Burnbanks and Four Stones Hill
Walk date – 5th September 2025
Distance – 4.75 miles
Weather – a couple of warm sunny spells between heavy grey cloud and spits and spots of rain, breezy
We hadn’t planned on walking around the various humps and bumps above Burnbanks today but that’s where we ended up after abandoning our intended plan thanks to the weather. We could see that the fells to the west were largely obliterated by very low and heavy cloud so we decided not to bother with the planned walk and headed over to Burnbanks instead. We’ve had quite enough of low grey cloud over the years and don’t feel it necessary to expend the energy required only to arrive at the summit and not be able to see anything except clammy, grey mist swirling around us. The forecast for today had mentioned that the chance of any sunny spells today would be better in the east so that’s where we stayed. We have often remarked that the Eden Valley sometimes happens to be the sunny filling in between two very cloudy slices of bread, the slices being the North Pennines and the Lake District fells of course. That’s not to say that we had wall to wall sunshine today, because we didn’t, but we did have a couple of warm sunny periods in between the heavy grey cloud cover so all in all we didn’t have too bad a weather day.
Route
Burnbanks village – Haweswater shore path – Measand Beck – Four Stones Hill – ‘Pyramid’ cairn – path below Great Birkhouse Hill and Burn Banks – descent path down to Burnbanks village
The direction signpost at the entrance to Burnbanks village which I find quite charming, probably because all the direction signs around my Yorkshire village looked like this so its something I grew up with. The sign sits on a small triangle of grass at the beginning of the village where the road begins to curve round and go over to Mardale Head. There is usually some roadside parking available just behind me on the Haweswater road and that’s where we parked today. Having got our things together we walked back up to the signpost, turned left and walked along the lane leading to …..
….. the village of Burnbanks, although the village nowadays isn’t as big or as busy as it would have been during the 1930s when Manchester Corporation employees were constructing the Haweswater reservoir. The village was built as temporary accommodation for the employees and their families while the reservoir was under construction. When the reservoir was completed and the accommodation was no longer needed most of the temporary houses were dismantled, but a few were saved and these have been refurbished over the years and now form what remains of the former ‘temporary’ village. There was a chap working in one of the gardens, our of shot over to the left, but apart from him there was no-one else around and the whole place was silent. It always makes you feel as though you should tip-toe through it so as not to disturb the silence. We followed the lane going up to the right.
The lane is nothing more than an access road for the houses which are located along the side of it and the tarmac surface comes to an end just beyond the last house. From that point on it becomes a well worn track leading to a gate beyond which is another sign which points out the direction that walkers should take. Considering that Manchester Corporation Water Works (since subsumed first by North West Water and then United Utilities) must have installed the sign about ninety years ago the sign still looks to be in reasonable condition. The same could not be said with regard to the dilapidated shed beyond the gate.
We turned up the slope from the signpost which curved around and eventually led us up to the path high above Haweswater. We met a chap out walking his dog who was just returning to the village and exchanged greetings, he was the only person we saw today.
The exposed dry perimeter of the far side Haweswater indicated how low the water level still is even though we have had lots of rain lately.
Approaching the deer gate and still in murky conditions although in the distance we can see some sunlight landing on the tops of the hills ahead.
The breaks in clouds allowed sunlight to gain a foothold and suddenly the southern end of Haweswater and the surrounding fells came alive just as we were nearing Measand beck. We had been hearing the roar of it long before we set eyes on it.
A look back at the footbridge across the beck which had plenty of water gushing down it today …..
…… but the falls were difficult to take shots of as the trees and shrubs are still in leaf.
This is where the beck meets reservoir. Measand beck was doing its best to add its contribution to Haweswater but I suppose topping up the reservoir’s capacity of 18,697 million gallons or about 85,000 million litres is bound to take quite a bit of time. After all, when the reservoir was completed it took almost a year to fill to capacity!
From the bridge we climbed up to this viewpoint for a shot of Haweswater, looking towards the dam end of it, and also to remove our windproofs as we were now overheating during this sunny spell.
We began the climb up beside the beck where again leafy branches obscured most of the shots I took of the numerous falls along the way. …..
….. and the roar of the water dropping down over waterfalls and squeezing through the various gullies was tremendous.
We were also having to fight our way through tall wet bracken as we climbed up beside the beck and with the sun on our backs we eventually had to stop and wipe the sweat from our faces. I took the above shot of Four Stones Hill from the face wipe stop.
Still in the sunny spell as we approached the deer gate and fence across the beck with Bampton Common in the background. We are heading for the bridge which is just showing above the top rail of the fence across the beck.
A brief stop before we crossed the bridge for another face mopping and a drink of water. This sunny spell is lasting a long time.
Another view of Four Stones Hill before we crossed the bridge …..
….. and the view upstream towards Fordingdale Bottom …..
….. the view downstream towards Hugh’s Laithes Pike and Naddle Forest …..
….. and the view of Measand End after crossing the bridge. Looks like the heavy cloud is about to blot out the sunny spell. As we walked the path the spits and spots of rain began, not an absolute downpour needing a stop to put on the waterproofs, but enough to make me fed up with wiping them off my specs every couple of minutes. Wiper blades for specs needed!
From the bridge we made our way across to Four Stones Hill and when I took a look back the cloud cover had reduced the view of the fells at the southern end of Haweswater to a grey amorphous mass. It was much breezier along here too, even at this low height,
Heading along the path towards Four Stones Hill where J remarked that we’d come across a group of fell ponies the last time we walked along here and we wondered if we would see them today …..
….. which we did a few minutes later. J had just tried to give this one a handful of grass but it was having none of it, turned tail on him and walked across the path to join its mates …..
….. and there it is with its bum towards us. In the background is Four Stones Hill where its two remaining stones can be seen just above the pony on the left.
The next handful of grass was accepted, the pony chomped away on it and came back for more.
Another bunch of ponies were up on the skyline so there was quite a big group of them altogether.
We headed for the tarn situated below Four Stones Hill to look at its water level which seemed to be a little lower than usual. Most of the stones are generally submerged but they were still quite visible today. Notice the ripples on the surface as quite a stiff breeze was blowing over it, and us!
Up on Four Stones Hill now with a view of the ponies below and the two remaining stones to the right of the shot.
Still on Four Stones Hill with a look across the tarn area to the group of ponies which were on the skyline a couple of photos back. They haven’t moved but we have so what appeared as a skyline before now looks nothing like one.
Looking back at the top of Four Stones Hill as we began to drop down towards the ‘pyramid’ cairn. The shaded hills behind it form part of Bampton Common.
Looking down at Haweswater as we made our way down to the cairn in the bottom right corner of the shot.
Down at the ‘pyramid’ cairn where there is still a lot of heavy cloud towards the southern end of Haweswater, but where we were enjoying a little sunny spell.
Another view of the same cairn, built on a rocky slab at about the 370 metre mark, and with a fine view of Haweswater in both directions.
More streams of white water flowing down into the reservoir although we couldn’t determine where it was coming from other than the wooded area below Hugh’s Laithes Pike. There is an outlet marked on the map but no mention of its source. Notice the lively breeze rippling the surface of the water.
The view back to Four Stones Hill (L) and Great Birkhouse Hill (R). The bracken is on the turn now, trees and shrubs are full of berries, blackberries are ripening, mushrooms are appearing and leaves are turning from green to yellow and are beginning to fall to the ground. The summer is slowly coming to a close and all the signs of the approaching autumn are present and clear to see. September 21/22 marks the autumn equinox and the beginning of the autumn season once again. Time to put the shorts away then, I suppose.
A clearer view of the low water level now that we have a view of the western side of Haweswater.
Passing below the two humps of Burn Banks. The one in the shot which has some fence posts on its top, a zoom in will help. It used to be the site of a radio mast and our walk map of 24th Feb 2017 shows the symbol for such a mast. Today’s walk map doesn’t show that symbol so the OS must have done a re-vamp in the intervening years. I haven’t checked the maps of the other walks we’ve taken across here so if you want to check them out just type Four Stones Hill into the walks search box and they should appear.
I think the building nestling into the little hollow in the centre of the shot is the farmstead at Littlewater. We have just passed below Burn Banks and are making our way down towards the wall at the bottom of the shot. Its a peaceful pastoral scene despite the threatening clouds.
Another tranquil pastoral scene as we make our way down to the gate leading onto the lane to and from Burnbanks village. An old lonning is directly below us and Knipe Scar is the tree covered hill on the skyline.
Once we pass through the gate we’ll be on the Burnbanks village lane, we’ll turn left and walk the two hundreds yards or so back to the little triangle of grass where the direction sign is. From there it is only a few paces to where the car is parked and then today’s walk will come to an end. It wasn’t what we had planned to do nor was it as long as we had intended, but you have to make the best of what the weather presents you with, and as J remarked the fells will always be there and can always be walked another day.