Skeggles Water Circular including Cocklaw Fell and Hollow Moor | Birkett KEN 2| Graham’s Guides

Get away from the crowds and explore some less visited fells and the gloriously names Skeggles Water.

Graham’s Walks	📌
Distance	5.6 miles/9 km
Elevation	1182 ft/360 m
Difficulty	Difficult
Map	🗺️
GPX	📁
Graham’s Cafe	You will drive past More? The Artisan Baker
Classification	Birketts KEN 2

The Area

I must admit that until I was reading though Bill Birkett’s “Complete Lakeland Walks” I’d never heard of Skeggles Water. I say that as someone who has walked most areas of Cumbria and completed a round of the Wainwright fells. My lack of knowledge is a reflection of how little attention is given to the areas at the edge of the Lake District and the draw of the big peaks. It’s not surprising that people go for the larger fells and the more dramatic lakes but in doing so they miss the opportunity for a quieter day.

Skeggles Water sits in the hills between the valleys of Kentmere and Longsleddale. There’s no obvious origin to the name Skeggles; it was likely the name of someone from the Norse era who had the nickname Skeggi (beardy). Both valleys have long histories of settlement with evidence of Neolithic and Bronze Age activity (2,000 to 4,000 BC), the Romans used the nearby High Street as a route between their forts (100 to 400 AD) and there’s a Norse heritage in many of the place names.

We don’t really have strict rules for the way that we name things in English even though some people think we do. Kentmere suggests a mere (lake or pond) from the river Kent. However, it’s the valley and village that have become known as Kentmere and the mere is is known as Kentmere Tarn, further up the valley is Kentmere Reservoir. Confused?

Most of this walk is across an area of Kentmere known as Green Quarter. In more feudal times the grazing around Kentmere village was separated into four areas with the village church at the centre. Each grazing area had an allowance of tenants, each tenant had an allocation of cattle. In 1760 each quarter had 15 tenants, each tenants was allowed to graze 10 cattle. Green Quarter appears to be the only one of the quarters still visible on the map.

The Walk

The route of this walk isn’t on all, or even most, maps. The first third is on a well defined bridleway; the second third takes a path around the tarn and up onto the fells, most of it looks like it is regularly travelled by a quad-bike but can be tricky to stick to as it’s not on many of the maps; the final third is back onto well defined bridleways. The navigational challenges are why I’ve marked it as Difficult.

This walk starts from the village where there is very limited parking outside the Kentmere Institute for a donation. For most people this is also the start of the Kentmere Horseshoe a popular walk that contains numerous Wainwrights. In the summer there is also a car park in a field just before you enter the village. Away from these two parking areas there are very few areas to park and the roads are narrow. Don’t be that person who causes havoc for everyone else.

From the Institute head back along Hollingrigg Lane past the church and across the river; then turn left up Hellwell Lane.

Part way along Hellwell Lane you’ll see a footpath fingerpost on the right and a small gate up some steps which has the nameplate Lucy’s Wood. The path goes pretty much straight up to another gate onto a farm lane which will bring you out onto Lowfield Lane. Turning left and up the hill a short way. There’s a bridleway on the right through a farm gate; this is Cornclose Lane.

The route follows the bridleway for a little while until there’s a fork where we take the left hand option, the righthand route is marked as private. The path steadily ascends along the edge of the hill sweeping to the left.

The path reaches an apex from which it descends into a shallow valley and you will soon be able to see Skeggles Water in the middle. Just off the path before you reach the water there is a barn ruin; just beyond it is a path leading to the southern edge of the lake through a gap in a drystone wall.

Keep on the path around the southern end of the water and you’ll come to a footbridge across the outflow stream. Continue around, taking in the views until the path meets a more defined path heading north-westerly. Many of the maps only have a path as far as the footbridge but the path beyond is reasonably clear. At one point the path takes a detour away from the lake to find a gate through a fence.

Along this path you can see Cocklaw Fell rising steadily to the right. You are looking for a path to the right heading pretty much straight up to the top of the fell. This path probably isn’t on your map and isn’t easy to find on the ground; sometimes you just need to set a baring and follow it. The summit of Cocklaw Fell is little more than a hillock and you may need to take a baring to convince yourself you are really at the top. The views over into Longsleddale open out at this point.

From the small summit of Cocklaw Fell you should be able to see a fence just below it to the north-west. Turn left at the fence and follow it along and down to the main track and to a point where a couple of paths meet at the intersection of a couple of fences. At this point there is a path that heads up towards the summit of Hollow Moor off the main track to the right. This path, again, looks like it’s regularly travelled by a quad-bike but it isn’t on the normal OS topographic maps, but is on the OSMaps app standard view and OpenStreetMaps variants like CoMaps.

This path opens out the views towards upper Kentmere and the fells beyond, climbing steadily until you reach the summit of Hollow Moor. Near the summit of Hollow Moor it’s worth taking a few steps towards the valley to get the best views. Near to the top there is a stone that used to part of fence. According to the various maps this isn’t the summit, but it’s near enough to mark it.

The path off the summit is a continuation of the path you came up on. This will take you down the side of the fell towards another bridleway that crosses Kill Gill and into Kentmere. There are a couple of routes through Kentmere, the simplest is to take the path along the side of the stream onto Hellwell Lane. Turn left on the lane back to the bridge across the Kent and up to the church, the institute and your transport.

The church is often open and is lovely inside. There’s a also a really good local history and natural history display.

Alternatives and Extensions

There are probably simpler ways of ticking off Cocklaw Fell and Hollow Moor if you are trying to fit your Birketts list but this isn’t an arduous walk as it is. Perhaps you could miss out the circumnavigation of Skeggles Water but that feels like you’d be missing out on many of the best views. You could also do the fells from Longsleddale but it would be difficult to make it a circular route.

The view back to the village and Sallows beyond

The path along the fence after Cocklaw Fell

The fence post near the summit of Hollow Moor

Follow the track down from the summit of Hollow Moor

Skeggles Water Circular including Cocklaw Fell and Hollow Moor | Birkett KEN 2| Graham’s Guides

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Top o’ Selside Circular from High Nibthwaite | Birkett OUT 3 | Graham’s Guides

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Bolton Abbey Circular including The Strid | Graham’s Guides

Easedale Tarn Circular from Grasmere | Graham’s Guides

Loughrigg Fell Circular from Ambleside | Birkett LAN 2 | Graham’s Guides

This walk gives a lot of views for just 300m of ascent across a little over 6 miles.

Graham’s Walks	📌
Distance	6.3 miles/10.1km
Ascent	1391ft/423m
Difficulty	Moderate
Map	🗺️
GPX	📁
Graham’s Cafe	Parking is in Ambleside where there are several cafe options.
Classification	Birketts LAN 2

The Area

Loughrigg Fell sits as a viewing platform at the junction of several valleys giving it views across much of the southern Lake District. On a good visibility day the walk starts with views of Windermere, Coniston, Coniston Old Man, and the Lancashire Fells to the south. As you ascend the vista opens out to the Langdales, Loughrigg Tarn and Elterwater. Nearer the top the panorama adds in Grasmere and the surrounding hills including Helm Crag and Fairfield. If you are really fortunate you can view some of the northern lakeland fells through Dunmail Raise with the Helvellyn massif standing alongside. The later stages of the walk add in Rydal and Nab Scar.

There are so many hills visible on this route that it can be difficult to distinguish all of them; an App I find particularly useful for this is PeakFinder which allows you to point at a panorama and see the hill names above each peak.

Loughrigg Fell has been heavily quarried over many years making it pitted and potholed especially at the top. This has removed any straightforward ridge to the top, near to the top the available paths can feel a bit like a maze, up and down. Bill Birkett notes: “A proliferation of paths makes route finding rather tricky along the top.”

This walk follows quite closely the route described in Bill Birkett’s Complete Lakeland Fells as LAN 2. Loughrigg Fell is also a Wainwright.

The Walk

This walk starts from the main carpark in Ambleside, the one on Rydal Road near to Bridge House. There’s a Public Toilet in the car park.

The route starts with a little bit of navigation. Head back to Rydal Road and head to the left out of Ambleside past the Fire Station. Just beyond the Fire Station head left down Storey Lane. At the end of the lane is a paved path that leads alongside Stock Ghyll as it flows towards its confluence with the Rothay. There’s a stone footbridge over the River Rothay onto Under Loughrigg road.

Turn right over the bridge and after a short while left onto a paved lane that heads up the hill. There’s currently a post at the end of the lane indicating it’s a public bridleway. The lane heads pretty much straight up until it turns to the left and then switches back to the right. At the right-hand switch there’s a footpath off the bridleway to the left. There’s a small wooden footbridge at this point. There’s also a gate before you get to the tarn.

Beyond this point the path winds its way up to Lily Tarn where it’s worth a bit of an explore. There are some glorious views from the various hillocks that surround it. Lily Tarn is apparently good for a swim, but quite shallow.

With the tarn on your left follow the path up the hill towards the sheepfold.

The path is well defined at this point and continues until it intersects the path from Skelwith Bridge. Continue uphill on the other side as the path fringes Loughrigg Fell to the top. The top is defined by a stone built trig-point.

There are several path away from the top, picking the right one can be a challenge. The one you want is directly opposite the one you walked in on. You should be able to see Grasmere, where you are heading, which will help you get your bearings.

The path down is well used and in the latter stages becomes stepped until it reaches Loughrigg Terrace above Grasmere. Turn right onto the path along the terrace with the mere on your left.

The walk here is the popular walk to Rydal Caves which you will reach by following the contour around. On most days you’ll be able to see the path without any problems as it will be dotted with people.

At Rydal Caves take the path down until it reaches the lane that leads down to Pelter Bridge past the small car park. Before the bridge take Under Loughrigg which is the road to the right. This road will take you alongside the River Rothay all the way back to the footbridge and the path alongside Stocks Ghyll, Rydal Road and into Ambleside.

Alternatives and Extensions

It’s difficult to know where to start on the alternative routes for this one, there are many. I’ll give a few.

On your way back from Grasmere you can choose to take the lakeside route back along Grasmere, via the river Rothay alongside Rydal. That’s straightforward enough.

From the top you can miss out Grasmere and head straight across the top to the caves. It’s probably quicker, but misses out several views.

There are a set of stepping stones part way along Under Loughrigh which, given the right conditions, would allow you to cross over to the A591 a little earlier. It’s fun, but not with the payback of walking down the busy A591. There are several places where you can cross to the A591 if the need arises.

You can take a swim in Grasmere or Rydal joining someone most days. There’s also the option of descending to Loughrigg Tarn before reascending to the summit. Loughrigg Tarn is one of the best swimming spots in the lakes, but it’s a lot of down and then back up. Probably better to plan that for another day.

Parking at the main carpark in Ambleside can get busy. There are various options in Ambleside itself probably the best alternative is Miller Bridge Car Park which is only just the other side of Rothay Park. Also, it’s not too much further to walk from Waterhead via the Rothay Bridge and onto Under Loughrigg from the other end. Another alternative is to use the Rydal car parks, but they are often busier than the ones in Ambleside.

Although it might look like it can be done, please don’t expect to be able to drive the length on Under Loughrigg it’s closed part way along.

The view across Windermere from near to Lily Tarn

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A lovely 7 miles walk, away from any crowds in a less visited valley to the south of the Lake District.

Graham’s Walks	📌
Distance	7.3 miles
Difficulty	Difficult
Map	🗺️
GPX	📁
Graham’s Cafe	You drive past More? The Artisan Bakehouse, Staveley
Classification	Birketts KEN 3

The Area

To the side of the main route into the Lake District, the A591, is the small town of Staveley and through its narrow streets you access a hidden gem of the Lake District, Kentmere a glorious valley on the southern edge of the National Park. Every day thousands pass by on their journey to the bright lights of the central Lakes favouring the car parks, cruises and high peaks. For those who prefer something quieter Kentmere is a fabulous, and accessible, choice if you are travelling from the south.

Some walking days are defined by fine weather and open vistas, others are dominated by low cloud and reduced visibility, the pictures in this post are from one of the latter days. For me, hiking is a state of mind, and each day gives you a set of choices. You can choose to make the best of the weather or to be frustrated that it isn’t something else. You can choose to complain that the fells aren’t very impressive, as was one of the few hikers I met, or you can see each summit as a goal reached. A good day hiking is a choice. Having said all of that, the clouds lifted a bit for the latter half of the walk and the views were spectacular.

The start of the walk is from the end of a lane above Browfoot. This is the recommended start point in the Birkett guidebook being commended as a way to avoid the parking congestion that can occur near to the church in Kentmere village. While this sounds like a sensible thing to do, the track above Browfoot is currently highly potholed and the parking options at the end of the lane are extremely limited. If you don’t want to take your chances at Browfoot you will see on the maps that there several routes to the start of the walk nearby including from Ings where there are more parking options. There are also several parking options on the side of the road to Kentmere near to the pottery entrance in the area which is marked as Philipson’s Wood on the OS Maps.

This walk is classified as KEN 3 by Bill Birkett in Complete Guide to Lakeland Fells.

The Walk

The start, and end, of this walk is on the bridleway from Hugill Hall to Kentmere Hall. The bridleway takes you through open moorland for a couple of miles until just before a good-sized stream from where you follow the fence to the left which becomes a wall.

I’ll describe some of the main features of this walk, but the reality is, you need to navigate this walk by the map and by what you see on the ground. There aren’t any nicely worn paths to follow for much of it and not too many distinguishable waypoints.

Once you leave the main bridleway you travel along a wall until it takes a turn to the right from where you head across open moorland to the top of Capple Howe. Capple Howe is so small that it doesn’t make it to the title of the walk in Complete Guide to Lakeland Fells.

From the top of Capple Howe you should be able to see one of the few waypoints, a small triangular shaped, wall enclosed, wood. The path to the top of Sour Howes is to the left of the wood. More open moorland takes you to the top of Sour Howes.

Sour Howes is in a few routes so from here the path does become a little more distinct following a fence around Moor Head and over a stile to the top of Sallows. The top of Sallows is marked by an Ordnance Survey trig-marker plate.

The paths away from the top of Sallows become even more distinct but following the theme of this walk we aren’t going to follow any of them. Our task is to head across open ground to meet up with the former access lane to the nearby quarry, this is now little more than a path but still quite distinguishable on the ground.

The quarry lane will take you down to the bridleway on which we started the walk. Turn right as you meet h bridleway and it will take you back to the stream and a set of stepping stones. From the stream walk the two miles back to your vehicle.

Alternative and Variations

One extension that looks sensible on the map would be to add in High Knott and the Williamson’s Monument which isn’t a Birkett, but it is in Wainwright’s Outlying Fells. The monument looks to have a great view across to Staveley, the lower Kentmere area and Morecambe Bay beyond. While you will see several routes on maps to the monument, the owner of the land does not appear to want anyone visiting. When I tried to follow the paths recently, I was met by a dry-stone wall topped with barbed wire and a sign telling me that I would be prosecuted if I tried to get to the monument. I decided that it wasn’t worth it, but others have chosen to trespass to get their tick as a point of principle.

I suspect that there is a view beyond this tree, but not today

The view along Kentmere decided to make an appearance

The view south with just a glimmer of Morecambe Bay in the distance. The silver line in the middle is the route back.

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More? The Artisan Bakery, Staveley | Graham’s Guides

Graham’s Guides – any interest?

Top o’ Selside Circular from High Nibthwaite | Birkett OUT 3 | Graham’s Guides

Taking a walk on the quieter side of the Lake District. This route crosses open moorland where you are likely to be on your own with the fabulous views across the fells and over to Morecambe Bay.

Graham’s Walks	📌
Distance	4.8 miles
Difficulty	Difficult
Map	🗺️
GPX	📁
Graham’s Cafe	Nearest is Bakehouse Born and Bread

The Area

If areas of the Lake District had a league table this one would be somewhere in the second or third tier, and it’s all the better for it.

I’ve covered several walks that are in premier league areas like Grasmere which are beautiful, but also visited by lots of people. These areas define most people’s perspective of the Lake District, and I’m happy for them, but there are significant areas of Cumbria that don’t get this treatment and today’s walk is in one of those areas.

High Nibthwaite is at the southern end of Coniston and on the less visited eastern shore.

There isn’t really anywhere to park in the hamlet, but there is a small unmarked car park just outside to the north. There is also a field opposite this small car park which occasionally gets recommissioned as a place to leave your car, although on the day I last visited the field was full of impressive white cows. You will need the RingGo app for the field, the small carpark is free. When I say that the small car park is unmarked I mean that there are no signs at its entrance, you can’t see where the cars are parked from the road, and the entrance is down a rough track which immediately makes you doubt that a car park could be at the end of it. There is a grey metal post, but it doesn’t have any signs on it and it is shown on the OS Map. Here’s the link to the location of the small car park, if you zoom in close on Google Maps satellite view you’ll see a car parked in it.

High Nibthwaite has its own artistic connections with Antony Gormley of Angel of the North and Another Place fame. At the edge of the hamlet is a house called The Stable at Lake End where Anthony visited in the 1980’s and where, in a field next to the boat house and quay he has left one of his famous iron sculptures looking out towards the Old Man of Coniston. It’s worth a visit to the sculpture and to take in the view at the quay by taking the footpath across the field (The footpath doesn’t go anywhere other than to the quay).

Much of this walk is across Bethecar Moor which is mostly trackless so you will need you map reading skills for this walk. The moor is a mixture of small rambling hills, gullies and bogs. There are marked paths on the map, but they aren’t as clearly defined on the ground. Don’t be fooled into thinking of this as a natural landscape though, like much of the Lake District this area has been shaped by people over a long time with some mining, coppicing, peat extraction and charcoal burning.

Near to the summit of the walk is Arnsbarrow Tarn which is a beautiful peaceful glacial tarn. The name “barrow” hints as the Bronze Age burial mounds nearby. People have been shaping this landscape for a very long time indeed.

This walk includes three Birketts – Stang Hill, Arnsbarrow Hill, and Top o’ Selside.

The name Top o’ Selside is a combination of Norse and English meanings. The Norse part Selside means seasonal pasture on a hillside, more Viking influence. The English part Top o’ says that it’s the highest point of.

The Walk

This is a medium length walk but I’ve marked it as difficult because of the need to navigate open moorland where the tracks are few and far between. In good weather the features are distinct, but in poor visibility it would be easy to become confused. Also, walking in this kind of open moorland is more tiring and slower going than on defined well marked tracks. The lack of tracks does give lots of opportunity to explore though.

We start this walk from the small unmarked carpark to the north of Coniston which is here. We are going to do this circular in an anti-clockwise direction, but you could do it the other way around. My choice of direction is solely down to a preference for coming down through the woods at the end rather than working my way up them at the beginning.

From the car park we head south along the road back into High Nibthwaite taking a short detour to visit the Gormley statue and to take in the views along the lake from the quay.

In the middle of the hamlet is a track off to left. This track is often used by off-road enthusiasts and mountain bikers, it forms part of our route down later on. For now, though, we are only following it for a short distance before heading along the path to the right along following route of a drystone wall to our right.

This path will take us along the route of Caws Beck which is in the woodland, to our right, and below the crags of Brock Barrow, on our left, to the farm at High Bethecar. This farm has fabulous views across the fells and Morecambe Bay but feels very isolated.

From High Bethecar we head out onto the moorland through a gate and along a track that steadily diminishes. We are looking for a fork in the path that takes us off to Stang Moss to the right. This is where you will need your map reading skills because it isn’t very clear on the ground where this fork is.

The route from Stang Moss to Arnsbarrow Hill is along a small ridge. If you are fortunate you can see the top of Arnsbarrow from Stang Moss and the route is almost straight there.

When we are picking our way along a route it’s easy to get engrossed in the few metres in front of us, be sure to lift your head and take a look around, this route has fabulous views.

Onward to Arnsbarrow Tarn which is worth a visit to take in the tranquility of it. You should be able to see the tarn from Arnsbarrow Hill. Work your way around the eastern side of the tarm up onto the Top o’ Selside.

The track down from the Top o’ Selside is probably the clearest part of this moorland part of the walk. The views across to the Old Man of Coniston are glorious on a good weather day. Part way along this part of our bimble you will start to see the bridleway that will form the next part of our exploring.

Once you’ve reached the bridleway turn left along it as it descends.

The last time I did this route there were two groups of off-road vehicles making their way up the hill. The noisy engines and tires felt like an invasion of privacy having been on my own in the quiet moorland. I can see why people would choose this route though, the views are fabulous.

The bridleway will eventually draw alongside a wood on the right and then a little further along there is a gate into the wood. There’s only really one path down through the woods back to the carpark. This wood is nicely isolated and you should watch out for wildlife, when I last visited I saw a woodcock, a bird I’m not sure I’ve ever seen before.

Extensions and Variations

This route is mostly across moorland and this makes for infinite possibilities and variations.

Near the beginning of the walk you can choose to branch off and climb Brock Barrow which would be quite steep. Even if you don’t climb up the front you can branch off the defined path to the left to get some early views of the surrounding hills. From there you can cross moor to High Light Haws before branching off to Stang Moss.

If you were really wanting to maximise the number of Birketts that you covered on this walk you would take the route from Top o’ Selside to Carron Crag which is the only other Birkett in the area. Doing this would more than double the length of the walk and I’m not sure would add much more interest.