Beda Fell
Walk date – 27th March 2026
Distance – 3.25
Weather – dry with a misty start but sunny spells soon arrived, strong westerly breeze,
Only a short walk today because its planting time but before we can do any of that the garden has to be made ready and tidied up. There’s plenty to do in that respect so, with a promising forecast which indicated that sunny spells would not be long in arriving, we drove over to Martindale for today’s short walk up Beda Fell. No cars were parked up when we arrived, even though we weren’t especially early, and only a couple of pieces of farming equipment had been left there so there was plenty of space available. We parked in front of the old church of St Martin, waited for the gps gadget to find us and then set off towards Wintercrag farm. The path behind the farm would take us to our first port of call, the viewing bench on the col below Winter Crag. The path then climbs up to Beda Head which marks the summit of Beda Fell.
Route
Off road parking at St Peter’s Church, Martindale – Wintercrag Farm – path behind the farm to the viewing bench – Winter Crag – Howstead Brow – Raven Crag – Low Brock Crags – Beda Head – Low Brock Crags – Raven Crag – Nickles path – Martindale valley road – off road parking at St Peter’s Church, Martindale
Walking towards Christy Bridge and Wintercrag farm with overcast skies above us. Winter Crag is directly behind the farm and to the left of that is a knobbly area known as Nickles. From the small col at Nickles the path then climbs through several craggy areas, Raven Crag, Low Brock Crags and Allen Crag, eventually leading over to the summit at Beda Head.
The old church of St Martin sits below Steel Knotts amongst ancient Yew trees. According to Wikipedia it is a Grade ll listed building with the present building probably dating back to the 16th century and its tiny bell is over 500 years old. The church is never locked and is often visited by anyone passing by it. Nowadays the church is only open for Evensong on the last Sunday of the month from May to August at 5:30pm.
Looking towards Raven Crag as we approach Christy Bridge. The steep path rising to the col between Nickles and Raven Crag can be seen clearly and we will use it for our descent back to the road at the end of our walk.
A line of derelict farm buildings alongside the road below Nickles.
Crossing Christy Bridge over Howegrain beck. The hazy fell on the extreme right of the shot is The Nab which juts out into the valley thus creating two further valleys, Ramps Gill which is visible in the above shot, and Bannerdale which isn’t visible as its hidden behind the lower slopes of Beda Fell. It was all looking very misty along there as we crossed the bridge.
The clouds began breaking up as we climbed up to the col and it was great to have a longish spell of sunshine. We reached the col below Winter Crag and sat on the viewing bench for a couple of minutes before continuing on. We call it ‘the bench with a view’. The view is mostly of Place Fell and the shot above looks towards the south end of it …..
….. and the above shot is showing the northern end.
Looking across Ullswater towards Gowbarrow and the two Mell Fells from the ‘bench with a view’.
Starting the climb up Winter Crag from the col where the bench is situated and where the strong westerly breeze began to make its presence felt. The brown stuff on either side of the path is dead bracken which, as it hasn’t started this year’s growth yet, makes seeing the route across the fell easier. Watch out when it begins to grow again though!
On the left and in the trees at the top of the Howtown zig-zags is the ‘new’ church of St Peter, on the right are the beginnings of the climb up to Birkie Knott, a subsidiary summit of Steel Knotts, and on the skyline between the two are Arthur’s Pike and Bonscale Pike. A smidge of Ullswater has appeared over on the left of the shot.
From Winter Crag a look back to Hallin Fell with its beacon silhouetted against a clear blue sky. Despite the sunshine we kept our jackets on as the lively westerly breeze had a bit of a nip to it and so we weren’t overheating.
The view down into Martindale as we walked along Howestead Brow. The skyline forms the long ridge walk from Loadpot Hill over to High Raise above Haweswater. Still looks a bit misty along there.
From the Nickles area the view up to Raven Crag where …..
….. we met a solo walker and her dog who had just come into our view as they rounded a bend on the Nickles path, to the right of the shot. She was shouting something but the lively breeze took her words with it so we couldn’t make out what she was saying. J went across to hear what she had been shouting and it turned out that she was asking us if we had seen the stags which she had seen above her as she was reaching the end of the Nickles path. We hadn’t seen any deer but then again they see you before you get to see them so it wasn’t surprising that we hadn’t seen them.
After a brief chat the woman and her dog continued up the path to Raven Crag while we remained at the path junction where we were able to take the above shot of Loadpot Hill on the skyline. Below Loadpot is Steel Knotts, below that are the green fields of Martindale and below that is the Nickles path coming up from Martindale where we met the solo walker and her dog.
We began the climb up Raven Crag and before the view disappeared behind the many craggy bits I took a look back. More of Ullswater has appeared behind Hallin Fell, in front of Hallin Fell is Winter Crag, then the nobbly area of Nickles and followed by the path between Nickles and Raven Crag.
Turning the camera to my left from the same spot provided this view looking towards Sandwick, the northern end of Place Fell and another smidge of Ullswater. We kept passing the lady walker who came to a halt quite a few times to take photos, but on one occasion as we stopped to take advantage of a flat topped rock for a Mars Bar break she caught up with us again and we had a longer chat than we’d had so far. We learned that she was from Durham, that it was her last day in the lakes and that she thought one particular campsite was absolutely lovely. We heard all about the broken wrist she had sustained last year and the plate which had been put into it, at which point information re J’s plated ankle from 2016 joined the conversation. Needless to say we had quite a lengthy chat before we eventually parted company. She went on ahead of us while we sat in the sunshine and enjoyed the views. We did see her from time to time above us but we didn’t have another chat.
Eventually we reached the cairn on Beda Head from where I took this shot looking across a shadowy Place Fell towards a distant Blencathra, although its a rather murky view, with a sunnier one of the Dodds on the skyline behind the cairn. When we did the weekly shop in Penrith yesterday most of these higher tops were snow covered and could be seen very clearly in the sunshine. Today none of them had any snow because it rained overnight.
However, looking south across Boredale Hause we could see snow remnants on Saint Sunday Crag but nothing on Gavel Pike. To the left of it Fairfield, Hart Crag and Dove Crag also have odds and ends of remaining snow but Dollywaggon Pike, over on the extreme right, has none at all.
Back to the cairn for a look towards Place Fell and its high point, a rocky plinth, on which the trig column has been placed. The lady walker from Durham is also in the shot sitting in front of the entrance to a old stone shelter. (See our walk of 10th September 2010 for a closer view of the shelter.)
Looking east from just below Beda Head towards Steel Knotts, across the centre, and above it the long ridge line stretching from Loadpot Hill up to High Raise. The clouds are well broken up now revealing acres of blue sky at last. Blue sky has been something of a rarity since Christmas.
A look across the marshy col below Beda Head towards Bedafell Knott. We can just about make out the north top of a sunlit Angletarn Pikes and the shadowy Heck Crag to the left of it. On the extreme left skyline of the shot is the misty outline of Red Screes. We had a short wander around in case we could find any better views but we didn’t so we retraced our steps …..
….. and returned to Beda Head. The solo lady walker had finished her break and had gone on her way so we had Beda Head to ourselves. We didn’t linger on the top as the nippy wind was still around. We kept descending until we came to …..
….. the path from the little col between Nickles and Raven Crag which we used for our final descent back down to the road along Martindale
Looking back up the Nickles path which is much the same standard as the path from Wintercrag farm up to the bench at the col below Winter Crag. It is quite a steep path but other than that its handy to use if you don’t necessarily want to climb up Winter Crag. At the moment the bracken is down which makes path finding/following much better so its perhaps a path best used before the bracken really gets going or when it has begun to die back.
J making his way back down to the Mardale valley road via the Nickles path.
A shot showing the start of the path up to the col between Nickles and Raven Crag. It begins at the wall corner with a short pole marking the start/end of it and there is also a longer pole, which sort of looks like a redundant telegraph pole, just a couple of yards further along the roadside. The path leads back to the tarmac road which eventually goes past the row of derelict farm buildings (included in a photo at the beginning of today’s walk) and back to Wintercrag farm. The walk back to the farm and parking area takes between five to ten minutes depending on how quickly you walk or saunter back to the farm.
We’d just passed the farm and were about to cross Christy Bridge when this pretty little view came in sight which I thought would make a good shot to end with. We then crossed the bridge and walked back to the car where we found that another car had parked alongside ours. As we had seen no-one else all morning we decided that it must have belonged to the solo lady walker from Durham. So that’s today’s short walk brought to an end and the weather we’re having today (Saturday) is quite different. Lots of cloud, a few sunny spells and plenty of showers of rain and or hailstones. We’ve just had quite a fierce shower of hailstones rattling on the windows and doors with the wind blowing them every which way. Looks as though the garden will have to wait until tomorrow, ho hum.