Seathwaite Fell (601m), Great End (910m), Allen Crags (785m), Glaramara (783m) - 09/12/2019
Distance: 14km; Ascent: 1100m; Time: 6½ hours
We took advantage of a fine day to take a long walk in the hills. There was more scrambling than I had anticipated on this route, but we were fortunate to find very little ice even though temperatures were pretty cold. We parked along the road at Seathwaite, avoiding the fee charged to park at the farm. We followed the main track through the farm, signed to Styhead. We stayed on the Styhead track after crossing Stockley Bridge.
Wainright suggests two possibilities for ascending Seathwaite Fell from the Styhead track (both pathless). The first is a steep ascent from near Greenhow Knott, through Aaron Crags; the second, slightly less steep from further on. We opted for the latter. Basically, we just picked a likely spot shortly before the Styhead track crosses Styhead Gill and made our way up to the plateau of Seathwaite Fell.
The path across the Seathwaite Fell plateau gradually descends to Sprinkling Tarn, at the far end of which it meets the main track between Styhead and Angle Tarn. For our route we turned right and descended 50m (vertical) to reach a point at which a very minor poorly marked sketchy track ascends the north slope of Great End. (We could have avoided this descent by turning left and then contouring The Band - where we found a path joining ours on the ascent).
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The Seathwaite Fell plateau has many small tarns and several high points. Two high points are marked with cairns. OS maps mark the lower of these (601m) as Seathwaite Fell and lists of Wainrights hills suggest that this is the "Wainright" - but the highest point on the plateau is at 632m and the Lake District ap I use marks this as the summit of Seathwaite Fell.
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This ascent of Great End was very steep, slow and involved a certain amount of scrambling; route finding would have been difficult/impossible in a mist and the ascent extremely hazardous were it any more icy than we found it. (An approach from Esk Hause would be relatively easy).
It took about an hour to cross the undulating plateau between Allen Crags and the highest summit of Glaramara, there being several named lower summits along the way. The direct descent to Seathwaite from Glaramara follows the south side of Hind Gill. It is poorly marked and very steep in places. It was getting a bit dusky by the time we got to the car. |