Volume Three: The Central Fells
The Central Fells are a curious mixture of well known peaks like the Langdale Pikes and some pimples amongst some frankly atrocious bog trotting!
I’m pretty certain that my first ascents of the Langdale Pikes, Harrison Stickle and Pike o’ Stickle, were done during school trips in the 1970s. That time period also accounted for some of the lower fells such as Helm Crag and Silver How, probably when bad weather prevented heading to the higher tops.
One day that did stand out, though not for the reasons you might expect, was a traverse of the central ridge. My mum was intending to drive up to Keswick to do some shopping, I suppose these days it would be called “retail therapy”, so I asked her to drop me off in Langdale, I’d then walk over to Keswick. Duly dropped off at The New Dungeon Gill car park I headed up Stickle Gill and up onto Pavey Ark before striking northwards over the fell reckoned to be the centre of the Lakes, High Raise and onto the “fun”.
Despite it being a dry summer, the ridge was an absolute bog fest, goodness knows what it would be like when wet. The trudge only really ended by the time I got to Walla Crag and the final descent into Keswick. This was long before I thought of having clothes to change into at the end of a walk so the car was rather smelly on the way home! In the forty plus years since this walk I have never been tempted back.
Similar to many of the other books, a significant number of the tops may be attained doing horseshoe type walks picking up groups at a time. That leaves awkward sets of outliers that aren’t significant enough for a specific walk. I ended up with half a dozen of these that needed three days to complete.
I’d climbed on Eagle Crag in the 1980s but not been to the summit of the fell. I knew in advance that Kilian Jornet was going to attempt to break Billy Bland’s long standing Bob Graham Round record so decided to head to Borrowdale and pick up both Eagle Crag and Sergeant’s Crag further south on the same ridge. The nose of the fell facing down Borrowdale provides a pleasant easy scramble as it picks its way between rock outcrops, the summit itself is a fine viewpoint. Sergeant’s Crag is one of those indeterminate tops. An off-piste descent into Langstrath then back to Keswick to watch Kilian finish his round (an hour quicker than the record).
The final Borrowdale tops took until 2025 when I had Max (the dog) for the weekend while Cath was mountain biking. Parking up in Rosthwaite it was a roasting ascent through the trees to gain Great Crag. The café at Watendlath provided welcome respite from the oppressive heat. Then it was onto Grange Fell before dropping back to the van. Another cuppa in the café there and the rain started just as we headed back to the van. That was the precursor to a night of thunderstorms - the dog wasn’t happy camping in those.
The next day saw a partial return to the awful central ridge when we squelched up Armboth Fell, the final summit in this volume.