Hatteringill Head, Fellbarrow and Low Fell
Walk date – 2nd April 2025
Distance – 6.8 miles
Weather – dry and very sunny, fresh and blustery east wind
We drove over to Lorton Vale today to take a walk we’ve done several times already but which still remains one of our favourites. Its another one of those ‘stand alone’ fells which by their distance from other fells means that there are many and varied views on offer. We started out from home early(ish) and were parked up in the small pull-in at approx 8.30 am. We had brought breakfast with us so on arrival and with the pull-in empty we parked up easily and began tucking in. We had just about finished eating when a car came down the road from the village and pulled in behind us. When we saw it coming down the lane we were pleased that we had started out early as there is only a small amount of space, and the driver of the other car probably muttered under his breath when he spotted our car already parked there. We packed the breakfast gear away, tucked it into the boot. got our walking gear together, switched on the gps, waited until it located us and then set off up the road towards the village for our sunny (and windy) day on the fells.
Route
Thackthwaite (road side parking) – field path from village – Hatteringill Head – Fellbarrow – Smithy Fell – Low Fell (north top) – Low Fell (south top) – Crabtree Beck – off path route around southern point of Low Fell – established path below Low Fell – Thackthwaite
From our road side parking spot, just a small pull in for about three or four tidily parked cars, we walked up the quiet lane and into the tiny hamlet of Thackthwaite. A few paces further on from the Welcome sign we turned up a concrete driveway between two former farm houses to begin today’s walk. Daffodils a-plenty along the way and the scent of a variety of many other garden blooms drifted our way from time to time. Despite the sunny morning the air was still quite chilly so we kept our jackets on for the time being.
The track from the village leads along a shaded, wet and stony path before it opens out onto this open field with its backdrop of the sprawling length of Low Fell. Our return path will be along those lower slopes, although we can’t see it at present. Its located somewhere between the brown bracken covered fellsides and the green fields below.
We’ve arrived at the field gate which brings us out onto the path curving around the northern end of Low Fell. The sun beating down on our necks and backs as we climbed the slope soon got rid of the morning chill which resulted in the pair of us removing jackets and jumpers in order to cool us down a little.
We followed the uphill path to this point where the path splits, the left hand one continues up and around the northern end of Low Fell while the right hand one carries on towards the little col between Fellbarrow and Hatteringill Head. We followed the right hand path …..
….. and carried on up a slight slope before having to drop down again to the beck crossing at Meregill Beck. After the gill crossing the path rises up the short banking and then very gradually turns up towards the wall over on the extreme left of the shot.
From the gill there is a steady ascent up to the col and from where I took a look back at the path which rises along the slopes of the northern end of Low Fell. We have used that path occasionally but we find it quite tedious and it seems to take ages before getting anywhere interesting. Additionally, should walkers following that path to the top of it and then want to visit Fellbarrow it will be necessary to double back and go over to it via Sourfoot and Smithy Fells with a steep climb up to Fellbarrow at the end of the trek. We find it a more sensible idea to walk up Fellbarrow to begin with.
The path eventually tracks alongside the wall, plus the remains of an old fence, up to the col. As can be seen from the shot the ground is firm and dry which makes walking much more enjoyable. Its a right old pain in the neck when paths are soggy or ankle deep in mud and you have to divert around them. We haven’t had any serious rain, with just a few showers here and there, for a couple of weeks now but we have had the constant wind which has helped to dry out the land. All the becks, rivers, tarns and lakes still have plenty of water in them so we are not at drought level either.
Having reach the col we decided to make the very short trip across to Hatteringill Head so here’s J marching across to begin the short climb up to its summit cairn …..
….. which quickly comes into view. The path to the summit takes a zig-zag route, which we followed just for the novelty value, although walkers could just as easily make a bee-line straight for it but it is quite steep in places.
On the summit of Hatteringill Head and the view north westward from the summit cairn …..
….. with a view of Fellbarrow over to the south.
From the top of Hatteringill Head we wandered over to another but lower top before making our way over to the hilltop with the crags propping up the end of it. Here is the view a little to the south east across Lorton Vale where the Skiddaw group of fells appears on the skyline just to the left of centre. There was a very blustery wind up here and J took a wind speed reading which indicated something in the +20 mph region. It was cold too so as we descended back to the col we put our jumpers back on just in case it would be more or less the same wind speed up on Fellbarrow.
On the left is the craggy hilltop where J took the wind speed reading. There is a large hole in the ground to the side of them and plenty of spoil on the slope below so perhaps a bit of quarrying had taken place in the past. No wind down here so having climbed the stile we set off up the slopes of Fellbarrow.
A quick look back at Hattergill Head as we started to climb the path.
The summit of Fellbarrow which has acquired a mound of stones since our last visit but we didn’t pay enough close attention to it to see if there was a marker giving some indication so we don’t know why or how it came to be there. Having put our jumpers back on in case it was just as windy up here as it was back on Hatteringill Head we found out that we didn’t need them at all as there was not a smidge of a breeze up here. We sat up here for a few minutes and had a chocolate bar stop.
Across from us is a view of, from L to R, Carling Knott, Blake Fell, with just the top of Sharp Knott peeping up behind it, and then comes Burnbank Fell.
We set off down the steep path beside the fence on Fellbarrow. There is a path on both sides of the fence and it doesn’t matter which one is taken as both lead on to the same place …..
….. the steepish climb up Smithy Fell, where I not only paused to take a look back at our route from Fellbarrow but also to give my calf muscles a short break as they were grumbling about the steep gradient.
A view of the zig-zag route across the northern end of Low Fell which still hasn’t reached the flatter area over on the right. Behind are the shadowy shapes of Whiteside and Grasmoor and some of the fells beyond them.
Meanwhile we carried on down to the very soggy area beneath Sourfoot Fell although today it was much drier than we’ve experienced on previous walks over here. We didn’t bother going up Sourfoot Fell today but continued on the path going over to the left.
Sourfoot Fell and the path below it we used to get to this point. If walkers do go up to the summit there is a path leading from there which joins with the path we used. Whether walkers choose the summit path, the go round it path, or the zig-zag path they all join to form a single one at …..
….. the gate in the fence line. Close to the fence is something which looks like an old sheepfold although there is no indication of it on any of the maps I’ve seen. As can be seen Fellbarrow is some distance away at this point.
Walking along the single track now with an indistinct view of Whiteside and Grasmoor. We’ll get a better view of them later on when the position of the sun changes.
Looking ahead to Watching Crag and Low Fell as we travel along the undulating route.
Several people came down towards the stile via the grass and scrub route over on the right obviously preferring that route to the existing path which is quite loose and scrabbly. Perhaps the stile should be moved over to the end of that route if people prefer to use that one. The existing stile is a bit rickety so it will need replacing some time.
The summit cairn on Low Fell can be seen quite clearly against the blue sky but I didn’t take a shot of it when we passed it. A solo lady runner has just gone by us and is making her way over to it.
A silver sheen on Crummock Water but the most of the fells surrounding it are a monotone shade of smoky blue. The largest fell on the distant skyline is Great Gable and directly below it is Haystacks which we visited on our last walk. We have a little and large sort of view, little Rannerdale Knotts over on the left of the water and the large High Stile ridge over on the right. None of them are clear to see through the haze.
We begin descending Low Fell to make our way over to its southern top which is only 36 feet or 11 metres lower than its northern one.
Looking back to the northern top of Low Fell from the climb to the southern one.
The cairn on the southern top with a view of the northern top behind it.
We made our way over to the viewpoint at the end of Low Fell with a look across to Loweswater along the way.
Looking across to Hen Comb flanked by Great Borne on the right and Starling Dodd on the left. The two tops just appearing behind Starling Dodd are Haycock and Little Gowder Crag respectively.
We decided to take a coffee and sandwiches break while we were up here and this was the view we had. Most of the silver sheen on Crummock Water had been disturbed by the wind roughing up its surface at the time I took the shot. The wind was doing a good job of roughing up our hair too, even though we were hunkered down with our backs to it. Jumpers were back on at this point.
The blustery wind can’t spoil the view though and its just as good as the view we had from Fleetwith Pike at the other end when we were up there a week ago. The views are absolutely fabulous.
To our right and beyond the green fields surrounding Loweswater we can see Great Borne on the skyline and below it are Hen Comb (L), Floutern Cop (C) and Gavel Fell (R).
To our left, and more distinctive now that the sun is on them, are Whiteside and Grasmoor. We eventually decided that we’d had quite enough of being roughed up by the wind so we packed everything away and made our way over to our descent path …..
….. the very steep path leading down to Crabtree Beck. Not only is it very steep its also very loose underfoot and deeply rutted in places. Opposite us is Darling Fell which is just as steep and our thanks to the fence installers as the fence came in handy from time to time. Two people were just beginning their climb up Low Fell as we neared the end of the path and with no wind on this side of the fell they were facing a very warm climb. I had de-layered again by the time we reached the beck.
No mishaps on the way down to Crabtree Beck so once we were down we searched for the best route over the pathless terrain on this side of the beck. We followed a variety of sheep trods and slowly but surely made our way around the southern end of Low Fell towards the path which we knew would turn up eventually.
Starling Dodd, Hen Comb and Great Borne on the skyline as we made our way around …..
….. and eventually picked up the established path with Whiteside and Grasmoor coming back into view again.
Rounding the bend in the path with a great view of Whiteside and Grasmoor directly ahead of us.
Now we’re walking the path below Low Fell and above Lorton Vale. The well known lone Pine tree comes into view …..
….. and the view of Crummock Water gradually fades away behind us.
Along the way we came across a couple of stiles one of which had notices attached about the amount of tree planting which had been taking place and asking people to keep to the established paths to avoid trampling on the newly planted young trees although I can’t remember if they were attached to this stile or another one.
The path is as undulating as Low Fell above it is, as it gradually and imperceptibly drops down to almost valley level. A new wall has been constructed along one section of the path as a tree, or several trees, had fallen onto the existing fence and broken it beyond repair. We had to move to a higher temporary path on a number of occasions too when nearby springs had dribbled onto the existing path turning it into muddy mire. A little further along from here we met a couple who asked us if this was the path where the solitary Pine tree was. When we told them that it was they told us that they had walked over Low Fell from one end to the other previously but had never walked this path along its sides so that’s what they were doing today. By now we were about ten minutes away from the path which curves around the northern end of Low Fell so they had a good distance still to go. After we said our goodbyes I began to wonder how they were planning to get back to their start point particularly as the male half of the pair told us that he had trouble with his legs and wasn’t able to climb fells any more. Maybe someone would be at the other end to give them a lift back because its a long walk from one end to the other whichever direction someone is travelling.
As we neared the gate where we started out on earlier we noticed this large and disused quarry above us. We didn’t notice the start of the path up to it as we walked along or we would have gone up and taken a look round. It isn’t showing on our route map but it is marked on the OS maps. We couldn’t see the remains of any buildings that we usually see around former quarries. I did manage to find some information about it which mentioned that it was marked as ‘Old” on the 1st edition of OS maps which means that it was out of use by 1857, hardly surprising then that traces of its former buildings have disappeared completely.
At the bottom of the path we arrive back at the gate we passed through to walk up the path opposite a few hours earlier. Shall we go round again we said jokingly to each other or shall we go home and have a cup of coffee instead. The cup of coffee won by a unanimous vote so we passed through the gate and walked down the track back to Thackthwaite where …..
….. we had this glorious view of Whiteside and Grasmoor for the best part of the way down.
We emerge into the bright sunlight again at Thackthwaite where for the very first time we actually exchanged greetings with one of the residents who happened to be walking past his garage at the time. We’ve always thought of it as a ‘ghost’ village where no-one actually lives, only summer visitors who rent the cottages for their holidays, because it has always been so quiet when we’ve walked through it in the past. Now we know that at least one person actually lives there we can’t refer to it as a ‘ghost’ village any more. We’re about five minutes walk away from where the car is parked at this point so we haven’t much further to go. We walked to the car watching tiny birds hopping in and out of the hedgerows and listening to their calls and with all manner of floral perfumes drifting past our noses. What a lovely way to end today’s walk and the fabulous views we’ve enjoyed. Long may this spring weather continue.