The gorgeous Harter fell..

We were lucky enough to find ourselves with a couple of free days, "best not waste them" we said, so we drove up to the Lakes for a couple of days of walking and camping. We chose to camp in Eskdale, as its any area we rarely get around to visiting...The campsite was to be Fisherground situated mid way along the valley...It was ok, but not a site I would recommend [too many rules and too many kids running around causing havoc]. I suppose its my age but I much prefer the quiet life...The day of our walk dawned, overcast, never mind....We drove up the valley to the small car park at Wha house farm. A footpath sign at the car park pointed its way up to Scafell via Slightside and just for a second I was tempted. Across the valley the craggy and pyramidal summit of Harter fell looked fantastic...The long slog to Scafell or the beautiful climb up to Harter fell, there was no contest...We set off along the lane towards Harter fell.

We walked on to the bottom of the Hardknott pass, several cars were parked here,and i realised we could have saved nearly a mile of walking along tarmac to get here.Never mind the road was quiet so it really didn't matter. We crossed over Hardkott gill at Jubilee bridge to follow the lovely path that crosses the fells over to Dunnerdale.....Good views began to open up as we climbed across the valley towards the Scafells and Upper Eskdale.

The path to Harter fell leaves the main path, indicated by a small pile of stones and sets off much steeper now, through thick bracken at first but this is soon left behind to follow a sketchy path across the eastern flanks of the fell.I love to follow a path like this...patches of heather now added to the beauty of the walk.

Nowhere was the path too steep..The only sound we could here were the bees busying themselves with the Heather, Then suddenly from nowhere peace was shattered as two jets flew below us, the sound was startling almost deafening but within seconds they had disappeared, across Dunnerdale then over the Coniston fells...Peace returned....A short steep section and we were topping out on the summit,first we visited the Trig pillar.

There are three rocky tops on the summit and it is customary to visit all three, the first, where we find the pillar is not the actual top. Nearby is a far rockier little top, the true summit at first glance it looks an unassailable climb, but to the north of it there is a breach in rocks giving an easy scramble to the 2140ft summit...I think the views from Harter are as good as anywhere in the district, but everyone has there favorites...After scrambling the rocks we settled down for a bit of scran and a cheeky Vimto..We sat with our backs to rocks looking down across the Duddon valley towards Cockley beck and the Wrynose pass[pictured below].

After a leisurely break we retraced our steps back to Eskdale. Taking our time as the views were first class. We remembered the last time we walked up to Harter fell, many years ago in thick fog being led up by our daughter Emma who had recently climbed it on a school trip. Sadly on that day we had no views but today was a different Kettle of fish.To the south towards the glittering Irish sea sea we could see Black coombe, The Duddon estuary, Little Stickle pike, To the east the huge range of the Coniston fells, The the west we had Birker fell, Green crag, Devoke water and Muncaster fell and finally to the north stood mighty Pillar the Scafells and Bowfell..all in all a sight to stir the soul.

We more or less had the fell too ourselves which is just as I like it..However at times it is nice to meet fellow walkers... at Jubilee bridge we met up with a little Japanese man who had been up to the summit, we walked back with him along the road, a chatty little fellow from Crewe, I enjoyed his company, Its always nice to have a chat with kindred spirits.