Stairway To Raven

The path up to Raven Crag will be loved by those people who prefer to get most of the day's ascent completed in the first thirty minutes. It is very steep and relentless. Most of it goes through woodland and it isn't easy to gauge your progress,. I was pathetically slow. In order to motivate myself, I decided to have a race to the top with a slug on the path. Unfortunately, he left me standing, and after he disappeared around the first corner, I didn't see him again. How depressing; beaten for speed by a slug. A male and female chaffinch flew on to a nearby branch and watched me as I shuffled up the trail below them. I've translated their chirped conversation:

'Hey Sheila, look at this one. What do you think it is?'
'Hmm, don't know Reg. That face is as red as a robin's breast'.
'I know, and that rasping it's making is like a fighting goose too'.
'It's also a bit wiffy, Reg. End of season osprey nests smell sweeter than this one'.
'Its head is wetter than a Grebes, Sheila. So what do you think it is?'
'I'm going to mark it down as an Unfit Fat Bastard, love. Tick'.
'I'll do the same then. Tick. We spot a lot of them around here don't we?'

Spoiler Alert: the ascent isn't over when you reach the landrover track on the top of the edge. You then have to double back, knuckle down and ascend even further through woodland to get to Raven Crag. At least there are some steps to ease the pain. A Stairway To Raven. It was with a sob of relief that I reached the viewing platform on Raven Crag. Was all the effort worth it? Absolutely. With a panoramic view along Thirlmere and across to the Helvellyn range, it has to be one of the best in the Lake District. Don't get too close to the edge though; it is a sheer drop back down to the reservoir. It looked like some wildcampers use the flat area near the edge. I would hope they bring a headtorch. 

I eventually managed to drag myself from this amazing view and descend back down the stairway to the landrover track near the edge. On the other side of the landrover track I did a short out-and-back walk to Castle Crag that was once used as a hill fort (first millennium BC). It is not quite as impressive as Borrowdale's Castle Crag, but it is worth taking the short trip across to have a look.

High Seat

I followed the landrover track northwards. When the stream to my right headed off into the fell, I followed it on a sketchy path. The path got very boggy and indistinct. Wainwright was a bit dismissive of the fells around High Seat, High Tove and Armboth Fell. A quote from his book about Armboth fell sums it up for me: 'It can be said of very few fells that they are really not worth climbing; Armboth Fell is one of the few'. I concur with him that the fells themselves are not very inspiring.  It is really a case of pressing on and getting the job done. In fairness the elevated view from High Seat over to Skiddaw is pretty good.

High Tove 

I headed back down my ascent path, towards High Tove. There is a wire fence that runs between the two. This is a good navigation handrail. In fact, a lot of it is slabbed now which makes it even easier. Such is the gradual ascent to High Tove I almost walked past its summit without noticing. In fact, if High Tove wasn't on the traverse path from Watendlath to Armboth, I wonder if it would ever have got named. I could see Armboth Fell as a group of heathery knolls over towards Thirlmere and so I headed off in its direction on a boggy path.

 Armboth Fell

Armboth Fell really is just a group of heathery knolls. There is a bit of a crag with a cairn on top that counts as its summit, but the whole area is not that interesting. I had a 10 minute wander eastwards to see if I could get a better view of the Thirlmere valley. I got to an edge that revealed yet another flat moorland expanse below me. You'd have to walk to the edge of that to get a proper view of the reservoir. It looked a lot of effort to get over there and I had a feeling that the view might be blocked by trees, and so I headed back to Armboth Fell's summit. 

I contoured over to the path that would take me down to Armboth. As I walked down, the path gradually revealed picturesque views of the reservoir. This was quite enjoyable after the monotony of the fells above. Near to the road there are some huge boulders that had dropped down from a nearby crag. I recognised one of the boulders from one of Wainwright's drawings.

 Thirlmere Trail

From the Armboth car park I followed the trail that runs alongside the reservoir, back to the dam. The sun was out now and this illuminated the abundant bluebells along the trail. There are some wonderful views across the reservoir. At one point a moth flew near to me. It had upper wings so orange they seemed to fluoresce. I stood still and after a while it flew back towards me and landed on a fern. Surprisingly, given its orange wings, it was so well camouflaged that I had trouble finding it to photograph. Instead of a glowing orange, the underwings looked like a leaf. What a beautiful insect.

The red lips of  Manchester's lion were still pouting at me as I crossed back over the dam.  Wainwright was right that the western fells above Thirlmere are not that inspiring, but they made the amazing view from Raven Crag seem all the better.