The Tarns Tour

It had brightened up but it was still muggy and there wasn't a breath of wind.  We walked our way over from the Miterdale valley towards Eskdale and then  turned off to follow the high ground between the two. We escaped the trees and got some super views across the Eskdale valley to Green Crag and Harter Fell. Every so often we heard the whistle from Eskdale's steam train and eventually we saw it chuntering its way up towards Dalegarth.

There was a plethora of tarns on the fell above Beckfoot: Blea Tarn, Siney Tarn and Blind Tarn. I formulated a circular route between them so that we could tick them off on our Lake District Tarns Venture. By the time we'd finished this improvised tarn tour, the sky had become grey and there was an occasional drop of rain in the air. It looked like our weather window was closing.

Cow Alert

We escaped the cluster of tarns by climbing over Bleatarn Hill and headed off on what looked like a huge expanse of fell. A crag poked its head above this prairie on the far north side. I took this hill to be Boat How, our next objective. We started heading off in its direction. At the peak of an undulation of the track, we came face-to-face with a cow. In fact, there were several cows in a long line along the track. The Cabin Boy started having a panic attack and so I diverted off the track to avoid any bovine close encounters. The fell was surprisingly hard going with ankle-turning clumpy grass making progress slow and awkward. No wonder the cows were keeping to the path! Ten minutes later we rejoined the path a 100 metres further along from the last cow. I just hoped we didn't meet any more since I don't think my ankles could have coped with another off-piste diversion.

Stone Circles

The OS map showed several stone circles on the next section of our route. These are 4,000 years old. The largest one is known as the Brat's Hill Stone Circle, has a diameter of 30 metres and consists of 42 stones. It does make you wonder what purpose they served. I suppose they are in quite a dramatic setting with Scafell dominating the skyline further to the north.  We plodded over to each of the circles and made an inspection. One of the formations had a bizarre clump of ferns growing out of it. 

We headed up to the craggy lump of Boat How. There was a meagre cluster of small stones that marked its summit. It had a fine view back across the fell that we'd just crossed. It was still grey, but the rain had stayed off. Scafell's upper ramparts were cloaked in grey cloud. We started heading off towards it.

Burnmoor Tarn

The track dropped down to Burnmoor Tarn and ended up outside Burnmoor Lodge, originally a 19th century hunting lodge. It is now managed by the Burnmoor Lodge Club. The club maintains the property and allows its members to book the property for a stay. You can only apply to become a member if you've stayed there on two separate occasions via an invite from a member. I guess the difficulty is therefore trying to find somebody who is actually a member. It seemed so exclusive that I rather imagined club night's might be something like the exclusive event on Kubrick's film, Eye's Wide Shut. I peaked through the windows but didn't seen any mass orgy in progress.

We contoured along the hill above Burnmoor Tarn to the head of the Miterdale valley. It is quite an impressive craggy end to the valley, with waterfalls falling down into it on the north side of the valley. As we turned a corner on the track, we came face-to-face with another line of cows. Odd how they'd chosen this track on a steep valley side for their best grazing prospects. The Cabin Boy started the first stage of a panic attack and so we dropped down to the valley bottom.

Return

The rain started as we reached the beck and it continued for the rest of the afternoon. This was a shame since the track along the bottom of the valley is quite pretty and would have benefitted from a bit of sun. Luckily we didn't meet any cows along this stretch since due to the steep valley sides, our avoidance tactics would have been limited. It would have probably resulted in a retreat back up the valley.

Near to Low Place farm we saw the same Rams that we'd met on yesterday's walk (see Illgill's Heady Champagne). The wet weather didn't appear to have dampened their enthusiasm and they waddled off with bowed back legs.

Given the delayed start, it had actually turned out to be a fine day of walking. There were plenty of ticks for the Lake District Tarns and Explorer lists. The stone circles were a bonus too.