Where Eagles Dare

Day 12 – Tuesday 24 March – Rejoined by Mike we set off from Stonethwaite in Borrowdale on a bright, calm morning with the sun just managing to shine, though not for long! Stonethwaite is a really attractive hamlet a bit like Watendlath, but with a proper Lake District pub. The Langstrath Country Inn. The sign of a good pub is that when you walk past at 10 am all you can hear is the hoover, so this must be a good pub. Mike has visited it of course – in fact almost every hotel and B&B we go past he says “Margaret and I stayed there at such & such a time..” and I’ve suggested that it would have been a lot easier if we’d had a sponsored stay at every Lake District pub instead of climbing all these Wainwrights – it would have been a lot easier and Mike would have had a headstart of around 213!

Eagle Crag, even though only about 1650’, is described as perhaps the steepest and most strenuous climb of all the Wainwrights, and that’s no exaggeration. The whole face is exceptionlly steep and covered in crags, and it takes a lot of effort, plus a certain amount of navigation, to pick one’s way to the top. We started on the Langstrath side, away from Wainwright’s starting point, and eventually (about ¾ way up) met up with a well-trodden path to the top. Time for a brew and a sandwich to restore energy levels.


Sergeant’s Crag (1873’) is nearby and easily reached. It has a great view of Pike o’Stickle just sticking up above the distant horizon. Then it was a trek across to Greenup Edge and on to the long and gently rising fell that leads to Ullscarf (2370’). This featureless trudge wasn’t improved by the arrival of light snow, followed by more persistent rain. Having arrived at the highest point of the day, we thought the rest would be fairly easy. Ha!

From Ullscarf we followed the ridge down (mainly) over the little lumps of High Saddle and Low Saddle, and then hit bog with a vengeance. Route finding was tricky, and even when we could see where we wanted to get to, picking a route was another matter. Eventually we arrived at the jewel-like Dock Tarn, skirted it and made our way up to Great Crag (1500’), then set off for the final fell of the day, Grange Fell (1363’). By now it was beginning to pee down, although thankfully visibility was OK.

We crossed the Watendlath bridleway and found the top of the fell easily enough. All that was left was to descend to Grange in Borrowdale. We skirted Royal How, a well-quarried little fell, and then headed downhill on a good footpath. After losing a lot of height, this path suddenly arrived at the top of a huge crag, perhaps 800’ above the road. The path looked perilous and the rocks were slippery. Time to ask some Health & Safety questions: 1: Would you like to retrace your steps, climbing all that way back up again to the last path junction (No thank you). 2: Would you like to find the very fast and short way down the crag and end up dead at the bottom? (Definitely no thank you very much).

So, grumbling, miserable, wet through, we set off back. The correct path was found by turning off Royal How in what appeared to be the wrong direction for 50 yards: this led to a very steep stone-pitched path through trees, which was wet through and as slippery as ice in places, so plenty of care was still required. But eventually we reached the car looking like two drowned rats and headed back to Bowness for the night.

68 Wainwrights done – over 30% - and 146 to go. And every single top done in Wainwright's Central Fells (Book Three). But tomorrow looks like gales again…