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Ian and Jo are with us today as we set off to climb Ian's favourite fell, or at least one of his favourites.

A gentle walk alongside the cleared forestry gave good views over to the high fells and an easy way to the top.

Flat Fell however was a lot less 'flat' than we remembered.

Wath Brow Bridge over the River Ehen at Cleator Moor.

We drive over the bridge and three quarters of a mile up the hill to start our walk at the edge of the forestry.

Oops . . . it already has . . . but the trees have all fallen away from the forest road quite some time back.

Our group for today . . . Jo, Ian and Ann . . . plus the photographer of course.

Cleared trees give a good view of Flat Fell which we hope to summit on our return route.

Funnily enough Dent Fell is outside the National Park boundary but Flat Fell, a lesser and grassier summit, is included within it.

As we leave the forest section we get views across to Blake Fell and rounded Grasmoor. 

Dylan feels the stile is the way to go.

He's not been here before so he recognised the shape as something to climb, rather than the correct direction to go.

We will use this crossing later . . . but for now we call him back down.

The forest track continues down the other side but we turn onto the summit path.

It used to be marked with a wooden finger post (now gone) so tanks for the indication of where to turn now.

This is the route taken by AW's Coast to Coast path.

We pass several small groups of people, one or more from each was aiming to do the whole route to Robin Hood's Bay, 192 miles away.

Late Spring brings new flowers and here we find spreads of cotton grass, gently bobbing in the wind.

Surrounded with flowers on both sides.

The diminutive summit cairn on Dent Fell

There's a great view from up here, one reason Ian likes it so much.

Here is part of the panorama which takes us from Blake Fell round to Scafell Pike.

The ladies kept away from the pools of water, more towards the coast side of the summit ridge.

We reach the western cairn, a large pile of stones just before the break of slope.

Ahead are the towns of Cleator and Cleator Moor . . . and the distant rounded headland of St Bees.

The Coast to Coast route starts in St Bees Village . . . where there is a indented valley in the distant landscape.

The view from this larger cairn is perhaps more impressive.

This is the Nuclear Reprocessing Plant at Sellafield, an important employer in this region.

Wind farms over Workington as we look north to Criffel in Scotland,

way across the Solway Firth, some thirty miles away.

Timer for a spot of lunch in the shelter of the cairn.

While we were there we got chatting to this gentleman who is over from Canada to attempt his fourth C to C walk.

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Cheers Malcolm from London, Ontario.  We hope your walk goes well.

That's Grasmoor ahead . . . don't worry . . . you don't have to climb that one !

Thanks for the company and conversation over our lunchtime break on the top of Dent.

Back at that ladder stile . . . here's the view from the top . . . of people rather than landscape.

Dylan and Harry find the dog gate this time.

To make life a lot simpler you could use the hole in the fence just a little further down.

We leave the ladder stile behind and note the sharp outline of the trees.

It is always easy to recognise Dent from the central fells due to this patch of woodland which graces the upper slopes of Dent.

We head off towards Nannycatch Valley.

That's Lagget Farm on the slopes of the other side of the valley.

This is a delightful world which seems cut off from the cares of everyday life.

As we pass Raven Crag it seems as if we are being watched.

Does it looks like a teddy bear's face to you ?

Didn't see the face on the last crag ?

There are definitely five faces on the slopes of this one.

Rather than take the short, steep ascent onto Flat Fell   (if it is called Flat why is there a climb ?)

Ian persuades us to take a more circular and gentler route to the top.

We stay on the C to C path and follow Nannycatch upstream.

The route we need could be seen ahead.

There was a colourful patch of gorse at the head of the side valley.

The view across to Frizington and Arlecdon across the virtually drained Meadley Reservoir.

Hey Ian, I thought you said this was flat ?

To be fair . . . the summit is suitably horizontal.

Across the way, the slightly higher summit of Dent that we walked earlier in the walk.

The only way is down . . . to our 'start and end' point below.

We join the bridleway that has climbed up from Nannycatch . . . and it is now just a short walk back to the car.

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