Great Meldrum and Gowbarrow Fell
Walk date – 29th October 2026
Distance – 3.6 miles
Weather – damp, overcast, high fells covered by cloud, occasional and fleeting glimpses of sunshine, hardly any breeze, cool but mild
I came across a new word today, well it was new to me because it is a German word and, despite having spent a term supposedly learning German whilst I was at school, I couldn’t get to grips with the language at all and so I dropped it. It was a voluntary subject, a time filler in other words and I chose something else instead. I was much better at French anyway and it was one of my O Level subjects so I concentrated on that instead. The word I came across was ‘dunkelflaute’ and is a combination of two German words: ‘dunkel’ meaning dark and ‘flaute’ meaning lull, which in English translates as ‘dark doldrum’. The word is often used in connection with a weather phenomenon which usually arises when there are shorter daylight hours and a lack of wind activity. Apparently we are in a ‘dunkenflaute’ situation at the moment, which can last for several days, often with accompanying foggy conditions which is probably why the weather forecast had such dire warnings about extensive fog in some valleys. Apparently in the south lakes one had to be above 300 metres to escape its clutches, and in the north lakes you would have to be higher than 500 metres before you were above it. Imagine then our surprise, on looking out of the window, and seeing not a trace of anything that could be remotely described as ‘foggy’. That’s despite living in the Eden Valley which collects fog with all the zeal of a dedicated stamp collector. Instead of fog there was a sunny start to the day but which all to soon turned overcast and rainy as the cloud came rolling in. As the forecast had mentioned that the cloud might possibly break up and we would get some sunny spells during the afternoon we waited until about eleven o’clock before setting out to take a short walk up Gowbarrow Fell from The Hause. By the time we got there the clouds had darkened considerably and were low enough to obliterate many of the fell tops around us. Sunny spells were in short supply today, we were rained on a couple of times and the light was very poor for photography. It was definitely a ‘dunkelflaute’ day.
Route
The Hause – re-routed track around new plantation – Great Meldrum – Gowbarrow Fell – descent from Gowbarrow Fell – path alongside the wall back to The Hause
We just managed to squeeze ourselves into the last car parking space at The Hause where J got involved in a conversation with a telecomms chap doing something or other to the large green junction box that is situated at the top of the road. During the conversation with the telecomms chap I had been watching a couple of walkers coming down the track shown in the shot above so I made my way over to the gate to ask them to leave it open as we would be passing through but by the time I had threaded my way past all the parked cars and reached it they had passed through it and were walking down the hill towards Great Mell Fell. Having untied the baler twine and opened the gate I waited for J to join me and we finally were able to get on with our walk. Once through the gate it was a muddy walk up the track and below the nameless hill in the above shot. The sky reveals why there aren’t as many photos as usual, it just wasn’t the right sort of a day.
Cloud hanging over Blencathra as we walked along the muddy track.
Looking ahead to Gowbarrow Fell with the cloud behind it concealing the fells in the background.
New gate and stile along the way …..
….. and we knew that we had been re-routed when we saw young trees growing where only the deforestation had been which met us on our last visit in 2020. The above shot is looking back along the re-routed track towards Little Mell Fell. For further details see – https://www.wainwrightwalking.co.uk/gowbarrow-fell-and-great-meldrum/
We were beyond the new young trees at this point and as we walked along this bright spot caught my attention. A splash of sunlight had landed on the Howtown side of Hallin Fell and lit up the slopes below Loadpot Hill.
The forest track began to turn downhill and where it did we could see the path rising up Great Meldrum on the other side of the fence. We noticed a gate, on our right, leading to the start of the path above the tree line so we passed through the gate and began the muddy climb up Great Meldrum.
In the couple of minutes that had passed I took another look over towards Hallin Fell but the sunny spell was gone, had been replaced by very low cloud and my specs began to be spattered with raindrops.
Still raining as we paused for this look back from the beginning of the path up to Great Meldrum. On the right is part of Ullswater and over on the left is the nameless peak which we passed below at the beginning of our walk.
The path up Great Meldrum is fairly gentle and we paused to take a look back when the whole of Little Mell Fell came into view over on the left. I kept having to wipe the raindrops from my specs all the way along.
Down in the dip from where just the top of Gowbarrow Fell was in view and it has stopped raining at last. I don’t mind the rain but I do need to see where I’m going and continually wiping the raindrops from my specs becomes a pain after a while.
From the top of the rise we could see the trig point on Airy Crag, the summit of Gowbarrow, and several other walkers making their way up. The two walkers over on the left were using the stile in the wall’s steps as seats for their lunch break. They very kindly moved their sitmats and lunchboxes as we approached the stile.
After crossing the stile we crossed the very squelchy path over to the one leading up to Gowbarrow summit. This signpost is at the junction of the two paths.
Progress was better after reaching the path up to the summit as some work has been done on it, but its only partial and more needs to be done to avoid further erosion. Gowbarrow Fell is a popular walk with both visitors and local residents as its not very high and can usually be walked whatever the weather. Don’t be fooled by what looks like blue sky, it was only a lighter coloured version of the dark stuff! The sunny spell landing on Little Mell Fell …..
….. happened again as we reached the trig column, we didn’t get any of it …..
….. and neither did Great Mell Fell.
The other walkers we noticed making their way up to the summit were leaving just as we arrived and are now strung out along the path back down to Aira Force. Blencathra and the Skiddaw group are well wrapped in cloud at the moment.
We had the summit to ourselves so I took the opportunity to take a few shots of the surrounding scenery but all of it had cloud drifting around. We were able to make out Clough Head, Great Dodd and Watermillock Common but that was about it.
Slightly further to the left and we should be able to see the Helvellyn range but not today. Lots of those small wooden barriers have been sited across parts of the fell where the Park Authority doesn’t want walkers to tread.
Looking across the heather covered slopes of Gowbarrow Fell, and almost all of the northern stretch of Ullswater, towards the Arthur’s Pike/Bonscale Pike ridge (R) and Heughscar Hill over on the left.
Looking due south and the two smoky fells on either side of one of Gowbarrow’s crags are Place Fell (L) and Saint Sunday Crag (R).
Another look over to the Skiddaw range and Blencathra where the tops are still hidden by cloud, although …..
….. some of the fells on the eastern side of the range are beginning to clear and we can now see, from L to R, Bannerdale Crags, Bowscale Fell and its east top, although Carrock Fell, over on the right of the shot, still has to clear. We had descended Gowbarrow at this point and when we came to the sign at the path junction we didn’t take the path over Great Meldrum again as we had decided to return by another route.
Great Mell Fell again, this time it did have a little glimmer of sunlight on it. The shot was taken from a little hill more or less above Ulcat Row.
Carrock Fell, on the extreme right is at last clear of cloud and I think the buildings below us are part of Moorend farm.
Walking back to The Hause along the path alongside the wall. J is marching along while I stop for another shot of Little Mell Fell getting another splash of sunshine.
The nameless hill and the tree plantation came back into view as we walked along. This path was quite rough and squelchy too but very walkable if you don’t mind long grass.
From the top of a rise a look back along what used to be a deforested area but is now full of young trees, and the rough track alongside the fence where we’ve just been walking …..
….. and from the top of the next rise a look back at the stile which, once crossed, leads straight onto the forestry track that we started out on. There doesn’t seem to be a track through the young trees plantation any more and there appears to be only the two routes we’ve used today. Clough Head, Great Dodd and Stybarrow Dodd were clear of cloud as I took this, the final photo, from today’s walk. It hasn’t been a long walk but its been good to be out walking again. If only it hadn’t been such a ‘dunkelflaute’ day! How is it pronounced? Well the ‘au’ makes a sound like the ou in ‘ouch’ and not like the ‘au’ in ‘caught’, and the final ‘e’ is emphasised by using an ‘uh’ sound. I did say that I couldn’t get to grips with the language but that’s how I would pronounce it.