Whin Rigg and Illgill Head

One of the upsides of working for CPS is that I am lucky enough to get a very reasonable holiday allowance. One of the downsides is that I need to book time off well in advance or I risk not being able to take time off when I want to because I am booked to billable work. Therefore, following our two week holiday in June I was keen to make best use of my remaining holiday. I therefore booked the four days after the August bank holiday. This gave a long break (nine days) for only four days leave.  I managed to book a spot at the Camping and Caravanning site at Eskdale. It is a pleasant campsite discreetly located at the foot of the Hardknott Pass in the South West corner of the Lake District.

We arrived on the bank holiday Sunday and planned a short “warm up” walk to Whin Rigg and Illgill Head for the Monday.

The hamlet of Boot lies just to the North of the main road through Eskdale. At the end of the Boot road a pair of bridleways climb into the moor. We followed the northern most of the two as it climbed gradually across the contours.

I was told on my ML training, and I try to pass on to cadets in the ACO, that one should not be always looking at the map, but should memorise the next section so one is better able to enjoy the countryside. So it was that I knew that we needed to carry on climbing until we hit some stone circles then head across the plateau and begin the descent into Miterdale. We kept on climbing and were soon among the Peat Huts. I didn’t bother checking the map, knowing that we had to turn through 60 degrees or so and head west across the moor. And lo! There was a path leading the way.

We had been following the path for about 500m before we both realised that we were heading back the way we came. A glance at the scenery told me that we were not crossing the moss as we should have done, and a look at the map revealed my mistake. I had turned at the Peat Huts, not the stone circles. In future I will check the map more often.

We hopped over the Brown Band and began our descent into Miterdale. We followed Black Gill down into the valley and followed the stream down to just before Low Place, where a footbridge allowed an easy crossing of the stream.

I have learnt that in Scotland, just because there is an FB on the map what actually appears on the ground is anyone’s guess. Here, in the Lakes we were in luck though and were soon struggling up the steep narrow path through the bracken alongside Pickle Coppice to gain the ridge.

Climbing out of Miterdale the wind was at our backs, so once on the ridge it was coming from our right and to say it was a bit breezy would have been an understatement. We struggled through the wind to the summit of Whin Rigg and from there on to Illgill Head. In places we were afforded glimpses of the precipitous drop into Wasdale but mainly we were able to admire the stunning scenery around us.

 

Maybe it was because all the other surrounding fells were partly hidden in cloudy shadow, but flanks of Kirk Fell and Great Gable appeared to be bather in their own special light. Despite the howling winds it was a truly awesome place to be. Actually, maybe the winds added to the effect. I try not to think about conquering mountains or doing battle against them, but sometimes the struggle to make it to a summit can be truly exhilarating.

Our descent was towards Burnmoor tarn and the long gradual slope back to Boot along a well trodden bridleway, to bring us back to the end of the Boot road. Just set back from the edge of Burnmoor tarn is Burnmoor Lodge a severe looking building that is home to the Burnmoor Lodge club.

Total distance of our walk was 14.5km. All my photos are on my Flickr site.