Windy on Binsey
Walk date – 7th January 2026
Distance – 1.7 miles
Weather – very cold, very cloudy, very windy, and very occasional sunshine
The sole purpose of our very short outing up Binsey today was to take shots of the northern fells, because the views from this lowly northern fells outlier are splendid and, we hoped, with some of their tops covered by snow. It has been snowing on and off for the last few days only for the thin layer of fallen snow to freeze overnight and become part of the general frosty conditions. J made it down to Kendal yesterday for his volunteering afternoon but left earlier than usual as flakes as big as half crowns began to fall. (If you’re too young to know anything about half crowns just look it up as there’s plenty of info on the web about them.) Suffice to say that the snowflakes were on the large side and the road back up to Shap was getting whiter and whiter as the snow continued to fall when he made his way back home again. As the weather forecasts have been full of snow warnings just lately and as the strong winds were coming from the north or northwest we hoped that the northern fells would have some snow on them, even if it was only the very tops of them. We were to be disappointed, not only was there no snow on them but we couldn’t even see their tops most of the time as the cloud over them was so large and slow moving. The temperature remained below freezing, not helped by the strong north westerly wind, the ground was frozen to the point where even our walking poles were sliding all over the place instead of providing stability.
Route
Out and back to Binsey top
Nobody had parked up in the back lane when we arrived and and when we were ready to begin our walk up Binsey I took this view of it from the already open gate. The soggy notice flapping around in the wind asked people to close the gate which was impossible to do as the whole thing wouldn’t even move, never mind open or close, so we squeezed through the narrow opening and left it as we found it.
Once on the other side of the gate we started following the frosty path showing on the left of the shot which joined the much wider one a little higher up the slope. The strange item towards the bottom of the shot isn’t the fossilized remains of some long gone animal but just a tree branch blown there in a past gale.
Well, there goes any hopes of views of snow covered northern fells gleaming in the sunlight. All we’ve got is a view of Brae Fell, on the left skyline, and to its right the rest of the tops are hidden by the long line of cloud. On the plus side we were in the sunlight although there was no warmth in the sun and the wind was blowing straight at us as we walked up.
A bit further up I took another look back hoping that the cloud had shifted. It hadn’t and the views remained in its shadow.
I was wondering when one of these notices would turn up. Years ago there were quite a few scattered around the fellside all of which threatened dire things happening to dogs spotted chasing sheep but this was the only one we saw today.
The view back didn’t improve but at least we could see Overwater reservoir quite clearly. Didn’t make up for the lack of snow on the hills behind it though.
The elongated V to the right has Dash Beck and the Cumbria Way running through it, and it might be possible to make out Dash Falls if you do a big zoom in. To the right of it is the bulbous top of Bakestall, part of the Skiddaw group, and to its left is Little Calva. The top of Great Calva is just visible to the left of Little Calva. On the extreme left is the summit of The Knott.
The same line of cloud was also stretching across the Skiddaw group, all the tops were hidden in the cloud except Ullock Pike over on the right.
The merest glimpse of Bass Lake above which several different layers of cloud activity were taking place.
The trig column and cairn on the knobbly top of Binsey. J took a wind strength reading while we were up here and informed me that it read 23.5 mph. That’s 9.8 mph less than the Fell Top Assessors reported today on Helvellyn summit when they took their reading plus a wind chill reading of -13.1C. Its freezing cold up here too but I don’t think J took a wind chill reading.
We made our way over to the cairn at the western end of Binsey top where I took this shot of it looking back to the trig point we had just walked from.
Looking towards some of the western fells while we were up here …..
….. and then a look at the humungous stretch of cloud hanging over the Skiddaw roup. Only Ullock Pike escaped its clutches.
It was much too cold to hang around taking photos and the cloudy conditions weren’t providing the best light for photography so we began making our way back down. We mostly kept to the edges of the path so we could dig our poles into the less frozen vegetation surrounding it for greater stability.
The Knott, Great and Little Calva and Bakestall on the skyline.
The northern end of Bass Lake gets a splash of sun …..
….. but the Skiddaw group is still under that very large cloud. It has lifted a little and we can now see patches of snow here and there on the tops.
Another golden view of Bass Lake which we also got a share of …..
….. although it didn’t last very long and we were soon back in the freezer.
We were almost back down so I took another look over to the Skiddaw group and noticed that as well as Ullock Pike the cloud had also cleared Longside Edge. The top of Carl Side remained hidden from view.
Back at the duff gate, and that’s as far as it would open, so we squeezed through it again and were back on to the road where the car is parked just a few steps away. We’re both very cold despite all the gear we were wearing and couldn’t get back in the car fast enough. In addition to the two of us we saw seven other people braving the freezing weather on Binsey today. A group of three eventually joined us on the top, a couple who were just starting out, and two separate walkers out walking their dogs, neither of which was on a lead.The dogs weren’t in danger of being on the wrong end of a gun barrel though, since there were no sheep to be seen anywhere on Binsey, so there was nothing for them to chase. As for the lack of snow, that was disappointing, but there’s time enough and it will fall eventually.