Terrain Overview
Walk Overview
A few caveats to start this walk description. Alfred Wainwright said of this walk …
"Regard this as a full day expedition…"
This walk whilst largely is on good paths, there are in places, areas where
the path is a little sketchy, but note well ... the walls are good guides, especially
between Nameless Summit 2 and Ulgraves. We made the mistake of following a
very good (and obvious) path off Nameless Summit 3 which did in fact lead
towards Gurnal Dubs. From this summit travel BACK to the wall that is
described below (see *)
From the A591 heading towards Staveley, take the signposted turnoff towards
Burnside. From here carry on through Bowston and on to the Potter Fell Road.
Along a section that passes through a wooded area there are several laybys
dotted around Beckmiddle Ing that allow free parking for a few cars
From where we parked the car, we set off West down the Potter Fell Road
After about 300 or 400 yards a track branches off right and heads towards Side House
Setting out on the track, very pleasant walking
Upon reaching a Post Box keep right and continue down the track
The first of a number of gates to pass through, keep straight on the path
The path continues to rise gently as it climbs towards Side House
Use the narrow gate on the left hand side as instructed
Approaching Side House, keep left as the track swings round
The path passes through the final gate as it leads on to the open fell side
On the open fell side now and the days first object (Nameless Summit 1) can be seen
About half way up on the right a signposted path leads off to Potter Tarn. Ignore this
An old iron gate is reached slightly further up. Its from here now the path
swings hard left and starts to slant up the southern face of the Fell, thus
removing the steepness of a direct climb
Although the path travels through areas of thick bracken it is easy to follow
Looking towards the Coniston Fells from the path
The path swings left and follows the line of a wall
The path climbs more steeply now and journeys towards the dip on the right
Almost at the top of the col and the path swings left to start the summit approach
Looking West over to the Langdales from the path
The path now heads westwards towards a wall
The path runs parallel with the summit raise
Watch out for a faint track that branches right after a big boulder
The summit approach
The largely unimpressive cairn on the summit. Click here for a 360 degree view
Looking East towards the Howgills from the summit
Looking towards the Kentmere Horseshoe
We now set off west following a decent track towards Brunt Knott
The path to Brunt Knott is clearly defined but loses height initially
The path follows the line of the wall
We head down to the intake wall. Aim left to access the wall stile
The wall stile once over, bear right slightly
The path now climbs gently towards the summit
Approaching the summit cairn on Brunt Knott
Sue on the summit of Brunt Knott. Click here for a 360 degree view
The views were just amazing. Here looking towards the Langdale Pikes
Crinkle Crags and Bowfell, with the Coniston range to the left
Looking over to the Kentmere Horseshoe
A good path leads off East towards Potter Fell nameless summit 2 seen
in the centre of the shot. The key here is the wall further on down
The path leads down to a wooden stile
The path to the summit closely follows the wall. At a given point make a right
turn, visit the summit and then return to the wall *
At a point roughly at the highest part of the wall head sharp right
across wiry grass towards the summit which is an insignificant
pile of stones
The summit cairn on The Potter Fell nameless summit 2. Click here
for a 360 degree view
Though this path looks the obvious way off the summit dont follow it as it
leads down to Gurnal Dubs which is the opposite direction to Ulgraves
*** Return immediately to the wall (Dont make the mistake we did)
After much messing around over difficult terrain we make it back to the wall.
Having missed what was an obvious gate we had to find a way over the
barbed wire fence
We were lucky to find a gap in the barbed wire fence that looked as though it had
been made by someone who had previously made the same mistake as us
Unlikely though it seems, there was a path of sorts that dropped down
sharply left and through a big patch of bracken. Once the other side of
that we could pick up a more conventional path towards Ulgraves
The summit of Ulgraves pictured in the distance
Sue fighting her way through the bracken :)
Back to more conventional walking and the approach to Ulgraves
The summit cairn on Ulgraves
Sue on the summit of Ulgraves, click here for a 360 degree view
Looking down the full length of the Long Sleddale Valley
Make make our way back to the car via Gurnal Dubs and Potter Tarn.
Here, one over zealous wall builder decided that a big rock oputcrop
was not going to get in the way of his wall
Passing the old boat house on Gurnal Dubs
Approaching Potter Tarn
The dam wall at Potter Tarn
