Arthur’s Pike and Bonscale Pike

Walk date – 16th January 2025

Distance – 8.5 miles

Weather – dry, sunny, south westerly breeze,

The sunny and settled weather was forecast to continue today, and until the weekend, so we took a walk over what we refer to as our ‘home’ fell, Arthur’s Pike, which is only a short drive from home. A slow thaw began last Sunday as the milder southerly air stream began to take hold and currently there is very little snow remaining across the fells. The temperature dropped below freezing last night resulting in a light covering of frost so our spikes were packed just in case. We never needed them but wearing gaiters was essential as the route to Arthur’s Pike and Bonscale Pike is usually on the soggy side unless we’ve had a spell of hot sunny weather, which we haven’t.


Route

Heltonhead (off road parking) – Moor Divock – The Cockpit stone circle – Aik Beck – Arthur’s Pike – Swarth Beck – Bonscale Pike – Brown Rigg – The Cockpit stone circle – Moor Divock – Heltonhead

There is plenty of off road parking at Heltonhead so having parked up without any difficulty and got our stuff together we set off across Moor Divock. The sky was blue, the day sunny and, as usual when walking across here, there was also had a slight breeze blowing across the open moorland. The skyline to our left shows Loadpot Hill, on the left, stretching over to Arthur’s Pike on the right.

We’re not walking the main path, the Copstone one, as we prefer this one. Its not often used by cyclists and therefore is always much quieter. I don’t remember ever meeting anyone else whichever direction we’ve been walking it. It might require a zoom in but already some fells tops are beginning to appear in the distance.

This path across Moor Divock has a few very ancient stone structures, as does the entire moor, and the shot above shows a couple of them. Apparently these are but two of the stones which once formed part of a larger circle stretching around the moor. They appear to be the only two left standing now but may once have looked like …..

….. this one. A complete circle of standing stones not too far away from the previous two in the shot above. Were they simply to act as way markers or did they have some other special significance? We’ll never really know I suppose but they are reminders of what used to be of some importance for people in the past, they are much too elaborate to be meaningless.

The path we have been using eventually joins with the main route across the moor and the distant panorama of fells eventually starts to become identifiable.

We arrive at Ketley Gate where we turn off to our left and make our way over the watery path to the stone circle known as The Cockpit.

The stone circle is too large to include the whole thing so this was the best that I could manage at the time. It stands below Heughscar Hill, that’s the one with the trees on top. When the weather is not good enough for the fells a walk over to the stone circle is usually one of our local walks as its only a short walk of about three miles there and back.

Heading away from the stone circle now and making our way …..

….. over to the Aik Beck crossing where there is a choice of two paths. It doesn’t matter which one is taken as they both lead to the same point …..

….. namely the post marking the path junction at the top. As you look at the photo the path to the left and the one behind me both return to the Aik Beck crossing, the one directly opposite leads up to Arthur’s Pike, and the one off to the right continues on to Howtown. We carry on up the slope to Arthur’s Pike, a group of three walkers, silhouetted against the sky can be seen ahead of us.

From the path up to Arthur’s Pike we have a view of the northern Pennines and its highest point, Cross Fell, which still has snow across its summit. We haven’t been over there since 2017 and the route we took then can be seen clearly today. Briefly its the hill to the left of Cross Fell, followed by the long moorland walk up to the summit and returning via the downward slope which ends almost immediately below the summit. It looks a lot longer but the walk covers more or less the same distance as we did today.

We continued on the uphill path meeting patches of hard frozen snow along the way which were easily avoided and why the spikes remained in our packs. The southerly breeze became a little stronger as we climbed higher and we had to push against it, which was somewhat trying given that we already had the sun directly in our faces. One of the group of three walkers is standing, silhouetted against the sky, on the summit of Arthur’s Pike.

We met the group of three coming down off the summit as we walked over to the summit using the same path. At the path junction they began descending back down the same path from Aik Beck they had used for their ascent so that was them done for the day. We carried on up to the summit area where it was rather windier than it was at this point.

From the summit cairn on Arthur’s Pike we have a skyline view of the cluster of fells making up the northern group, the most prominent being the Skiddaw group, over on the left, followed by Blencathra, Bannerdale Crags, Bowscale Fell, High Pike and Carrock Fell. Across the middle foreground are the two Mell Fells and the lower hills below Gowbarrow Fell.

Looking to the south west we see a skyline full of fells too numerous to mention stretching all the way from Dove Crag, on the extreme left, over to Clough Head on the extreme right.

Before we moved on to Bonscale Pike a look back to the summit cairn with the distant Cross Fell providing a snowy contrast just to the right of it.

We made our way over to Bonscale Pike which still had a few snowy patches on its northern face above Swarth Beck.

The view down to Hallin Fell and Ullswater as we cross over.

Still crossing over with a slightly more distinct view of the northern fells and the two Mell Fells. I wondered if the slow thaw had melted all the snow on the north facing sides of the northern fells as there still seemed to be a fair amount on the top of Blencathra.

Descending to the Swarth Beck crossing with a look over Ullswater and its surrounding fells. Bonscale Pike still has largish patches of snow on its north facing slope.

A look back at the derelict sheepfold after the usual soggy crossing of Swarth Beck before beginning to short climb up to Bonscale’s summit. The mushy and very juicy area just seems to cover a larger area every time we cross over it.

The path from the beck crossing to the summit isn’t very long and we soon reached the cairn on the top. One of the Ullswater ‘steamers’ has just left Howtown and is chugging its way back to Glenridding.

The views from the cairn are extensive although the sun together with Loadpot Hill prevented me from taking shots any further to the south …..

….. but a skyline view of everything from Helvellyn to Skiddaw and Blencathra is an excellent offering nonetheless.

Swinging the camera as far south as possible for a view down into the valleys below us. Three fells sit in their respective valleys below us, nearest the centre snowy patch is the ridge line of Steel Knotts in Martindale. Behind that is Beda Fell which itself forms two further valleys, Bannerdale and Boredale, and behind Beda Fell is Place Fell. On the extreme left and the furthest south I could get a view of is High Raise (Mardale) and Rampsgill Head.

Below us is Hallin Fell and the Howtown jetty. Lowly Hallin Fell may not be one of the high fells but climbing its steep sides will still have walkers huffing and puffing as they work their way up.

Finally a look back to Arthur’s Pike from Bonscale Pike before we walk back down to the Swarth Beck crossing. I’m not looking forward to that but I am looking forward to taking a break when we get there, we haven’t stopped anywhere so far other than to take photos so I could do with a short break.

We found a sunny spot out of the wind when we reached the crossing again so we had a ten minute hot soup break. Looking back towards the path between Arthur’s Pike and Bonscale Pike was one of the views we had from the sheepfold.

After our break we decided not to use the path in the previous photo and having spotted a different and higher path as we walked down to the crossing we decided to give that one a try and find out where it would lead us to. We also noticed a much better crossing point as we walked alongside the beck to the path we’d decided to follow.

From the higher path we could see the shape of the sheepfold and the direct path to the summit we had used earlier. A solo walker made light work of the crossing and headed up the same path. He wasn’t wearing gaiters so perhaps he didn’t mind wet trouser bottoms flapping around his ankles.

A view of the northern fells again from the higher path which …..

….. gradually became smaller and smaller as we walked along.

Arthur’s Pike over towards the left as we followed the new, to us, path. It eventually joined the path leading over to Loadpot Hill which we didn’t have time to include today.

When Arthur’s Pike came back into view we went off path and made our way across Brown Rigg heading for the old Roman road route back to The Cockpit. The crossing over was very rough underfoot and had the snow still been around we wouldn’t have even considered it. We eventually picked up the Roman road path which, to be honest, wasn’t a great improvement but at least there was something to follow.

Eventually we were back down to the stone circle and managed to get a full shot of it although I did have to wait a few minutes to achieve it because a chap with three dogs was standing smack in the middle of the circle plying the dogs with treats. He eventually walked off with two of them while the third one remained behind. It sniffed each stone in turn until it looked up and noticed it had been left behind whereupon it scampered off to join them. The photo doesn’t really give an idea of the size of the circle but it is quite a large one.

Back at Ketley Gate where we take the path going up to the right and back to Heltonhead. The uphill left hand path leads up to Heughscar Hill and taking the bottom left turning would take you down to Roehead and Pooley Bridge.

Walking back along the main path over Moor Divock where, at this point, we branch off to the left and …..

….. return to the circle cairn and …..

….. pass by the two standing stones once again. We continue on until …..

….. the path comes to an end beside the road which only leads to Scales farm. Our car is the darker one of the two parked there and it will be nice to sink into its seats after stowing our packs and walking poles into the boot. Before switching off the gps J informs me that we’ve walked 8.5 miles, no wonder I’ve got back ache!