Walking Lakeland Tarns Vol I West - English Lake District, UK

• Location
• Description
• Contents
• Introduction
• Sample Route
• Maps

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Walk 5.3: Great How and Burnmoor Tarn

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Tarns: Stony Tarn, Great How Tarns, Burnmoor Tarn, Eel Tarn
Distance: 6 miles
Ascent: 1600ft
Summary: Past Stony Tarn to the secret tarns of Great How. Much of the route is over rough, pathless felltops and an ability to use map and compass is essential.
Starting point: (GR 190010) Woolpack Inn, Eskdale, 1 mile east of Boot. Please obtain permission if you are leaving your car at the inn.

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Route Description - Stony Tarn

Though Stony Tarn is not the easiest of tarns to find, the old packhorse track from the Woolpack Inn sets you well on the way. Taking the public footpath to Burnmoor and Wasdale Head, go left of the inn and climb the grassy strip behind the buildings to a gate onto the fellside. About 100 yards beyond, leave the main path and fork right through the bracken. After heading eastwards at first, the stony path then turns away from the Eskdale valley up a re-entrant, and as the ground becomes boggy the path almost vanishes. Continuing northwards, the little cairned peak of Whin Crag, which lies above Stony Tarn, soon appears on the skyline and the path takes on a new lease of life.

Blea Beck tumbles into a boggy valley below, and further east are the cliffs of Goat Crag. The beck, which issues from the tarn, is an unerring guide, though the path keeps well to the left with cliffs rising above the far bank. As we climbed towards the tarn one evening, a runner accompanied by two dogs sped past us, then as we met the beck above the falls, where the path crosses to the other side, a third dog came into view. The small black terrier was soaking wet and obviously tired, but it splashed through the stream and on down the hillside with a determined expression.

A rocky knoll with a perched boulder crowns the summit of Peelplace Noddle and the tarn is soon reached in its remote setting of rocky knolls beneath shattered cliffs. Surrounded by rough slopes and pathless grassy banks, Stony Tarn sees few walkers for it is not really on the way to anywhere….