Tour of the Lake District - A Walker's Guidebook

A guidebook to walking a scenic, seven-day circular route (93 miles) around England's Lake District. The tour gives a flavour of each of the main Lakeland valleys and their different character. High-level alternative sections and short walks also described.

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Stage 6

Wasdale to Black Sail

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Distance    7 miles (11.5km)
Time    31⁄2–41⁄2hrs (main route)
Ascent    595m (1950ft)
Map    OS 1:25,000 OL6, OL4; Harvey Superwalker West sheet
Start point    Wasdale Hall, NY145045
Accommodation     Wasdale Head, Black Sail, Ennerdale
Refreshments     Wasdale Head
High-level alternative    from Wasdale Head to Black Sail (end of Stage 6) or Buttermere (end of Stage 7) via Great Gable (see Part 3, High Level 3)

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This short section is concerned entirely with Wasdale, and if any of the Lakeland valleys deserves a chapter to itself, it is surely this one. The geography textbooks highlight Wastwater as the deepest of the lakes, yet it is the unbroken and unforgiving scree-flanked walls of the valley to the southwest that lend it scale and shape its character. To savour a still evening in the valley, with the late sun catching the screes, is an unforgettable experience –  to a photographer the lure of a perfect reflection on the water will prove irresistible.

Wasdale, like its neighbour Ennerdale to the north, is almost entirely defined by nature – man is mercifully absent: beyond Wasdale Hall one road leads to a handful of farms, two campsites, a pub and little else. As befits the valley under England’s highest peak, the people of Wasdale are a hardy breed – the most famous and enduring of fell runners, Joss Naylor, is a Wasdale resident, and the Wasdale Head Inn has been the bar of choice for Lakeland climbers since the sport came to the Lakeland crags.

As outlined in Stage 5 the main route, described below, heads along the lake by the road, and the route via the screes is outlined as an alternative. The first half of the main route is flat, easy walking. The hard work comes later, with the traverse from Mosedale over Black Sail pass. Note that the end of this stage, Black Sail, is no more than a small, isolated youth hostel at the head of Ennerdale. If you are lucky enough to secure a reservation, a night here amidst the mountains is well worthwhile. Alternatively you might choose to follow the River Liza downstream to Gillerthwaite in Ennerdale for accommodation, or continue walking Stage 7 to Buttermere, as described in the next chapter.

The lakeside path by Wasdale Hall runs onto the Wasdale Head road, which you must now follow for three miles towards Wasdale Head. (For the alternative route via the screes, see section below.) A little beyond the head of the lake, as you pass the entrance to the National Trust campsite, the white gable end of the Wasdale Head Inn comes into sight; at this point look out for a footpath to the left of the road signed to ‘Wasdale Head’. This takes you through beckside fields to a packhorse bridge at the back of the Wasdale Head Inn. If not overnighting at the inn or campsite, a pint and snack here is not a bad idea. Apart from the opportunity to take in the climbing ambience of this bar adorned with photographs of past and present aficionados, Wasdale Head is also the last refuelling point before Buttermere – unless of course you have booked a stay at Black Sail. There’s also a shop next door selling outdoor gear, useful if you’ve left something crucial at home.

Alternative route to Wasdale Head via the Screes
If you prefer battling with Wasdale’s scree slopes rather than tackling the road, retrace your steps from Wasdale Hall or Nether Wasdale to Lund Bridge, the little footbridge crossing the river flowing out of Wastwater by the National Trust woodland. Follow the river back to the lake on its southern bank, and pick up the screes footpath here. Three miles of lakeshore footpath through the screes brings you to the head of the lake at Wasdale Head Hall Farm. Follow the public footpath through the fields to meet the bridleway coming down off Eskdale fell. Here, turn left, and follow the bridleway downhill, passing the National Trust campsite before rejoining the main route on the road to Wasdale Head.

Before leaving Wasdale Head en route to Black Sail, consider a short detour to St Olaf’s Church – the footpath is almost opposite the inn by the campsite. Reputedly the smallest church in England it is certainly dwarfed by the surrounding fells. Carved into the wood inside the door, an apt inscription reads ‘I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills’.

Herdwicks and Vikings
Back in the 10th century, a group of pioneering travellers came to Wasdale. Arriving from the west by sea, these Norsefolk were not the warring Vikings of familiar stereotype; more likely they were simply travellers in search of new land to cultivate and a new life. In Wasdale they would have found a sparsely populated, thickly forested valley, a wildwood still littered with the debris of the glaciers. Today, evidence of their habitation here can be found in the many Norse place names on the Ordnance Survey map of the area.

The lineage of the Herdwick sheep in the Lake District is subject to conjecture. The name and breed is certainly at least as old as the medieval period, but the original progenitors may well have been brought over in the Norse boats of the 10th century.

To continue on the route to Black Sail, take the path at the side of the Wasdale Head Inn for 25m back to the packhorse bridge crossed earlier, but this time keep on the pub side of the beck and head up the bridleway signed ‘Black Sail pass’. With the mass of Kirkfell in front of you guarding the top of Wasdale, the bridleway now veers northwest, continuing into Mosedale. As Kirkfell with Gable behind it marked the head of the main valley of Wasdale, you now face Pillar, a forbidding rocky fell claiming this subsidiary valley of Mosedale as its own.

The route continues up Mosedale, seemingly to end under Pillar, but in fact it hooks right to discover a pass between Pillar and Kirkfell. Initially it’s an easy, level stroll along the valley floor, but with some climbing later as it heads north and up, following the beck to the col of Black Sail pass.

With the ascent started, the track splashes over Gatherstone Beck and continues upwards, looping away from the waters for a short while. The last push to the top is stone-pitched in places, but be prepared for the odd scramble. A cairn marks the top of the pass, and you cross a defunct iron boundary fence before descending into Ennerdale.

The path down into the head of Ennerdale is distinct, but care is needed on the way down, especially when wet – the stones polished by the multitudes can get slippery. Once clear of the boulders, the path heads through the drumlins – the grass-covered mounds of glacial drift. A footbridge leads on to Black Sail Youth Hostel, a simple single-storey former shepherd’s hut, which since the 1930s has been a much-used and much-loved youth hostel amidst the high fells.

FACILITIES

Accommodation and supplies

Wasdale Head
Camping
National Trust Campsite (NY183075), tel. (019467) 26220
Barn Door Shop and Campsite, by the Wasdale Head Inn (NY187087), tel. (019467) 26229

Inns and B&Bs
Wasdale Head Inn, tel. (019467) 26229
Lingmell House B&B, tel. (019467) 26261
Burnthwaite Farm B&B (+800m; NY193091), tel. (019467) 26242

Ennerdale
Black Sail YH (NY195124), tel. (07711) 108450
Ennerdale YH (NY142141), at Gillerthwaite (+3 miles), tel. (01946) 861237
Shepherd’s Barn (camping barn), also at Gillerthwaite, tel. (01946) 758198

Transport

From Wasdale Head – see Stage 5
From Black Sail – none