The walk up the summits of Cross Fell, Little Dun Fell and Great Dun Fell on Sunday 1st June, 2014.
Five years ago whilst following a tangent from planning my three peaks of Yorkshire event I happened to land on Wikipedia’s Whernside page where I discovered the parent peak to Whernside was a mountain of which I had no previous knowledge – Cross Fell. Incidentally although this may be accurate a lot of what is posted on Wikipedia is utter cobblers…but that’s another tangent so let’s get back on track! I instantly became obsessed with wanting to both know more about this majestic outsider of the North Pennines and wanting to one day lay my feet upon its’ summit. I organised a walking forum meet up and began to plan and dream.

A total of four “definite” agreed to meet up with me and in keeping with most walkers underlying ‘green’ methodology three of us – myself, Sue and Karl all went to the venue in Karl’s car. In Kirkland we met Strider (deep apologies for not remembering your first name: Colin/Chris?) and Jon whom we had met previously sliding down Whernside on March’s ‘Right Pig Walk’! First I should say that there are not many residents of Kirkland…as such parking was restricted to park near the church – which had strange ululations emanating from it, and try not to encroach upon the tiny road. Kirkland is very, very small! We headed off on the route and took our first left hand turn-off (after some debate about which way ‘right’ would have taken us!). Within a hundred feet or so one of my water bottles decided to make a bid for freedom and jumped out of the inadequate pocket of my walking bag thus shedding ninety percent of its’ contents upon impact with the ground. This now left me with just sixty percent of the water with which I had intended to consume over the coarse of the 12 mile, 2000’+ walk! At first we were in something of a dappled light, shaded glade but then the road became a track and the views of this area of the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty were laid bare before us.
I had seen many, many images of this seemingly endless path from five years worth of research…that’s photography for you – everything looks bigger, because it was not long before the end of the lovely easy stretch and the beginning of the ascent. It has to be said that the natural mechanics which make up Lakeland hills / mountains, are essentially ignored in the North Pennines, gone are the ridiculous, relentless pulls uphill that transform legs into iron and would have you believe that gravity can only ever be your enemy. North Pennines hills/mountains are much more friendly to the walker that has crossed the great divide of the Eden Valley – the M6! Of course any rise in land at some point must vary its’ gradient sooner or we’d have cricket pitches in superabundance (perish the thought!) and Cross Fell is no exception, soon the gradient got a bit meaner but never uncomfortably so. The walk was very obviously splitting into bands, whereby one stretch of the route would be relatively steep (but not Lakeland steep) but this would be followed by a much more gradual pull up the mountain – accompanied by more than an odd marshy section. At times the path did disappear but here is where Cross Fell’s prestigious name worked in our favour – whereas there are countless paths and routes up to the summit of Scafell Pike because of its’ name and status and position, the former traversers of this fell have essentially stuck to the same few routes presumably from just the four basic compass points…it is kind of in the middle of the back of beyond as far as accessibility goes.
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
I won’t lie, I did have the odd rest bite every so often…I counted eight – which is much better than previous performances on Sca Fell, Helvellyn, Skiddaw and Scafell Pike but this was down to the walk being easier as opposed to any marked improvement in my performance…okay I think doing Sca Fell two weeks before did lay some groundwork! En route we met a nice chap who gave us some useful advice on following the curricks – cairns to most people, in order to negotiate the route up and over the summit of Cross Fell in case the mist came down. After three hours we were at the top of Cross Fell. I had heard that there was a cruciform shelter atop Cross Fell as there are atop many other summits…I had no idea that it would be so big! We ate our lunch inside its’ confines – my huge pasta and chicken weighed in at around one kilogramme and there was no way I was finishing that (I’d have to walk up another couple of mountains to burn it all off again!), and played guess the fell by gazing off towards what we hoped was the Lake District – or what we could see of it through the hazy skies. I could have sworn that I saw Great Gable but to be honest the only one upon which we all agreed was Great Mell Fell.
Summary
Not many mountains can live up to what Cross Fell had in store for me. I had quite literally dreamed of climbing this mountain on a number of occasions and at times when I had driven within its’ giant shadow it had somehow spoken to me on an unconscious level. I am delighted to admit that my expectations were fully met. As I have stated, prior to 2009 I could only name two handfuls of mountains and Cross Fell and its’ neighbours certainly were not in the collection. Whilst there are very apparent bragging rights to climbing the Sca fells and the likes of Great Gable and Helvellyn, even Skiddaw is no shrinking violet, here in the North Pennines, isolated but not ostracised this mountain’s reputation of being the haunt of evil spirits, of being too remote and inaccessible do nothing to tarnish its’ devotee’s cherished opinions, I know, for I am one of them. This is not a God forsaken place.
We’re now at the halfway stage of my quest to traverse the giants of England, the top ten mountains and I am delighted that at least one of them was away from Lakeland, diversity is often refreshing. My walker’s eyes next look to Ennerdale and the eye catching monolith that is Great Gable…but that’s in July and between now and then Christine and I have a wonderful holiday in Spain’s Costa Del Sol to which we can look forward. During my lengthy chats with Sue as we traversed these fells I did declare my intent to walk my coastal path again very soon, possibly this weekend, but I think that there is another location to which I must return very shortly for Winter Hill is simply gorgeous in Summer…and I’ve still not done Pendle since October!
Walk stats:
Milage 12.5 approx
Ascent 2,500′
Peaks: 3