Blencathra and Mungrisdale Common

/ 03/08/2024

So it was time to get on with the walks that would finally finish off my Wainwright 214 journey. For some reason I hadn’t done Blencathra, despite it being Wainwright’s most written about fell, and the one with the most ascent routes. It had certainly been one that I’d thought about the most, and when looking at Sharp Edge and Hall’s Fell, it was certainly the one I’d researched the most. So which way to head up, with it being number 212 I felt that I owed it a decent walk, and one befitting its stature. So I chose the Hall’s Fell Ridge, within each of our capabilities and one of the best ridges in Lakeland, never mind just this fell. Route chosen I then looked at parking, with Threlkeld being the obvious choice, giving us a fairly level mile or two to the start of the climb to warm up. Then it would be the highlight of the walk, the climb and walk along Hall’s Fell Ridge, before popping out at the summit of Blencathra. After our sandwiches, we headed towards Sharp Edge, to take a look down to Scales Tarn and across to the precarious route up this fell. We contoured away across the scree at the back of Foule Crag to head out to Mungrisdale Common. I have a soft spot for this fell and was pleased to have left it to number 213, its a lovely isolated place, similar to Dartmoor in look and feel. But no where near as boggy, when I compared this part of the walk to that of our walk out to Green Hill 2 weeks earlier, then there was no comparison. Dartmoor is boggy, Mungrisdale Common is mildly moist at worst. Once we’d bagged this fell we had a nice walk across to Sinen Gill and then Roughten Gill before joining the good path back to the Field Centre. This was a superb walk, plenty to see and the ridge to the summit of Blencathra is a brilliant way up. Blencathra making a late surge to become my favourite Lake District fell and one of the best walks I’ve done here.

Start – Blencathra Field Centre

Route – Blease Gill – Gate Gill – Hall’s Fell – Hall’s Fell Ridge – Blencathra (Hall’s Fell Top) – Foule Crag – Mungrisdale Common – Sinen Gill – Roughten Gill – Blencathra Field Centre

Distance – 7 miles  Start time – 9.30am  Time taken – 5hrs 30mins  Highest Point – Blencathra 868 metres

Weather – Mainly cloudy, but sun poking through regularly

© Crown copyright 2024 Ordnance Survey FL 2024 SF
No issues with parking at the Blencathra Centre, 9.30am on a Saturday in school holidays and we got a space, don’t believe the hype about parking in the Lakes being impossible. Have to say the track up here needs care as it is rutted in places, but careful driving will mean you get to your destination unscathed
The entrance to the Field Centre, red squirrels can be seen regularly here, but we didn’t manage to catch any.
A glimpse of a view down the Thirlmere valley. The small fell in the middle is High Rigg.
Great Mell Fell and Little Mell Fell, both on my list as fells to walk on the day when we’ve driven up here. Good little fells in their own right.
We’d crossed Blease Gill already and walked through a narrow bracken covered path to this point. This is Gate Gill and the ridge opposite is Hall’s Fell and that is the pointy summit of Blencathra up there.
As we climbed we got some glorious views back to the Vale of Keswick. Clough Head is on the left
Threlkeld is below us. Gategill Fell on the right shows how steep this early part of the climb can be. The sliver of water that can be seen is Derwent Water.
Climbing up Hall’s Fell
The path traverses both sides of the ridge and at no point ever seems dangerous or too exposed. There are some scrambling sections but nothing too serious, especially if you use the paths to the sides of the worst parts.
Looking back down, what I will say is any route up Blencathra from the south is steep. Great Mell Fell back left.
Hall’s Fell Ridge to the left and Gate Gill below. At the back is the long ridge running from Clough Head at this end, to Helvellyn at the far end.
Youngest is tired clearly, the section behind him is the tricky part where to hold the ridge involves a bit of scrambling and exposure, a young girl had gone that way with her partner and got a bit stuck, he had hold of her tightly on the way down. We’d moved away from that section to follow a steep grassy trod up the slope.
Hall’s Fell Ridge from near the top
We are just under the summit here, Linda looking happy with that fact. That’s the Gategill Fell route behind which is also steep as you can see.
Different faces all round!
Blencathra summit and 4 happy walkers
A darkened Skiddaw behind myself and Linda
That’s the top of Gategill Fell (Knowe Crags), Derwent Water in the distance and some North Western fells beyond Knowe Crags as well
Sunshine and shade as I look east from the top of Blencathra, we would head down there to the left for lunch away from the summit
After lunch we took a look at Scales Tarn and the precipitous Sharp Edge. Not for us this time and to be fair having done Hall’s Fell Ridge I think we have picked the best route up here.
Bit of scree at the back of Foule Crag as we head to the path out to Mungrisdale Common. In the distance is High Pike left and Carrock Fell to the right
The common to Mungrisdale, standing out in some sunshine. Skiddaw is back left and Great Calva is to the right. I always think that the walking out here is like Dartmoor, although slightly loftier.
The path out here to Mungrisdale was fine, I would dread to hear the complaints if the normal walkers I see on the Wainwrights page had to come to Dartmoor and try some of the areas around Cut Hill in the middle of the moor, at least there is a path here. There are some soggy bits but its not as if you come here in suede loafers.
I think this is a common spotted orchid, not the best photo of one though
And the summit of Mungrisdale Common, much derided but I loved it. Great views to the back of Skiddaw from here
Give your camera to your child to take a sensible photo of you on Wainwright 213 and you get this
I’ll do it myself selfie style, however my children at the back look like they are part of a band on an album photo shoot
Looking at Great Calva on the left and the Knott to the right, I think!
Back of Blencathra, Foule Crag looks positively unscalable from this angle
Linda and my eldest heading off towards Sinen Gill and Lonscale Fell providing the backdrop
A peek through to Derwent Water and Walla Crag, between Blease Fell left and Lonscale Crags to the right
Down at Roughten Gill now, Great Calva stands high to the right at the back, the small copse of trees on the hill to the left is surrounding Skiddaw Hause, the youth hostel
Sunshine casts some lovely light on Lonscale Crags
Roughten Gill
Walking out now, back to the car, we see Latrigg as the nearest fell, back right is the North Western fells including Causey Pike and Crag Fell. A bit of Derwent Water can be seen with Catbells behind that. And on the left is Walla Crag
Final photo as we near the car, that is Linda and my eldest away in the distance. Above them is Clough Head and the ridge to Helvellyn, on the right is Walla Crag and the higher Bleaberry Fell. So this was my penultimate 214 walk and one of my favourites to date, all that was left was Haystacks, Wainwright’s final resting place and many people’s final fell.

Related posts

23 thoughts on “Blencathra and Mungrisdale Common”

  4. Pingback: Jo’s Monday walk : Costa Vicentina | Still Restlessjo

    • There’s a couple of patches that could get boggy, but on the whole it was far drier than I expected given the noise around how wet its been this year, and compared to Dartmoor from the week before

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  11. Great report. I liked Blencathra a lot, and like you, don’t get the hate for Mungrisdale Common. I had my lunch there on a baking hot day and had it totally to myself. It isn’t really a hill, but the views are good, and the bog factor was considerably lower than some places!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  12. I like the idea of “album photo shoot” picture – made me chuckle. Halls Fell is much the better ridge. Sharp Edge is interestingly narrow but from memory was all too short and very greasy. Foule Crag is a good scramble though.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.