Now the seasoned Wainwright walker will know all about the central spine that consists of 7 Wainwrights, running from Walla Crag to Ullscarf. They will also know, more specifically, about the part from Bleaberry Fell to Armboth Fell and how wet and boggy it can be. I can confirm it is indeed wet and boggy in parts, other parts aren’t too bad and other bits have had new paths put in so are perfect. Now as a seasoned Dartmoor walker I’m no stranger to bogs, peat hags and ground that disappears as you step on it. I therefore have had plenty of practice at avoiding it and threading myself through the worst parts. This walk was no different, I picked out the purple tinged grasses, knowing they can’t grow submerged (they like it a bit wet but are ok to walk on with care), I could see the depressions and avoided those. Myself and the boys had some mud splattered trousers and wet boots on the outside but not inside. It is possible to get around this place dry shod. However should you prefer you can do High Seat and High Tove separately. High Seat seems to have had a new path laid, coming up from Ashness Bridge, that path is on the OS maps, I could see the last 500 yards or so of it, newly laid chippings (similar to the new path up to Bleaberry Fell). High Tove is an easy walk up from Watendlath, the spots that are boggy have a second path through the grass, that walkers are using, so that one is easy. I enjoyed this walk, the views to Helvellyn are probably the best, because the Browncove Crags look fabulous backed by the 950 metre peak. Also the view into Borrowdale and up to Great Gable are fantastic, not as good as nearby Great Crag, but fantastic nonetheless. This walk takes me to 110 Wainwrights and this was the last of 4 walks this summer in the Lakes, so 110 will be it until I return towards the end of October.
| Start – Watendlath |
| Route – High Tove – The Pewits – High Seat – The Pewits – Watendlath |
| Distance – 4 miles Start time – 2.30pm Time taken – 3hrs Highest Point – High Seat 608metres |
| Weather – Pretty good, the sun was out it was warm ish, bit of a breeze on High Seat |
© Crown copyright 2017 Ordnance Survey FL 2017 SF
Watendlath, a tiny hamlet nestled in between the hills, there’s a bridge, the tarn, a farm and the tea room. The car park is national trust. Heading up this path the views open up quickly
As you can see its pretty steep and leads to a gate out on to open land
Once through the gate you can start to see more of the fells above Great Crag (the dark looking one in the middle ground
Shafts of sunlight burst through in the background on to Great Gable
High Tove summit with Helvellyn behind. The path up here wasn’t too bad, a boggy bits were easily avoided
Views across the The Dodds and Clough Head
High Tove summit and the fells around Great Gable
Armboth Fell is down there at the left end of the shadow, and that’s Ullscarf on the right. I did think about going to Armboth but that would have left High Seat and Ullscarf on their own. So High Seat was the better option
That’s High Seat on the left. Blencathra is at the back. Now this bit will be boggy, just take your time and work around the bad bits
Looking back to High Tove. For some reason I’d lost the path to the fence so we cross over it when you don’t need to. The path is left of here were the fence stops, turns and runs parallel up to High Seat
I’m stood on the stile just short of the summit of High Seat, you can see the peat hag area down there and the main path is to the left of the fence, however we came through the peat hags aiming for the higher heathery bits and found it not too bad
Love the layers of fells
That’s the High Seat summit up there, the boys are already off to the top
High Seat summit pillar
The Dodds and Clough Head
Some of the best views are north to Skiddaw, with Derwent Water and Bassenthwaite Lake on the left. Bleaberry Fell would be the next fell on this ridge if we were going that way
High Tove kind of blends in along this ridge with Ullscarf at the back
A fantastic view of Browncove Crags leading up to Helvellyn
A bit of zoom into Borrowdale. The Scafell massif left and Great Gable right
Our route down was off piste and picked up this fence which I knew lead back to the gate. Looking back to High Seat in the sun
And back into Watendlath. Next it was Keswick and a chippy tea
Not before jumping out the car just to grab a Surprise View!
treksandtors 
Some rather nice views there. I’m contemplating High Tove and Armboth Fell when I’m up in October, but would be from the Armboth side as I’m staying in Ambleside. Yet to do High Seat so that will probably need to be done as a single from Ashness Bridge.
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The path to Armboth from that side is pretty good, as long as you don’t head directly for it towards the end. See here http://www.wainwrightroutes.co.uk/armbothfell_r1.htm
The bit from there to High Tove might need looking at, you might have to get to Middle Crag first then across to High Tove, once at High Tove there is a good path back down to Thirlmere, although that may have boggy bits which can be walked around
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Great photos, like the “layers” one as well
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Beautiful walk! Surprise view never disappoints!
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