Volume Severn: The Western Fells
One of the harder groups to get to for those based to the south. Roughly centred on Ennerdale and bounded by Wasdale and Buttermere, this is another group with a strong selection of peaks near to the centre of the district along with book fillers out towards the edges.
The Ennerdale Horseshoe is one of the lesser known Big Walks in the Lakes, probably because of its relative isolation. During the mid 1980s I had a plan to do it mid-winter. It took two attempts and was of course a very long day especially since I chose to do it wearing plastic mountaineering boots. Apart from the small tops like Crag Fell and Great Borne I had certainly visited most of the tops before. Still a very long day out, starting and finishing in the dark.
The other classic round amongst this group is the Mosedale Round at the head of Wasdale and was one of the early proto-rounds that eventually led to the Bob Graham Round. Again one of those things where I’d done all the parts before doing it as a whole. Unlike many horsehoe walks there aren’t any fillers on this one, pretty well every top is a worthy objective in its own right. I think the first time I went up Yewbarrow was on a school trip and we probably got to Scoat Fell then returned either by Nether Beck or over Haycock and Seatallan. I certainly did the latter two on the Wasdale Fell Race in 2004.
Further west are fells like Lank Rigg that are probably only done by Wainwright tickers. Can’t remember much about the day apart from a fox hunt with the fox actually running past me.
The other lesser known group are the hills north west of the bridleway between Ennerdale and Buttermere. They stand quite proud above the village of Loweswater, especially Mellbreak. There’s no linking ridges so every top is a full ascent.