Haweswater, Old Corpse Road, Selside Pike, Mosedale Quarry, Swindale Head, Cumbria.
[ 12.6 km] Fri 07 Nov 2008

There was a good weather forecast so I decided to fit in a short walk. I wanted to try and find a stone marker somewhere on Selside above Haweswater. I’d seen the marker on Google Earth and it clearly showed an inscription of ‘1911 Edward Dodds’. I arrived at a small lay-bye on Haweswater where the Old Corpse Road meets the road. It was still heavily overcast when I set off but the forecast was for clearing skies. It turned out that the clouds would continue but at least they were high enough for me to get a view. I wandered slowly up the path occasionally looking back to admire the autumn colours and hoping for some sun to bring the colours out. I was on this same path on Tuesday and also headed for Selside but didn’t have any visibility. This time I stayed on the path until I reached the summit of the path before turning right to follow the unmarked path up Selside.

The stone marker 'Edward Dodds'

I was fortunate this time that the cloud was high enough for me to see the way ahead. It felt quite cold with a stiff wind blowing so I found some shelter behind a peat hump to get some shelter and sandwiches. I passed the cairn on the summit of Selside and continued straight ahead, following the fence. The path descended to Captain Whelter Beck where a short but very boggy patch has to be crossed. I didn’t continue on the path but crossed the fence on the left and headed south into unknown territory. The ground rose slightly then levelled for a while. I soon had a good view cross towards Shap and I reckoned that the stone marker would be somewhere in this area.

The photo I’d seen didn’t give any idea of scale but when I eventually found the post I was surprised how small it was. The top of the post has the inscription 1911 Edward Dodds and it turned out that he was the grandfather of the man who posted the photo on Google. There were also other names and more recent dates underneath but they were indistinct due to lichen growth. I descended to the SE to reach the top of Mosedale Quarry which I’d visited last week with Steve. This time there was no low cloud and I was able to see the full extent of the quarry workings. I reached a minor path and followed it towards Ash Knott and the descent into Swindale.

It was much higher than the main path which is always wet so I reached the descent with dry feet. As I reached Swindale Head farm the rain blew in and as I climbed up the Old Corpse Road path back towards haweswater I had to keep ducking behind gorse bushes to prevent a soaking. The rain didn’t last long and I completed the climb in reasonable weather, though still no sunshine. I was still hoping for some good light as I descended back to Hawewater and the car, but it never came.