Howgill Fells

Monday, myself and Lewis headed up to the Howgills, a group of hills bordered by the Lake District to the west and Yorkshire Dales to the east, and that get comparatively little attention - which is a good thing as we saw nobody all day. While perhaps not as rocky as hills in the Lakes, these are still big hills, and the solace is a nice change from being in Langdale or Coniston, plus it only took us 30-40 minutes to get there from Lancaster.


We parked at Cross Keys (SD 698 969) which is one of the best access points and headed up via Cautley Spout, which I fancied a look at as during particualary hard winter it freezes making an awesome ice route. From their we headed up the tops, doing a circuit of Great Dummacks, Calders and the Calf. We looked at a few different navigation techniques along the way in preparation for Lewis' upcoming assessment, the clag was down which provided some good, realistic conditions. We had a late lunch by the trig point on the Calf and then headed down just as it was going dark.