Catbells

Catbells

North Western Lake District

Route: Catbells

Area: North Western Lake District

Date of walk: 1st December 2016

Walkers: Andrew

Distance: 3.6 miles

Weather: Some bright patches early on, increasing cloud, drizzle most of the way back

Catbells or Cat Bells? The OS maps have it as two words, but according to Wainwright it’s one – I’ll follow in Wainwright’s steps. This is a very popular fell and can be overcrowded at peak times, so I set off early and parked in one of the small parking spaces near the foot of the fell

The climb up Skelgill Bank starts immediately and after a while there are one or two steep rocky sections to clamber up, but there’s nothing to frighten the horses. There were some wonderful views all around, which explains why this fell is such a favourite

After reaching the summit I descended to Hause Gate, pondering a choice of routes as I did so. I could carry on along the ridge to Maiden Moor, which would have doubled the length of the walk, or I could descend right into Newlands Valley or left towards Derwent Water. In the end some darkening skies made my mind up and I opted for the shorter Derwent Water route back to the start

This turned out to be a good choice, as the weather deteriorated into light drizzle. Having completed the descent I followed the terraced path back to the along the eastern flank of the fell, and this took me back to the start. The views from the path are wonderful whatever the weather, and this was a fitting end to a great little fell walk

For other walks here, visit my Find Walks page and enter the name in the ‘Search site’ box

Click on the icon below for the route map (subscribers to OS Maps can view detailed maps of the route, visualise it in aerial 3D, and download the GPX file. Non-subscribers will see a base map)

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