Great End

Grains Gill and Great End from Hind Gill

There’s something truly dramatic about Great End.  As Wainwright says, "This is the true Lakeland of the fellwalker, the sort of terrain that calls him back time after time, the sort of memory that haunts his long winter exile.”  From the South it’s merely the end of the Scafell chain but from the North it’s a huge, wall of rock forming an immense, forbidding  backdrop to Sprinkling and Styhead Tarns and Grains Gill.  Although the face of the rock is pitted and scarred, there are scrambles and walking routes to the top giving wonderful views across the whole of Lakeland.

The Howgills

Andy and I had a wonderful walk on Saturday.  The Howgills, rounded, smooth fells with steep sides and named “Sleeping Elephants” by Alfred Wainwright, nestle between the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales.  Despite being close to two tourist honey pots it’s possible to be out all day and barely see anyone.  Our 15K walk, inevitably involving the odd geocache, took us from Sedbergh to the summit of the highest fell, The Calf, in windy but warm conditions.  That we were hungry on our return as we’d forgotten our sandwiches was a small price to pay for such spectacular solitude