- Sale fell from the north -

Date & Time: Wednesday 18th April 2007. 4.45 pm start.

Location of Start : Wythop Mill , near Bassenthwaite, Cumbria, Uk. ( NY 190 301 )

Places visited : A circum-navigation of Sale Fell and starting and ending at St Cuthbert's Church.

Walk details : 2.75 mls, 850 ft of ascent , 1 hr 25 mins plus a look round the church.

Walked with : Ann and our dogs, Harry and Bethan.

Weather : A warm afternoon with clearer weather and blue skies. A much cooler breeze today.

 

 

On the back road that travels from Wythop Mill towards Bassenthwaite there is the delightful St Cuthbert's Church, overlooking the northern end of Bassenthwaite Lake. It was a lovely afternoon, and after all the other jobs had been done, it was time to exercise ourselves and the dogs.

We hadn't walked Sale fell for a while and so we took the opportunity to climb this delightful, small, more northern fell from a new starting point.

We parked outside the church but walked a few yards along the road to pick up the start of the fell side footpath.

   
A wide track leads directly from the road
past the new blossom of the Gorse bushes.

A fine seat on the first patch of open ground is a great place to enjoy the extensive view.

The fell behind Bassenthwaite Lake is Binsey, slightly separate from the other Northern Fells. The seat in the last photo can just be seen, lower down next to the gorse. Between Binsey and us, the River Derwent flows out from the lake, left to Cockermouth and then out to the sea at Workington.

The Pheasant Inn now on a quiet section of the old A66 road.

We had planned a walk around Sale fell and so set off clockwise up the northern side of the fell.

There is an easy and wide track (which is poorly marked on the O.S. map) which we followed up past the mature forestry on the left.

From the gate we stayed left and headed for the top of the grassy knoll of Lothwaite on the sky-line ahead.

As we crest the rise we are greeted with a fine view of Skiddaw, Dodd and Bassenthwaite Lake again.

 

In the distance, the highest fell is Helvellyn, the clarity of the air giving us good long distance views today.

In the middle distance is Keswick and the dark patch of trees is Great Wood under Walla Crag.

Looking to the right is the forestry on the side of Barf, Lords Seat being the highest point.

Further right again, Graystones is the distant hill and Ling Fell the steeper sided fell beyond our ridge walk.

As the afternoon progressed, the cloud cover thickened and the sky colour darkened as a consequence

but we still enjoyed some strong sunlight here on the top of Sale Fell itself.

Ann setting off down past the white quartz stones that lie just north of the summit.

We hadn't exactly planned this walk, or at least I had planned it but not told her, and we parted company for a few minutes.

Sale Fell has a habit of doing this to people as we lost our son here for a few minutes many years ago. The undulations of this area to the north of the summit makes it easy to miss people as there are a number of variations to the path. We'll have to call this area the "Sale Triangle".

Oh, there she is !

She was making for the car past what looked like old Grouse butts.

   
Nearly back to the road, we diverted to the back gate of the church
and entered the delightfully kept grounds.

St Cuthbert's Church at Wythop.

This is a relatively new church, the old one on the back of Sale Fell was closed and demolished in the 1850's if I remember rightly.

   
Inside the Knave of St Cuthbert's
A modern looking Font at the back of the church.

 

- - - o o o - - -

Technical note: Pictures taken with a Canon G7 Digital camera.

Resized in Photoshop, and built up on a Dreamweaver web builder.

This site best viewed with . . . a new approach to an old fell.

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Previous walk - 13th April 2007 Crag Fell and Grike with Jo

A previous time up here - 28th May 2003 Sale Fell with Gareth, without getting lost

Previous walk - 21st April 2007 Sheffield and Hart Side with Anne and Andrew