to mark the weekend of the summer solstice than to spend a long day on the fells? And by long, I mean 10 to 12 hours – climbing on to the highest point on the Pennine chain, Cross Fell, from Garrigill.

The outward route uses the Pennine Way, which takes the form of a clear track through the old lead mines as far as the bothy, Greg’s Hut. The highlight of this epic walk is the open ridge path that links Cross Fell (2,929ft), Little Dun Fell (2,762ft) and Great Dun Fell (2,781ft) – with its wonderful views across the Eden Valley to the Lake District. But the return via lonely Trout Beck and the River South Tyne’s magnificent wooded gorges is also a joy despite the sore feet.

The walk can be split into the two days by breaking it at Greg’s Hut, 6.4 miles into the walk.

THE WALK: With your back to the George and Dragon Inn, turn left and then left again at the road junction.

In about a quarter-of-a-mile, turn right along a lane signposted “Pennine Way Dufton 15 miles”. The rough, wide track climbs steadily between two drystone walls and then, about 2.5 miles from Garrigill, goes through a gate on to Pikeman Hill where the views across to Cross Fell, Little Dun Fell and Great Dun Fell begin to open out.

This is starting to feel like wild, isolated country now – there’s nothing but heather-clad grouse moors as far as the eye can see and the long track stretching on into the distance.

Ignore one track off to the right as you pass above some old mine workings. Soon after this, the track goes through another gate and starts to swing right to climb through an ugly, but fascinating area of disused mine workings. As you enter the mined area, the track forks (4.7 miles from the start). Bear right to continue uphill.

Beyond the mines, the track heads out on to Backstone Edge where huge shake holes line the route. The vehicle track goes as far as Greg’s Hut (see “points of interest” below), but a stony bridleway continues around the back of the bothy. The ascent eases as you reach a group of stone shelters and a stone waymarker. Turn left here, along a faint and usually soggy path that ascends to Cross Fell’s summit plateau.

As you reach a stupa-shaped cairn on the edge of the plateau, look ahead and slightly to your right and you will see a smaller cairn. Beyond that are a large stone shelter and the trig point (7.5 miles from the start). As befits the highest point along “England’s backbone”, the view from the trig point is magnificent and includes the Lake District as well as the Galloway hills on the other side of the Solway.

From here, follow a line of small cairns heading ESE towards a more prominent cairn on the edge of the plateau. Continue in the same direction towards an even taller cairn and then head down through the rocks to pick up a flagstone path, which swings SE in the general direction of Little Dun Fell.

From the shelter at the northern end of this second summit, walk straight across the grassy top towards the giant ‘golf ball’. Dropping into a second saddle, you will pick up another flagstone path. When this ends, a faint, grassy path heads to the left of the civilian radar station on Great Dun Fell (9.4 miles from the start). As you pass beyond the enclosure, aim for a pole on the hillside and then follow a line of cairns (SSW, swinging SSE). You soon drop into a steep-sided hush, a ravine created by mining operations. Having climbed out the other side, the path follows the lip of the hush downhill. The Pennine Way soon swings away from the gully, but you should continue following the line of the hush until you reach a bend in a clear, stony track. Turn left along the track.

This bridleway soon becomes little more than a faint line through the grass. If in any doubt, simply follow any of the becks downstream; they all flow into Trout Beck, which carves a pleasant valley through the heather moors and down to the infant River Tees.

Just before you reach its confluence with the River Tees, you join a surfaced vehicle track (13 miles from the start). Ignore the first bridge on the right here; continue along the track and then cross the next bridge. The track goes through a gate and then swings left. Follow it past the source of the River South Tyne and then leave it when you reach a farm building close to a bridge (15.9 miles from the start).

(You could continue straight down the track to Garrigill, but the route described here uses the much pleasanter South Tyne Trail.)

Turn right (signpost reads: “South Tyne Trail Garrigill”) to walk around the back of a ruined stone building and then to the right of the large shed. You will see the first of several South Tyne Trail waymarkers here. They will guide you all the way back to Garrigill. As you reach this first waymarker, you will encounter a track. Ignore this; go straight across it, aiming for the next waymarker. The path contours the hillside as you look straight down the rocky gorge formed by the South Tyne. Don’t go through the gate here; instead, head for the small building at a wall corner, and then walk with the fence on your right.

As you walk parallel with the river, a series of stiles now guides you downstream. Eventually, with the house at Tynehead just above, you go through a gate, followed immediately by a narrow footbridge. Cross straight over the track and then go through a tiny, easy-to-miss gated gap stile in the wall on your right.

With the river still on your left, continue along the waymarked trail, passing to the right of the next set of farm buildings – at Hole House (17 miles from the start). After passing a shed on your left, go through a gate and straight across the track to negotiate an awkward stile in the wall opposite. Cross this field and then, once over the next stile, you are walking beside the river again. When you see a wall ahead, cross it via a well-camouflaged stile about 40 yards back from the river. Ignore the bridge and then go through a gate to walk with a fenced area of saplings between you and the river. Leave the grassy trail when it becomes stony and swings right to head more steeply uphill – bear left here, across a tiny beck and then over a fence.

Immediately after the next narrow footbridge, turn left to follow the tributary beck downstream. Cross the step stile at the edge of the trees and then turn right to walk along the top of a pretty, wooded gorge. Ignore a gated bridge over the river, but then cross at the next bridge, close to a fingerpost. Follow the track up to the road (18.8 miles from the start) and then turn right to walk back into Garrigill.

POINTS OF INTEREST: Greg’s Hut was restored in 1972 in memory of John Gregory, who died in a climbing accident in 1968. A group of his friends adopted the hut, an old lead mining building, and continue to maintain it. It receives more than 600 visitors each year, including walkers, shepherds and mountain rescue volunteers.