DISCOVER The Esk Valley
The river wild
From the shimmering Irish Sea to the highest
mountains in England: come with us on a
three-day sea-to-source walk following the
most spectacular river in the Lake District…
WORDS: NICK HALLISSEY
PHOTOS: TOM BAILEY
THE GREAT ESK APE
30 COUNTRY WALKING AUGUST 2016
The dramatic early stages
of the River Esk in Upper
Eskdale, with the mighty
peak of Bowfell behind.
DISCOVER The Esk Valley
ss
t Mo
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Gr
DAY 3
or
rnmo stone c
Bu
irc
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Upper
Eskdale
Lingcove Bri
dg
e
Getting around
p AGAINST
THE FLOW
Going sea-tosource turns the
Esk into a thrilling
detective story.
R
NC
ER
FE
LL
ncaster Cas
Mu
tle
Ravenglass
ay
lw
DAY 1
MU
Woolpack Inn
(actual start point)
Eskdale
Green
Woolpack to Ravenglass
(via Ratty); Ravenglass
to Eskdale Green
T
AS
DAY 2
Eskdale Green
to Woolpack
Inn
ILLUSTRATION: STEVEN HALL
We decided to walk the Esk from sea to source.
Sometimes it’s great to go from source to sea, but in
this case the start of the Esk is so remote that it would
feel odd to do a huge walk to get to it (along the Esk the
whole time), and then reverse course back along the river.
Instead this is a detective story; a search for the source.
As with all river trails, logistics are a bit of a thing.
But Eskdale has a very helpful secret weapon: ‘Ratty’,
AKA the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway.
So on Day 1, park your car at the Woolpack Inn,
in the depths of Eskdale, and ask if you can leave
it there for two days (they should be fine with this,
as you’ll be using the pub at the end of Day 2).
ss & Eskdal
e
gla
R
en
ai
av
THE ESK
RIVER
TRAIL
Source of the Esk
es
HIS IS THE story of a river.
When we planned this special
issue devoted to walking by
water, we knew we’d have to
cover lakes, coastline, canals,
waterfalls; we’d look at tarns,
ponds, reservoirs and islands.
But what we really wanted, to set the whole
party off, was a river. A river we could follow on
foot from one end to the other, telling its story
as we went. A river we could make friends with.
And somewhere round the back of the Lake
District, we found it. It’s called the Esk.
Eskdale is definitely the ‘back’ of the Lake
District. It’s one of the least visited valleys in the
national park, mostly because it takes a long time
to get there. It’s right out on the western frontier,
locked off from civilisation by the Scafells and
the Coniston fells. The quickest way to get there
(unless you happen to live on the west coast of
Cumbria) is the drive from Ambleside via the
Wrynose and Hardknott passes – purveyors
of some of the hairiest motoring in England.
But if, like Dante or Odysseus, you can make
that journey through the wilderness, what
a paradise awaits on the far side: a valley of
immense beauty, superb hills, and a tranquility
unmatched almost anywhere else in the Lakes.
And stitching it all together is the Esk.
At a mere 15½ miles from its source among the
Scafells to its estuary in the Irish Sea, the Esk is
the perfect length for a three-day walk. And what
a walk it will be: castles, pubs, waterfalls; little
hills and giant mountains; remote stone circles
and the cutest miniature railway in the country.
You’ll walk beside the Esk, across it, through
it, and high above it. You can even pause for
a paddle or a swim in it once or twice.
So this is our river; our new best friend.
We think you’ll love it too.
Then walk a mile to Dalegarth station,
and catch Ratty all the way to the coast at
Ravenglass, where the Esk meets the Irish Sea.
u Day 1 tracks the Esk inland from its estuary,
climbing high above it on Muncaster Fell, before
dropping down to the Bower House Inn at Eskdale
Green for the night. (This is the only day when
you need overnight stuff in your rucksack.)
u Day 2 follows the Esk east across Bleatarn Hill,
through the village of Boot and along the riverbank
back to the Woolpack Inn.
u Day 3 starts at the foot of Hardknott Pass.
This is a full-on mountain day, an 11-mile epic
which climbs through Upper Eskdale, across
the mighty sweep of Great Moss and up to the
source, before knocking off the river’s parent
peak of Esk Pike for good measure.
So as we advise on the routecards (Walks 13-15
this issue), don’t set out on the trail if you’re
not happy with the big challenge of Day 3.
But if you’re still with me, let’s get going.
Because this is brilliant. u
p ALL ABOARD!
The Ravenglass and
Eskdale Railway,
AKA ‘Ratty’, helps
with the first part
of the journey.
AUGUST 2016 COUNTRY WALKING 33
DISCOVER The Esk Valley
Day 1
34 COUNTRY WALKING AUGUST 2016
Up next is Muncaster Castle. The ancestral seat
of the Pennington family for more than 800 years,
the castle is an impressive bastion, and the route
passes through some of its glorious gardens.
There’s always something going on at the castle in
summertime, from craft shows and owl displays
to the famed Jester Festival (see panel, below).
And then it’s on to Muncaster Fell;
a three-mile ridge which separates
Eskdale and Miterdale. You may
recently have seen it being
churned up by Chris Evans
and Matt LeBlanc in an illadvised venture for the new
series of Top Gear. Make sure
you tell the hill that Richard
Hammond (a keen walker
and lover of the Lakes) would
never have let that happen.
The top of Muncaster Fell
is your first bird’s-eye view of
Eskdale. Now the task is clear –
get up that lush valley and into those
mountains at the head of it. The biggest
one you can see is Scafell, the second highest peak
in England. But as you’re round the back, it looks
nothing like Scafell. That’s the joy of being round
the back of things. Everything’s a surprise.
The day ends with a languid descent into Eskdale
Green and a brief detour into Miterdale, where the
Bower House Inn makes the perfect stopover.
But don’t worry. There’s plenty more
u
Eskdale to come.
p A RIDE
ON R ATT Y
The Ravenglass
& Eskdale Railway
has a proud 100-year
history, and its staff
includes over 100
eager volunteers.
t A GARDEN
OF WONDERS
The parkland of
Muncaster Castle
was conceived as
a ‘wild woodland’,
alive with azaleas
and rhododendrons.
u THREE VIEWS
FROM DAY 1
Walking beside
the Esk estuary
(top); the view from
Newtown Knott
across the estuary
and the Irish Sea
(centre); and the
gorgeous traverse
of Muncaster Fell
(bottom).
Tom Fool
Marry, i’faith and odds bodkins. The International Jester Festival takes
place at Muncaster Castle each May, and it’s a unique celebration of
merriment and foolery. The funniest japester is awarded the title Fool of
Muncaster and officially becomes the new jester of the castle. The festival
is a modern phenomenon, but it harks back several centuries to when
the jester was one Tom Skelton. It’s thought he was the first entertainer
to call himself Tom Fool (hence, ‘tomfoolery’) and he may have been the
inspiration for Shakespeare’s Fool in King Lear. But he wasn’t all about jolly
japes. When the daughter of the then lord of the manor began a romance
with a lowly carpenter, rumour has it that Skelton was paid to put an end
to it, which he did by putting an axe to the poor tradesman’s neck. Eww.
PHOTO: ISTOCK
ANY WALK THAT starts with a steam train has
to be a good thing. So after a quick leg-stretch from
the Woolpack to Dalegarth, it’s a joy to climb
aboard ‘Ratty’ and trundle your way to the sea.
‘Ratty’ is short for ‘La’al Ratty’, meaning ‘little
railway’ in Cumbrian dialect. It opened as
a narrow-gauge railway in 1915, replacing
a 3ft mineral line which had been closed
five years earlier. Since then it has
become one of the most popular
tourism assets in the Lake
District – and a useful aid for
walkers. Alfred Wainwright
(a fervent enemy of the
‘motor car’) used Ratty
to access the hills of
Eskdale when compiling his
Pictorial Guide to the Lakes.
He was even moved to write
a separate book dedicated to
the line, titled Walks from Ratty.
It’s the perfect introduction to
Eskdale, the valley you’ll be calling
home for the next three days. As it rattles
along, you get a real sense of the closeness and
tenderness of the valley. Steep-sided, flat-bottomed
and (in summer) very, very green, this is a refuge for
walkers with an aversion to tourist-trap towns.
And at Ravenglass, there’s the sea. Bright,
shimmering and Irish. Three rivers all emerge here:
the Esk, the Irt and the Mite, all tipping out into
a vast sand dune incised by competing channels
of freshwater and seawater. To find the Esk, you
need to turn south round the headland. And there
it is, a marshy estuary framed beneath the distant
fells of Whitfell and Black Combe.
Being marshland, it’s a kind of eerie half-world;
you’re as likely to find heaps of tiny desiccated
crabs as you are wildflowers and sea beet.
Sadly it becomes impossible to follow the
Esk riverside after the estuary, as there’s no path.
But it would be a dull affair just following the
bank anyway; we want to see it from all angles.
So the best alternative to is to climb high above
it via Newtown Knott. It’s a mere 100m above sea
level, but it’s just enough height to offer a cracking
view over the coast – and you’ll even see the Isle of
Man on the horizon, some 36 miles across the sea.
DISCOVER The Esk Valley
Day 2
TODAY IS GREAT. No worries about logistics, no
girding the loins for a mammoth mountain walk
– just a gorgeous day walking through the valley,
up into the hills above it, and down by the Esk.
The gentle climb out of Eskdale Green takes you
onto a range of low and mostly nameless hills to
the north of the river. These are in fact the first
foothills of the Scafell range, not that you’d know
it. Very few people come up here; there are hardly
any defined summits to strive for, apart from
the rather amorphous top of Bleatarn Hill.
But Siney Tarn and Blea Tarn are lovely, if a little
boggy. Look closely at the edges of the bog and you’ll
likely find sundew (pictured right) – one of
only two insectivorous plants to thrive
in Britain (the other is butterwort).
But the best thing up here is
something you find with a little
detour to the north, up to Brat’s
Moss. Five somethings,
actually: the Burnmoor stone
circles. We noticed them on the
map; we thought we’d take a
look. But as it turns out, these
are no mere detour but an
essential sight of the trail.
No-one makes a fuss of these
circles and we can’t work out why.
Whereas some named circles can turn
out to be little more than a couple of pebbles,
these things are fantastic – perfectly circular
assemblies of waist-high menhirs, standing proud
in an ocean of moorland, with the fat black mound
of Scafell rising behind them. Spend a little time
here; there are very few high places you can have
to yourself in the Lakes, but this is one of them.
The descent into Boot is spectacular, and the
village itself is full of delights: thanks to Ratty’s
presence it hosts two pubs and an ice cream shop.
And then it’s back down to the Esk. It’ll feel like
a while since you last walked by its side, but from
now on it’s your constant companion. At this point
the river is broad, bustling and playful. You should
definitely pause for a paddle near the cascade of
Gill Force; this is your moment to, as photographer
Tom pitched it to me, “engage with the river”.
It was here that Tom made another discovery:
a perfectly walking-stick sized stick, into which
he began to carve a little map of the snaking Esk.
Our mission became clear: to carry this stick all
the way to the source of the Esk and plant it there,
in memory of CW’s Livingstonian endeavour.
A stick, a river, a wood, and the promise of a night
at one of Lakeland’s best-loved pubs (where your
suitcase of fresh clothes will also be waiting):
the final mile from Boot to the Woolpack is a joy.
“At this point, the river is broad,
bustling and playful. You should
definitely pause for a paddle.”
36 COUNTRY WALKING AUGUST 2016
BIG EMPT Y
Crossing Bleatarn
Hill. See that big
hill up ahead? It’s
Scafell, looking
nothing like it
usually does.
SPARKLING
The gentle first
stretch of Day 3
follows the River
Esk through
Brotherilkeld Farm.
t FRESHEN UP!
It feels good to
get up close and
personal with the
River Esk at Boot.
t SENTINELS
IN STONE
The Burnmoor stone
circles don’t get a
lot of visitors, but
their quietness and
mystery make them
a must for Day 2.
Day 3
AND HERE’S THE big ’un. The journey to
the source of the Esk takes you into one of
the most awe-inspiring scenes in Lakeland.
At the foot of Hardknott Pass, Eskdale takes a
massive flick to the north and drills itself right into
the heart of the highest fells in England. The valley
at this point adopts the name of Upper Eskdale.
From Brotherilkeld Farm, the path heads directly
towards the sheer pyramid of Bowfell. It’s a long
walk-in, and thrilling all the way.
At the picturesque packhorse bridge where the
Esk meets Lingcove Beck, the climb begins. A steep,
winding path carries you up around the crags of
Throstle Garth and through a narrow ravine
which the Esk negotiates in the style of a bullet.
It all gets a bit Mordor at this point. There’s a
sense of a massive, dark bigness lurking above you.
And so it proves when you emerge from the ravine,
round the bend beneath the teetering crag of Scar
Lathing, and finally set foot upon Great Moss.
What can we say about Great Moss? You kind
of have to see it to believe it. It’s a world in itself: an
enormous flat-bottomed basin, a mile long and half
a mile across, surrounded by a scrum of grey-faced,
intimidating mountains. Clockwise from your left,
they are Scafell, Scafell Pike, Ill Crag, Esk Pike,
Bowfell and Crinkle Crags. It’s almost a complete
circle; the gorge you’ve just climbed through is the
only weak point in this mountainous stockade.
The moss is fascinating: bleak, beautiful and
teeming with life. The Esk flows through the heart
of it, but in a sense the moss is as much water as it
is soil, a moving battle where wispy tussocks fight
u
off advances from rivulets of dark, cold water.
AUGUST 2016 COUNTRY WALKING 37
DISCOVER The Esk Valley
t GREAT MOSS
Thankfully, there are one or two paths which
follow a true line, keeping to the eastern side of the
Esk until it’s impossible do so any more. A crossing
of the Esk eventually becomes inevitable, but check
the routecard before you leap; we’ve included the
exact grid reference for the safest point.
From here on, it’s simple: follow the Esk. Up
and up it goes (well, technically, down and down
it comes), and you are funneled into a steep, stony
gully at the northern end of the moss. The Esk
becomes little more than a skittery beck, then a
trickle. And then, as the ground flattens out a bit,
it’s all about finding the highest possible sump of
running water. We think the true source of the
Esk is grid ref NY232079, but you might find
something higher. Funny things, rivers.
Sadly, our dream of marking it clearly with Tom’s
hand-whittled, Esk-mapped walking stick has been
dashed. We stuck the stick in the source last year;
but returning this summer on a different route,
we hopped down to the source and found it gone.
But that ‘hopped down’ bit is important. For
although the source lies at the top of a barely-used
chimney climbing out of the vast wild of Great
Moss, and appears to be entirely alone in the
universe, a mere hundred yards above it is one
of the most heavily-trodden places in the Lake
District. Esk Hause.
This wide plateau is the interlock of a dozen
famous walks among these mountains; it’s on the
superhighway to Scafell Pike, it’s a staging post on
the way down off Bowfell. It connects to Glaramara,
Great End and Sprinkling Tarn. And of course, it’s
named after the river that is born just beneath it.
38 COUNTRY WALKING AUGUST 2016
But from the hause itself, the path to the source is all
but invisible. Arriving at the hause, you feel like you
know a secret that nobody around you is privy to.
But it would be a crying shame to get up among
these giants and not climb one – and in fact, short of
returning straight down the chute, there is no way of
getting back into Eskdale other than climbing one.
So let’s climb the nearest one at hand, and the one
which also carries the proud name of the river.
It’s great to climb Esk Pike for its own sake,
because no-one ever does that. Generally it’s only
PHOTO: © GROUGH.CO.UK/ALAMY
“An enormous flat-bottomed
basin, a mile long and half
a mile across, surrounded by a scrum
of grey-faced, intimidating mountains.”
q THE SOURCE
OF THE ESK
Here, in the shadow
of Esk Pike (left),
is the birthplace of
the river that has
brought you here
from the coast.
A wild hollow in
the mountains. The
summit on the left
is Scafell Pike; the
source of the Esk is
dead ahead, and Esk
Pike is on the right.
u LINGCOVE
BRIDGE
You’ll only actually
cross the Esk three
times on the way to
the source. This is
the prettiest time.
climbed as an add-on to its jazzier neighbour
Bowfell, so I think it appreciates the attention of
anyone who climbs Esk Pike because it’s Esk Pike.
And it’s a fabulous place for a victory dance,
as you look back down over Great Moss, Upper
Eskdale and the distant ‘regular’ Eskdale,
knowing you’ve tracked that valley, and that river,
right up here to the high ground of England.
Descending to Ore Gap, you can do what no-one
else does and turn right, ignoring Bowfell, down a
gentle descent path that leads into the sensational
hanging valley of Ling Cove. And back down at
Lingcove Bridge, you rejoin the Esk for the walk
back out to Brotherilkeld.
This is your river now. You know its secrets
and its stories, its point of origin and its destiny.
So that final walk out of Upper Eskdale isn’t
a chore or a hurdle. It’s a stroll with a friend.
Plan your trip
GETTING THERE
As mentioned, Eskdale
is hard to get to. You can either
go round the coast on the A595 to
Ravenglass (the long way round),
or go direct from Ambleside via
the Wrynose and Hardknott passes
(shorter but a hair-raising drive).
But it’s worth the journey!
GETTING AROUND
The one-way journey
on ‘Ratty’ from Dalegarth to
Ravenglass on Day 1 costs £8
and takes around 40 minutes.
www.ravenglass-railway.co.uk.
NB: On Day 1 you’ll need to carry
overnight stuff with you, but on
Day 2 you arrive back at the
Woolpack and your car.
WHERE TO STAY/EAT
The linear nature of this trail
limits the options, but thankfully
both overnight stops are fantastic.
The Bower House Inn at Eskdale
Green (019467 23244, www.
bowerhouseinn.co.uk) is the perfect
stopover at the end of Day 1. It’s a
17th-century coaching inn offering
double rooms with breakfast for
£90. Main meals are around the £10
mark. On Day 2, the Woolpack Inn
(019467 23230, www.woolpack.
co.uk) is fantastic, and a real hub
of outdoor excitement. Doubles
from £80, and main meals
(including the traditional tatie pot
supper of Herdwick mutton, beef
and black pudding) also around
£10. You can also camp there.
i
MORE
INFORMATION
For tourism information of all kinds,
visit www.golakes.co.uk
AUGUST 2016 COUNTRY WALKING 39