Howes (1930')

Sun 11 Sep 2016

Lonely Swindale from near Tailbert Farm

At home it seemed very dark at 6 o'clock but as I drove up the M6 with Andrew the sun appeared and spent the whole day with us! We drove down from Shap through Keld and over the River Lowther and parked at Tailbert. We set off along the coffin route into Swindale. Immediately we ran into some wet ground, and that, too, stayed with us all day! I have never before walked with wet boots and socks for so long. At first it was just the sodden ground, but the waist-high bracken hanging over the path leading down to Truss Gap completely soaked our trousers and socks.

Huge weir in a small beck

It was surprising to see the amount of work that had been done on Swindale Beck, where a monstrous concrete weir has been erected to re-direct the flow of water on its original bed. We got on to the road there to avoid more wetness, but the ground was dry only up to Swindale Head farm. Over the swampy Dodd Bottom we followed roughly the route indicated by Wainwright and began the climb up to the gap in Nabs Crags: tiring in the extreme. Many new tree saplings have been planted here.

Nabs Crag

We managed to get up on to Nab Moor and after getting over the fence got the direction right in spite of there being no path. Thanks to Andrew's navigation skills and determination to find it, we located AW's cairn, thereafter eventually arriving at the small tarn.

Cairn at 1800ft and tarn near the summit

Locating the point that Wainwright decided was worth visiting* was not easy, a case of trying out one mound after another. I had found locating the exact spot impossible five years ago when I had combined this walk in reverse after visiting Seat Robert.

The splendid summit of Howes

Deer

We saw a large herd of deer over on the slopes of Selside Pike and I managed to zoom in and capture a photo of two.

Gateway to Mosedale Cottage

The descent to the disused quarry was very awkward, and seemed to take ages. Then the walk along Mosedale lacked interest until we came to the falls. Andrew got some photos of them but I was weary and felt unable to risk the path close to the beck and later met up with Andrew below at the footbridge.

Upper waterfall in Swindale Beck

I can't recall where I originally read of the path leading from here to Truss Gap: AW doesn't show it and it's not indicated on the OS map in spite of a footbridge having been at the foot of the falls for many years, which is also not shown. I have used this gated path a couple of times; it leads below Ewe Close and Outlaw Crag to Truss Gap.

Unwilling to soak ourselves once more in the wet bracken, we walked up the road to Swindale Foot and took the path, not obvious in places, up to Tailbert, but left it too soon on reaching the farm walls. We made it back to the car without disturbing anyone and, having put on dry socks and shoes, we made for home.

* It's my opinion that AW's reason for including in his Outlying Fells such an undistinguished 'summit' is contained in the introduction to his walk on page 51. Howes could have been included in his Seat Robert walk, as I did in 2011, and the disused quarry near Mosedale Cottage and The Forces (worth all else) enjoyed at the same time. I took a few pictures of the falls on that visit so I include them here.