Bowfell and Crinkle Crags

When writing his fourth Pictorial Guide, to the Southern Fells, Wainwright declared Bowfell "among the best half-dozen fells in the Lake District". This was the only time he allowed himself such a statement until the end of his final guidebook, which shows how much respect and awe he had for this particular mountain.

The neighbouring fell, Crinkle Crags, is also held in high regard, described as "much too good to be missed", and the ridge walk between the two mountains "entirely delightful", and such praise demands a closer look.

I'd persuaded Kevan to give these two mountains a try the last time we were in the Lakes, but the weather wasn't great and 3,000ft up overlooking sheer rock faces is not the best place to be in mist, so we amended our plans. But this week's weather was much better, so we'd had this one in our sights from the first day we arrived.

Today was the day, and with John accompanying us too, we were well set as we parked up at the Old Dungeon Ghyll at around half nine. The first mile or so is along the flat Langdale valley floor, forking left at the head of the valley up the Oxendale branch. After crossing the beck, we started our first climb up the valley side, heading toward Great Knott and skirting round Pike of Blisco. The change in gradient soon slowed us down, but with every pause for breath, the views back along the valley got steadily better.

Just before Red Tarn, the path swung round to head behind Great Knott and then onwards to the first of the five Crinkles. We'd covered more than 3 miles by this point and climbed over 800m, so as it was approaching lunch-time, we found a sheltered spot just below the summit, with fine views over the West Cumbria coast, right down to Blackpool in the distance.


It was from here that the walk became much more of a challenge - the tops of Crinkle Crags were boulder-strewn, and the climbing and then descending of each of the five Crinkle summits was tough-going. Still, the views down Langdale were amazing and our spirits were still high. The descent from the final Crinkle was even more rocky, and this set the tone for the next one and a half miles to Bowfell. Wainwright admits the progress here is slow, but believe me this was tough going.

The summit of Bowfell was even more rocky, with huge boulders littering the upper reaches. Not only this, but now the weather was closing in all around us, and it was clear there was heavy rain out towards Sellafield to the west, and Ambleside to the east. I even saw lightening, not a welcome sight when you're on one of the highest mountains in England, so on reaching the summit there was more than a concerned glance around and we didn't stay on the very top for long.

Fortunately the rain stayed away from us, and we plotted our descent carefully all the way down to Angle Tarn, a difficult route again over rocks and boulders down almost 300m. By now the legs were burning, but we were now on the main path which would take us all the way back to the start. However the car was still around 4 miles away and although the path was clearly marked on the map, the reality was quite different as we had to take an even steeper and rockier route down, eventually meeting Rossett Gill and down into Mickleden. Only now we reached a reasonable path and the gradient finally relented, but the time had passed 5pm and we still had a good couple of miles or more to go. Eventually we made it back to the car, but it was after six and we'd been walking for well over eight hours.

We'd had an exhilerating, if exhausting day, and by the time Kevan and I had dropped John off and got ourselves ready for an evening meal, we just about had the energy to haul ourselves to the nearest restaurant where we collapsed into a chair with a well deserved drink.