Great Crag and Grange Fell
Walk date – 14th May 2025
Distance – 5 miles
Weather – dry, very sunny and warm, light breeze, very little cloud, long distance haze
As we have had no serious rainfall for a few weeks now we decided to take a walk up to Great Crag and, to begin with, explore the area on the eastern side of Dock Tarn. We haven’t had the opportunity to do that on previous visits as the land and the established path on the western side of the tarn has always been very wet/muddy so we knew that the state of the ground on the opposite side would be just as bad, or maybe even worse, and nobody wants to go exploring off path over rough heather covered ground while sinking up to the ankles into wet stuff. After our exploration we crossed Green Combe and took to the established path and eventually visited the two tops marking the summit of Great Crag. We then descended Great Crag, crossed over the usually soggy, but bone dry today, ground between and made our way over to Grange Fell. There was less of a breeze today, the sun shone out of a more or less cloudless blue sky and the windproofs and mid-layers we had brought with us stayed in our packs all the time we were out.
Route
Watendlath – Dock Tarn (east side) – Green Combe – Dock Tarn (west side) – Great Crag – Grange Fell – Puddingstone Bank track – Watendlath
As we arrived in Watendlath we breathed a huge sigh of relief when we noticed a bin lorry turning around to begin its journey back down the Watendlath road after collecting the bin bags from the hamlet’s few houses. Meeting a bin lorry on a narrow road which doesn’t have many passing places is not a sight anyone wants to see. Our early arrival meant an empty car park, locked toilets, and a closed cafe/tea garden. Having got our various bits and pieces together we walked through the deserted hamlet, crossed the old stone footbridge over Watendlath Beck and took to the path to begin our walk up to Great Crag.
Walking alongside Watendlath tarn with a view of Great Crag (R) ahead of us. Its a beautiful morning with only a very slight breeze ruffling the surface of the water and, apart from the occasional quack from a duck, there was no sound to be heard.
Great Crag comes into view as we cross the path, which had no muddy sections at all today, leading over to the wall.
J holds the kissing gate open for me as I stop to take the shot. Instead of following the usual stepped path up to Great Crag we veered off the the left after passing through the gate.
A look back down to the gate where the stone track can be seen leading upwards from the gate. We are on a grassy path just a short distance from the stone one and which takes a horizontal line across the hill to meet another path going up the hill.
The path climbing up the hill eventually disappeared so we made our way through the heather filled slopes via various sheep tracks and intermittent grassy areas. Reaching the top of one slope gave the above view of some of the humps and bumps along Great Crag. From time to time we noticed a couple of groups of walkers making their separate ways along the lower paths of the fell, although at this distance it was difficult to see them as they kept disappearing behind the many outcrops and hillocks between us and them.
Eventually we reached the top of one of the hillocks where Dock Tarn suddenly came into view. The view is of the southern end of the tarn and is where walkers would eventually arrive if they were walking up to Great Crag via the Lingy End and Willygrass Gill path from Stonethwaite.
We decided to drop down towards the tarn and test out the dryness of the ground with the option of making for the higher ground on our left if things proved to be too soggy. The 1:25 scale OS map is somewhat vague in its naming of the heather covered hills just ahead of us, it does have the words Black Knott printed over this area, although our route map doesn’t, but it is not clear if Black Knott applies to a specific hill or just the general area. However, I can tell you that over on the right of the shot is High Raise (Langdale) and on the left, behind the heathery hills, is Ullscarf.
We moved down closer to the edge of the tarn to be able to see what can’t be seen from the path on the western side. There are a couple of small bays/inlets which would be an ideal place for a picnic/swim/sunbathe on a day like today. The ground was firm and dry on the whole, there were a few springs bubbling up from the ground here and there but they were easily stepped over, and the only irritant was the scratchy heather on our bare legs. The Herdwicks, of which there were several around, seemed to avoid it too, probably because it catches on their fleeces.
More heathery scratching at our legs between the grassy patches as we dropped down towards the tarn with the ground still firm and dry underfoot. AW on his Great Crag opening page remarked “Lakeland is not usually associated with heather – but here it thrives with a tropical vigour and walking through it is arduous and difficult.’ He wasn’t wrong about that but we weren’t in a hurry and the weather was lovely so we just took our time.
At the tarn’s edge and looking due west across to Great Crag. Its wonderful to be able to see views that have previously eluded you.
We kept close to the water’s edge for the most part but occasionally had to move to slightly higher ground as we walked around the tarn. We are getting closer to the southern end of the tarn now, the area marked on the map as Green Combe, which is brought to a halt by the crags at the far end of it. Once again the OS map is vague about which of those tops in the shot is the one named as High Crag.
We’ve almost crossed over Green Combe at this point so I took a look across at where we had our first view of the tarn after our climb up from the kissing gate via the grassy path. The high point on the left skyline is where we emerged and from where we were able to descend via the grassy rake down to the tarn. The walk beside the tarn had more heather than grass and was a little higher in places which made it difficult to keep strictly to the water’s edge but it was quite do-able.
Having crossed Green Combe we more or less landed straight on the path around the western side of the tarn and proceeded to make our way over to Great Crag.
We stopped at this tarn inlet for a few minutes while we each tucked into a chocolate bar and just sat quietly enjoying the view, the sunshine and the peacefulness of it all.
A brief look into Borrowdale as the path we were following led us upwards towards one of the summits of Great Crag. Over on the left are the twin slopes of Bessyboot (Rosthwaite Fell) and Glaramara (Thorneythwaite Fell), across the valley is Base Brown above which are Green Gable and Great Gable, and over on the extreme right the top of Pillar is just appearing.
One of the two summit cairns of Great Crag nearest the camera, the other one is also in the shot just a short distance away, a path links the two summits.
More or less the same view as the previous photo although now we can see the tops of Bessyboot and Glaramara, with Bowfell, Great End and Lingmell also showing on the left skyline.
Looking due south on the skyline from L to R is High Raise, the little pimple of Pike O’Stickle, the faint bumps of Pike O’Blisco and Cold Pike, Crinkle Crags, Bowfell and Glaramara.
Looking back towards Dock Tarn above which is High Saddle and Ullscarf, the long sweep of Greenup Edge rising up to Low White Stones and High Raise.
Looking east towards the Helvellyn range flanked on the left by Raise and Stybarrow Dodd, and on the right by Fairfield.
To the north east are Great Dodd, Watson’s Dodd, Stybarrow Dodd, Raise and White Side.
Immediately below us is Watendlath and its tarn above which is High Seat and its connecting ridge over to Bleaberry Fell.
Great Crag’s second summit cairn with a very indistinct Skiddaw group on the skyline.
The view more or less due west is of Dale Head, High Spy and Maiden Moor.
We made the very short journey over to the second summit cairn before beginning our descent and crossing over to …..
….. Grange Fell via the path across the flat and usually very wet ground.
A party of young male walkers all carrying large and heavy packs and probably one of the groups we had seen earlier was beginning to descend via the stone pathway shown in the above shot so before they came by I took the shot to show the alternative path, which disappears in the upper right of the shot, we used to get to the tarn area. The young men all strung out along the path gradually came along, made their way down to the kissing gate and having passed through it began their journey along the established path back down to Watendlath.
We passed through the gate a couple of minutes later and made our way across the bone dry ground towards the Puddingstone Bank path going between Watendlath and Rosthwaite heading for Grange Fell.
We decided not to use the stile and walk up on the right hand side of the wall just for a change. On the way up we had a quick natter with a solo walker who mentioned that using the path on this side of the wall meant that he didn’t have to lift his dog over the stile. There’s no need to cross the stile anyway because …..
….. there is a stile where the cross wall meets the one coming up Grange Fell. The Grange Fell wall comes to an abrupt end at this point and once over the stile we are on the open land around the top of the fell. I did wonder how the solo walker and his dog we had just chatted with had tackled this hurdle.
We followed the path from the stile around various rocky bits and pieces for a short distance and almost without warning we were on the top which two young female walkers had just vacated. Looking east from the top is this view of High Seat where we were standing just a month ago on 9th April. There had been no rain for a few weeks on that occasion too and we walked from Bleaberry to High Seat with dry boots just as we’ve been doing today.
The skyline views on display from Grange Fell are – the Helvellyn group over in the east …..
….. the view south towards Low Saddle, High Saddle, Ullscarf and High Raise …..
….. due south is the skyline view of High Raise, Pike O’Stickle, Pike O’Blisco, Cold Pike and Bessyboot …..
….. to the south west is Bessyboot, Glaramara, Great End, Scafell Pike and Lingmell …..
….. Scafell Pike and Lingmell again on the left, Great Gable, Green Gable just below it, Brandreth, Grey Knotts and High Scawdel …..
….. looking more westward now for a view of Dale Head and High Spy …..
….. High Spy and Maiden Moor …..
….. King’s How below us and Maiden Moor, with Grisedale Pike trying to muscle in, on the skyline …..
….. Catbells with a hazy Barf and Lord’s Seat right behind it …..
….. the Skiddaw group, still looking indistinct and hazy, beyond Keswick …..
….. with Blencathra’s distinctive shape just showing behind Bleaberry Fell …..
….. and finally, to complete the circle, the Bleaberry Fell – High Seat ridge.
The rocky top of Grange Fell (Brund Fell is its summit name) is also worthy of a photo, two in this case as its quite long and difficult to get into one shot. This is the southern end of the rockscape …..
….. and this is the northern end. The darker green blobs are tufts of grass not walking boot indentations which they might appear to be at first glance. Why they should be growing amongst ordinary grass I have no idea but there must be some horticultural reason for it. You have to admit, albeit somewhat grudgingly at times, that some of these lower height fells punch way above their weight when it comes to the views to be had from them, encircled as they are by the giants from whose summits long distance views can sometimes be quite restricted. We had a coffee and sandwiches break while we were up here, after which I wandered around taking photos while J removed boots and socks and did a through de-seeding and de-heathering of all of them.
We used the same path for the descent as we did for the ascent as we made our way back to the Puddingstone Bank track. Its just turned 1.00 pm now, the sun is at its highest and the day is becoming very warm and practically breeze free. During our descent we again met up with a pair of walkers who had arrived on one of Great Crag’s summits just a few minutes after we did and were obviously doing the same route as we were. Another quick chat ensued.
We’re almost back down in Watendlath and the sound of lots of voices begins to drift up towards us. When we were finally down we could see that many more people had arrived, some sitting beside the tarn, while others were seated in the cafe garden having lunch or a cup of tea/coffee with cake, or making the most of an ice cold drink, just as we did in the garden’s cooling shade. When we got home I had a look to see what AW had to say about Grange Fell and he wrote thus -‘Not strictly the territory of fellwalkers perhaps, …..yet those who would hurry past ….. would do well to turn aside to it once in a while, alone and quietly walk its sylvan glades and heathery top. The exercise will not tire the limbs, but it will do the heart and spirit and faith of the walker a power of good and gladden the eye considerably.’ I couldn’t have put it better myself, nor do I intend to because the walk we’ve had in today’s lovely weather has done exactly what he said it would do.