Green Bell and Hunthoof Pike
Walk date – 24th August 2024
Distance – 6.7 miles
Weather – dry with high cloud and plenty of sunny spells, very windy
The weather has been very unsettled during the past couple of weeks with lots of rain and very strong winds. It was especially bad during Thursday night into Friday when another of those ‘named’ storms came along. We woke up to a very bedraggled state of affairs in the garden which we could do nothing about until the winds began to ease down a little. After waiting most of this morning for the rain to stop and the skies to clear we took an afternoon walk today from Town Head, at the top of the village of Ravenstonedale, and walked the valley route from there up to Spengill Head and on to Green Bell. Its a route we haven’t walked before although we have been up to Green Bell on a couple of previous occasions. The predominant factor today was the strength of the wind, especially on the tops of Green Bell and Hunthoof Pike. Despite that it was lovely to have plenty of sunny spells once again although it wasn’t a t-shirt and shorts day and the windproofs stayed on despite the sunshine as it became quite cool when some of the larger clouds cast their shadows over us.
Route
Town Head – Kilnmire – Wye Garth – Wyegarth Gill – Long Gill – Spengill Head – Green Bell – Hunthoof Pike – Dale Tongue – Dale Gill – High Cocklake – Low Cocklake – Greenside – Town Head
We parked the car off road, on the grassy area on the right of the shot, on the lane leading up to the farms at Artlegarth and Adamthwaite, the latter being where the tarmac lane comes to an end. We walk to the end of the lane at which point we curved round and began walking …..
….. up the very puddly track towards our destination, Green Bell, the high point in the centre of the shot. Sunshine there may be but at this point I had the hood of my windproof pulled tight around my head while J toughs it out.
The back yard of the farmhouse at Kilnmire, all very neat, tidy and tickety boo.
Further along the track is the old barn at Wye Garth …..
….. and when we got closer I took a shot of it. The stony track more or less comes to an end around this point and from now on its just a case of following quad bike tracks or sheep trods. It was wet all the way round today no matter what track we were following.
A look back across the fields to Town Head.
This group of sheep seemed to be using the tall reedy grasses for shelter against the strong wind.
Wild Boar Fell on the skyline to our left as we pick our way over the rough grassland.
Wyegarth Gill needed to be crossed which created a problem for me and my little short legs so I ended up using the ‘sheep stopper’ wooden fencing across it with J helping me from the grassy bank on the other side of it. A few wobbly moments later then I was safely across.
We kept the fence line in view and as we continued alongside it we noticed the old barn at Thornthwaite on the other side of the gill.
Ploughing through the long wet grasses opposite Snowfell End, which forms the tail end of Knoutberry
We’ve arrived at the point where the path we’re using crosses the one between Knott and Knoutberry. This is the view towards Knott and …..
….. this is the other side of it which climbs up to the top of Knoutberry. We walked this route on 3rd August 2021, if you have a look at that walk the 8th picture down shows the path we are using today quite clearly.
We skirted around Knoutberry, followed an old quad bike trail and headed up the valley towards Spengill Head. The terrain became even rougher along here.
Having skirted Knoutberry we now begin to skirt around Green Bell. J is trying to find the driest route above Long Gill, out of shot to the left. Even so the long grasses were still hanging on to plenty of water.
Further up the Long Gill valley I took a look back to see a very sunny Knott. On the centre skyline sunshine has also lit up High Pike Hill, the end point of Mallerstang Edge.
A view of Green Bell from Spengill Head. The OS map doesn’t show any path leading up to Spengill Head from the Long Gill valley side but there clearly is one on the ground and is the one I used to get to this point. J left the path a little way below this point to cut across and join the path at Spengill Well where I joined him after taking a few shots from Spengill Head …..
….. the view along the valley we’ve just walked through, Knoutberry (L) and Knott (R). There was a pile of stones nearby but whether it marked the top of Spengill Head or whether it was simply a waymarker I don’t know …..
….. on the Rawthey Valley side of Spengill Head are good views of some of the other Howgill fells. In this shot, from left to right are Great Dummacks, Yarlside and Kensgriff …..
….. opposite them is Wandale Hill behind which are Knoutberry Haw and to the right of that is Whernside over in the Yorkshire Dales. Behind Whernside is Ingleborough. The third of Yorkshire’s ‘Three Peaks’, Pen-y-Ghent, isn’t in view.
From Spengill Head we carried on up to the path passing between Green Bell and Stockless. When we reached it we turned right and a little way along it I turned around for this sunny view of Stockless (aka Spengill Fell), Randygill top, Hazelgill Knott, immediately behind which is Fell Head.
More or less the same view as in the previous shot which now includes Simon’s Seat, over on the right at the end of the long sweep down from Fell Head.
Turning back around we continue the sunny walk over to the trig column on Green Bell where the wind became even stronger.
The view to the north west from Green Bell summit standing at 605 metres or 1984.9 feet. The Lake District fells form the skyline from the trig point over to the left of the shot. Across the middle foreground is West Fell, the fell in shadow to the left of the trig column is West Grain while to the right of it is Hunthoof Pike.
The view to the north east brings in the North Pennines and our next path which will take us down to Hunthoof Pike. The wind was so strong up here we couldn’t hear each other speak and, even though it was pulled tightly around my head, the hood of my windproof was rattling furiously.
It didn’t let up all the way down to Hunthoof Pike either.
Down at Hunthoof Pike and a look back up to Green Bell where the trig column can still be seen to the right of centre.
Green Bell’s trig column could still be seen when I took this shot of the gullies over on the West Grain side of Green Bell.
I wandered over to take a closer look at West Grain’s spectacular gullies. Deep gullies are a feature of the Howgills but they are usually not quite so close together as they are on West Grain so these were more unusual.
The pile of stones marking the top of Hunthoof Pike although it doesn’t quite have the appearance of a pike as its more of a rounded hump than a pike. From here we crossed back to the main path which we walked for a short way before …..
….. leaving it and taking a more or less pathless route down Dale Tongue. On the extreme right of the photo are the buildings of Town Head nestling amongst the green fields and to the left of them is Greenside Tarn. Just below the tarn a stand of young trees are growing in what used to be a former quarrying area.
Making our way down, now via a quad bike track, towards Dale Gill whose gullies can be seen over on the right.
What a difference sunshine and blue skies make. Together they created a lovely view over towards Mallerstang Edge.
The former quarrying area now with a stand of trees growing well in the sheltered areas. Notice that the tubes of plastic supposedly protecting young saplings don’t have very much greenery growing out of them. Like us, plants like to be sheltered from the wind and those planted where there is no shelter simply don’t thrive.
Below me J scouts around Dale Gill looking for a suitable crossing point …..
….. while I’m still taking in the view and looking for the next path we need. The hill in the shot is High Cocklake and the path we need is the one going out of shot over on the left.
J found a suitable crossing point and after helping me across J proceeded to follow the upper path over High Cocklake instead of the lower one. A very wet and spongy walk ensued.
Greenside Tarn from the descent of High Cocklake.
A look back at our route as we cross the fields of Greenside. Green Bell is on the centre skyline dropping down to Hunthoof Pike over on its right. To the left of Green Bell is Knoutberry which we skirted around on its far side. Coming down between Green Bell and Hunthoof Pike is the lighter coloured slope of Dale Tongue.
Lots of very young calves and their mothers at the end of the next field we crossed none of whom took the slightest bit of interest in us. The muddy mess beside the gate made for an interesting passage through it.
A lovely view of Wild Boar Fell on the way across the field.
Dropping down the steep slopes towards the footbridge across Wyegarth Gill. After crossing the gill we turned half right up the opposite slope towards a stile. After crossing that we continued up the hill towards the buildings of …..
….. where we have just had a chat with the farmer’s wife after I had asked her where the footpath was. We were passing through the farmyard at the time and we knew there was a pathway around the farm but weren’t able to locate it. She told us that it went around the back of the farm but said that it was ok for us to walk through the yard as it led straight out onto the road. I told her that we had been up on Green Bell and that it was very windy and she replied that the weather can get very wild up there. It was still blowing as we were standing there in the farmyard and re-arranging the hair of the three of us. I call it my ‘dragged through a hedge backwards’ look, she called it her ‘quad bike’ look. Whatever you call it your hair still looks a mess!
We emerged from the farmyard, on the left of the shot, and straight onto the road at Town Head. If this road is followed it takes you down the hill through the rest of Ravenstonedale village. There are a couple of pubs at the bottom of the village, The King’s Head, where we have had a meal in the past. reasonably priced and good quality, and The Black Swan where we haven’t had a meal, largely because we looked at the menu prices and that was that, so I can’t say what their food is like. From this point we turned right and began walking down the hill.
The Town Head residents have certainly got a great view of Wild Boar Fell. From Town Head there is only a very short walk back to …..
….. the road bridge across the beck and back to the car which is parked on the grass verge just behind the bush, beyond the wall, alongside the beck. Ankles and knees are beginning to feel the after effects of a few miles of walking over rough ground so we made our way back to the car and sank into its comfy seats with some relief. All we needed now was a nice hot cup of something soothing so we drove home and made one. A nice day but it would have been a whole lot more pleasant without the constant wind.