Askham, Heughscar Hill and Helton Circular
Walk date – 12th December 2025
Distance – 5.8 miles
Weather – very cloudy until late morning, broken cloud and sunny spells afterwards, no rain or wind
This morning began, as most of the preceding ones have done, with very overcast heavy skies and dull, damp conditions after overnight rain. About eleven o’clock we noticed that the clouds seemed to have become thinner behind which a very hazy sun was trying to appear. We thought there might be a chance of a walk somewhere so, as the brighter conditions arrived a little too late to consider driving any great distance, we decided to go over to Askham, have a walk up to Heughscar Hill and return to Askham via Helton. We had an early lunch and then drove over to Askham where we parked in the swimming pool car park, dropped a couple of pound coins into the honesty box, gathered our gear, called in at the village shop to get a bottle of water which, in our haste we had forgotten to bring, and set off up the hill leading up to Heughscar.
Route
Askham – Riggingleys Top – Heughscar Hill – Moor Divock – Cop Stone – field path to Helton – Askham
Waiting for J’s return from the village shop just behind me I took this shot looking up the hill at the route we will follow out of Askham. The swimming pool car park is out of shot to the right and the entrance to it is behind the Queen’s Head pub which is also just behind me. The sight of blue sky ahead is quite a sight since we haven’t seen any blue above us for what seems like forever.
Just before we left the tarmac lane out of the village we came across this large information board which might be readable with a big zoom in.
Looking ahead from the info board towards Riggingleys Top. The track we’re about to follow is the zig-zaggy one going over to the right from the tarmac lane. It used to be possible to park here but not any more. We remembered coming along here during the summer of 2022 and were surprised to find a gate had been installed, wooden posts in place along the grass verges before the gate and lots of notices saying No Parking. Looks like the Lowther Estate has a thing about car parking as they blocked off parking between the bridge and the church at the entrance to the village a couple of years back.
A look back towards the village from the good track up to Heughscar Hill. The North Pennines are on the skyline with the Eden Valley, and its foggy inversion, just below them. Despite the blue skies ahead of us we don’t have any sunshine yet.
If you live in a part of the country that hasn’t had any rain lately I thought you might like to see an example of it.
Not a lot of folk about today but this cyclist passed us as he made his way up to Riggingleys Top. He chose the more solid track rather than get his wheels bogged down in the grassy one that we followed. We exchanged greetings as he passed by.
We noticed him opening the gate as we were walking up towards it after which he continued on to Heughscar’s top and then disappeared from view. When we reached it J held it open so I could take another shot looking back. The inversion in the Eden Valley didn’t seem to be in a hurry to dissipate. We’re by the gate at Riggingleys Top the name of which appears differently according to which map is being used. I noticed on J’s gps route map it is called ‘Riddingleys Top’ whereas the OS Explorer OL5 map has it named as ‘Riggingleys Top’! So which is correct?
Beyond the gate we walked over towards the next tree plantation, still no sunshine which remained covered over by a large sheet of cloud. At least its white and not dark gray so there is that!
As we got nearer the plantation the cloud thinned and allowed a glimmer of sunlight through. The plantation had also been thinned and quite a lot of the trees inside it have been felled. Take a look at the previous photo and compare it with the one I took on 19th Feb 2017 to see just how much the trees have been thinned out.
Blimey, how about that! Just as we reached the cairn on top of Heughscar Hill the sun slid from behind its white sheet and lit up the whole summit area. Fantastic!
The view of Ullswater from Heughscar Hill. The ‘steamers’ haven’t been able to sail on it since storm ‘Bram’ occurred earlier this week and they are still not sailing as I write (Sat 13th December) due to high winds and high water levels. We took a drive along the lakeshore road a couple of days ago and could see that the water level was very high and, although the road wasn’t flooded, the jetty adjoining the Duke of Portland boathouse was completely submerged and the water level had reached the wall alongside the lakeshore road.
Gowbarrow with hints of sunlight on it here and there. Behind it are the tops of Great Dodd and Clough Head.
The two Mell Fells are also getting some hazy sunlight while Blencathra, on the skyline behind them, sports a cloudy cap.
A skyline full of fells and too many to name but just for fun you could start with Catsty Cam, the pointy one over towards the left, and see if you can put a name to the fells on its left and right.
Below us is Dunmallard Hill and Pooley Bridge and on the skyline are some of the Northern group of fells. Pooley Bridge was deserted when we did our drive along the lakeshore road a couple of days back. This wet and windy weather isn’t helping the tourist trade one little bit.
Fell ponies on Heugh Scar. We didn’t go over and offer them a nice juicy handful of grass as there wasn’t much of it about but it was nice to see them nevertheless.
Blencathra still has its cloud cap but its lower neighbours are clear of it. We continue to enjoy another sunny spell and the wind free conditions.
We walked back along the top until we came to the path leading down to the main one between Roehead and Helton and began our descent. We came across some very soggy sections here and there on the way down.
A bloke and his dog out for a run were going up the hill as we were coming down. We met his wife at the path junction when we reached who said to us, with a smile, “he runs, I walk” as she turned up the path. He was just about on the top by that time.
We continued along the main path across Moor Divock where my eye was caught by the white cloud pouring over the distant North Pennines. A pointed top is visible between the two sets of white cloud and I couldn’t decide whether it was Dufton Pike or Murton Pike as they are not too distant from each other. Its probably Murton Pike as its higher than its near neighbour at Dufton. J was in conversation with a solo walker whose dog had disappeared into the brown camouflaged moorland and he was trying to locate it with a tracker. The tracker located the dog but the guy couldn’t see it in all the various undulations covered by the brown vegetation. The dog, being of the Pointer breed, was also given to standing still and pointing out with its nose what it had located, which only added to the problem. We eventually walked on and when we looked back about 200 yards further on we were relieved to see that owner and dog had been re-united and had taken to the track again.
We’ve reached the Cop Stone where I took another look over to the North Pennines, the white cloud continues to pour over the tops …..
….. and also a look back from it towards Heughscar Hill. The track from the Cop Stone leads to the tarmac lane coming up from Helton village over to Scales Farm. Immediately across the tarmac is the start of this path leading across the fields back to Helton …..
….. so we opted for this one just to explore the landscape. Over on the right skyline is Knipe Scar, the flat topped hill which we walked over earlier this year. (25th March)
We followed the grassy path to this gate & stile. Despite being a bit dilapidated the gate still opened easily so we used that rather than the stile.
Walking across the field from the gate we noticed that the cloud seemed to have stopped pouring over the North Pennines and had now gathered in the Eden Valley. The field had lots of heaps of brown soil so Mr Mole has been busy recently. A mole is sometimes called ‘the little gentleman in the black velvet coat’. This was a toast used by the Jacobites who believed that the death of King William III (a Dutch prince on the throne of England!) resulted from complications after a fall from his horse when it stumbled over a mole hill.
One ewe has an orange rear end and the other one has a yellow one. Wonder which of the two rams will have fathered better lambs come springtime? In the distance is Whale Farm where J and his volunteering pals took a walk recently. J said the farm was ‘all closed up’ when they passed it. The farmhouse is a Grade II listed building so its unlikely to be knocked down. Its privately owned and not on sale so the owners of it are probably waiting for a new tenant to take it on.
Having passed through yet another gate we found ourselves on a steepish path leading straight down to the Helton road. We didn’t want too much road walking so when this small gate appeared we went through it and across a couple more field before arriving at a metal double gate.
Beside the double gate was this small stile with the familiar ‘arrow’ mark on it so it was obviously where we were meant to go. There is quite a drop down to the next level from the stile and it was very muddy so care was needed here.
The path from the stile led us across the field to this stile with missing rungs and a lot of wetness on the other side. From here the path led us over to the corner of the field where the light coloured vehicles are parked.
At the corner of the field was this gate which led us down some very slippery steps covered in wet fallen leaves and down onto the lane in Helton village. There was even a signpost to tell us where we’d been!
The view up the lane in Helton village that we had just arrived on from the slippery steps.
Helton isn’t a large village and a fair number of the cottages seemed to be holiday rentals and it didn’t take us long to follow the lane through the village and drop down the hill back to the road between Askham and Bampton. Once on the road we intended to walk along it for a couple of hundred yards before turning off onto another field path back to Askham. However, despite walking on the left hand side of the road, which is never a sensible thing to do, we saw no indication of a path going across a couple of fields back to Askham, even though one is clearly marked on our map, So we had a little more road walking than we had really intended to do to return to Askham. It didn’t matter too much because the distance was just about the same whether we took to the field path or kept to the road.
The road brought us back right back to where we had started out in the centre of the village. The pub is just opposite, opposite that is the village shop and all we have to do now is cross the road, walk on the left side of the pub and just a few paces further on is the swimming pool car park. Its been a very pleasant change to walk in some dry and sunny conditions and without a howling gale blowing us every which way. The grim weather combined with ever shortening hours of daylight, not to mention several road closures, has been exasperating so we are looking forward to the winter solstice (aka the shortest day) on 21 December when we turn the corner and begin getting our daylight back. It will be even better at the end of March ’26 when the clocks go forward again but that’s a long way off. In the meantime roll on 21 December and Christmas. Every little helps – as they say!