Skiddaw
Walk date – 12th August 2026
Distance – 10.7 miles
Weather – sunny with sheets of artificial ‘cloud’ (i.e. plane sprayed chemicals), dry and hazy, light breeze
We made our fourth visit to Skiddaw today after a gap of ten years, previous visits being in 2016 and 2011, both with walk reports, and July 2004 for which there isn’t a walk report. Looking through an old photo album I found a photo of the two of us at the trig column on the summit which I’ve added to the photos in the folder titled ‘A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away …..’ which is the last folder in the ‘Walks Diary – pre 2014’ section. Here’s the link to the folder https://www.wainwrightwalking.co.uk/a-long-time-ago-in-a-galaxy-far-far-away/ . We haven’t visited Skiddaw very often, probably because its a bleak, bare and often very windy summit. Anyway, whatever the reasons were in the past, we decided to give it a go today. Nothing complicated, just a straightforward out and back starting at the parking area just above the Blencathra Field Studies Centre.
Route
Out and back using same route
We made an early start hoping that it would be early enough for the parking area above the Blencathra Centre not to be full, which it wasn’t, although there were a couple of vehicles already parked there. As we began walking up the path to begin our walk on our left was this shot of Latrigg backed by some of the fells around Derwentwater. Tiny slivers of Derwentwater were visible, over on the left, from the path.
As we rounded the bend in the path Lonscale Fell came into view. The path from the parking area leads along a track high above the Glenderaterra beck. At the end of it the track drops down into the valley where the beck is crossed by a footbridge. Its a lovely morning but the blue skies are criss crossed by spray plane trails or sheets of man made cloud spreading out from such trails. One such cloud has obliterated the sun at the moment so everything looks a bit dreary and cheerless.
Further on now and Great Calva has just come into view. We met a few walkers as we made our way along the track, two young lasses who didn’t look very happy, a solo walker, and a husband and wife pairing. Greetings were exchanged all round. We wondered where they had all come from given that it was still quite early.
Rounding a bend in the track where an unnamed gill crosses the path …..
….. although there wasn’t much water in it so it dribbled along rather than flowed.
At the concrete & stone crossing of Roughton Gill there was a little more water flowing down from the Blencathra side. We were grateful for the cold water when we were heading back to the car on our return leg.
Shortly after Roughton Gill the track drops down into the Glenderaterra valley and the footbridge crossing at Sinen Gill. As the photo shows the track stops being a track at this point and becomes, for part of the way at least, a stone laid path before eventually morphing into the usual well trodden earth or grassy one.
In the bottom right hand corner is a second bridge which crosses a tributary of the Glenderaterra Gill and shortly after crossing it the heavy lifting begins. The path up to the Cumbria Way isn’t all that steep but it is uphill all the way and a hot day makes it feel endless.
When we finally reach the Cumbria Way, marked by this large boulder which used to have ‘KESWICK’ painted on it but has now faded, we stopped for a breather, a mop round and a drink.
After our short break we continued along the Cumbria Way and eventually reached the gate with its view of Great and Little Calva. We had some overnight rain on Monday so a puddle had formed although, as its now Wednesday, all that was left of it was a muddy patch which didn’t cause any problems. We have been here on previous occasions when the area around the gate has been a quagmire.
From the gate I took a shot of the Burnt Horse path leading eventually to Lonscale Fell which is over on the left of the shot. There were two walkers coming towards us who must have come from the path below Lonscale Fell as we didn’t see them anywhere behind us on the track above Glenderaterra Beck. We came across them again as we walked up to Skiddaw House.
Our first view of the trees surrounding Skiddaw House …..
….. and a fine view of Little and Great Calva across acres of heather now approaching full bloom. While I was taking this shot the two walkers, in the shot two photos back, came along and passed by us, we exchanged greetings as they did so.
We stopped again further along to take a shot of this now derelict building which must have been quite substantial when first built as it seemed to occupy quite a large area.
We also stopped while I took this shot of Skiddaw House, which operates as an independent hostel. It was built around 1829 and was originally separated into two separate dwellings, one of which housed a gamekeeper plus his family with the other housing a shepherd and his family. It is self catering, has no electrical sockets, no mobile signal or internet access and is three and a half miles from the nearest road, access being either on foot or by bicycle. Electricity for lighting is provided by solar panels. So if you want to get away from it all ….! As we got to the end of the single track we were surprised to see the young couple who had passed by us as we were taking a photo. They had a map out and seemed unsure which way to proceed. As we weren’t asked for information we just turned up the grassy path, crossed the Cumbria Way path which formed part of the driveway into Skiddaw House and headed on to the Sale How path. They didn’t follow us up the Sale How path so we assumed they were looking for the Cumbria Way to lead them to whatever their ultimate destination was.
On the Sale How path now where we kept looking behind us to see if we could see the young couple. If they were still at Skiddaw House they were in luck because they couldn’t have failed to see the solo walker heading towards them using the Cumbria Way track and he would have been the obvious person to ask for directions.
A look over to our right from the path to Sale How with a view of Bakestall to the left of the elongated U shape and the end slope of Little Calva over on the right. We were under man made cloud again so no sunshine.
A pause in the proceedings with a look back down the path to the tree encircled Skiddaw House below us. Above it to the right is Mungrisedale Common, in the centre is Carrock Fell and over on the left is Great Calva.
A view of Jenkin Hill and Skiddaw Little Man from the top of Sale How.
The easy tramp down from Sale How is followed by a steepish climb out onto the path leading to the stony track up to Skiddaw summit.
After the initial steepness the path flattens out a little from where I took this shot of Sale How below us, the Blencathra skyline in the centre, with Lonscale Fell over on the right.
More or less the same shot showing the path we were on (L) joining the more well used path, via the Hawell Monument, coming up from Gale Road. The wooden stile beside the gate had collapsed leaving a gap large enough for walkers to get through, so we didn’t need to open the gate or climb the stile. We had a short break here and watched other walkers coming down off Little Man. Not a lot of sunshine around at the moment thanks to the large sheets of artificial cloud still hanging around. Despite the cloud it was very warm and humid so we sat for a couple of minutes and watched other walkers coming down the path from Skiddaw Little Man.
After taking a break for a couple of minutes we headed up the well worn route towards the summit. Along the way we struck up a conversation, with a builder from Wakefield, during which we all despaired about the current situation in our country. He was on holiday from his regular job as a builder and walking solo as his wife wasn’t one for the outdoors, and will be back at work next week. He eventually peeled off along the rough track down to Carl Side while we made our way over to the trig column. The usual crowd had gathered although a young woman moved her family’s bags and belongings out of the way when she noticed me trying to take a shot of it. The two in the photo remained oblivious to all around them, she was reading a book and he was just gazing at the scenery. I took the shot and then we left and made our way back over to the collapsed stile.
Along the way I took the above shot showing Carl Side, Longside Edge and Ullock Pike and …..
….. this one showing the well worn track scarring …..
….. and this one of a very hazy Derwentwater and its surrounding fells.
Approaching the gate in the fence and once we’ve diverted onto the path back down to Sale How we’d planned to stop and have something to eat.
As we prepared to leave after our break I noticed a couple of walkers making their way back down the track with Skiddaw Little Man in the background. They were part of a steady stream of walkers who, having toiled up the same path, perhaps a couple of hours ago, now had the pleasure of walking down it, just like we were going to do, albeit on a different path to theirs.
On the way back down now with a view of Carrock Fell stretching across to High Pike towards the right of the skyline, with Great Calva and Knott towards the centre.
Heading back down to Sale How just below us, with Blencathra on the right, Carrock Fell on the left and Mungrisedale Common in the middle just above Sale How.
Still descending to Sale How with the various peaks of Blencathra on the skyline.
Now on Sale How with this view of Great Calva and Knott ….
….. and as we descend Sale How the trees around Skiddaw House come back into view, as do Mungrisedale Common and Carrock Fell. Somewhere along here we became aware of two young walkers behind us so we came to a halt and let them pass by.
The Blencathra skyline above Burnt Horse.
Heather in bloom everywhere you looked.
Just as we reached Skiddaw House the cloud drifted away, the sun was revealed and lit everything up like a Christmas tree. As we were descending into an already very warm valley the additional sunlight only served to make the temperature climb rapidly. As we turned the corner at Skiddaw House, at the junction with the path leading over to the section of the Cumbria Way path below Great Calva, we noticed a sign which hadn’t been there when we passed by the hostel on our outward leg. The sign read ‘Honesty Cafe, Open’ and the sign was propped up against a very convenient boulder with a flat top. As we were sitting there trying to cope with the heat who should turn up but the two young walkers who had passed by us during our descent of Sale How. As we kept seeing them in the distance in front of us while we made our way over to Skiddaw House we could only assume that they had seen the Honesty Cafe sign when they reached Skiddaw House and had decided to call in and partake of what the cafe had to offer. We still had some distance to go so we didn’t bother with the cafe and continued on our way.
It was now blisteringly hot and we were feeling the heat accordingly. You could have made a cup of tea with the water in our water bottles but it was better than nothing at all. I spotted these two sheep trying to find a bit of shade behind this boulder as we walked along the path towards the ‘Keswick’ boulder.
Down at the very bottom of the valley now as we cross the bridge leading us back up to the track we started out on this morning.
Approaching the derelict building with the sheepfold around it, noticing the track rising up out of the valley, and thinking there’s still a fair way to go before reaching the parking area at the end of the track.
Well, comparing the two photos of this building, the one taken in 2016 and this one taken in 2026 it looks as though the building itself hasn’t deteriorated that much in the intervening years. We on the other hand are ten years older and, by the same token, ten years slower so I’ll leave you to work out which has deteriorated the most, the building or the two of us!
Both my face mopping towel and J’s neckerchief were dipped in the cold water when we reached Roughton Gill and then wrapped around our necks, bliss!
Bends in the track came and went but as soon as Clough Head appeared I knew that we were nearing the end of our walk …..
….. where, at last we found some cooling shade. We walked the last few yards down to the gate behind which was our car and just one other. We opened all the doors to let the day’s heat out before climbing in and making ourselves comfortable. It was absolute bliss after sitting on hard boulders during the walk. J says the first thing he’ll do when he gets home is drink a can of beer and it won’t touch the sides!