Wythop Mill, Ling Fell, Kirk Fell, Harrot, Cumbria.
[15.2 km] Tue 25 Feb 2014

OS Grid Ref: NY 1767 2941
Lat/Long: +54.653059, -03.277517

I left my car in the parking area a short way down the road from the Wythop Old School. I set off up the road by the School building and had a quick look as I passed. It’s not used as a school anymore but seems to be some sort of outdoor centre.
An on-line search revealed:

Embleton and Wythop Old school (situated in Wythop Mill, in Embleton township) educated the children of the two townships from 1808 until its closure in 1978.

Continuing up the road for about half a mile I took a sharp right through a gate to follow the green track that is called the ‘Corpse Road’ on the map. I was walking along the north slopes of Ling Fell and soon left the main track to take a left branch which headed up the main part of the Fell. The last part of the climb was on a faint path. Up ahead I could see a man walking towards the summit. We reached the summit trig post about the same time.

He reached the summit, turned round and headed down straight away. He didn’t even stop to look at the view and hardly acknowledged my morning greeting. I stayed a while and had difficulty standing in the fierce wind. I started my descent to the SW and headed for the fence that followed steeply down to Bladder Keld Spring.

Ahead I could see the next part of my route across Wythop Moss. The name indicates a boggy area but as it turned out it wasn’t too bad underfoot. The Blader Keld spring is fairly insignificant and just below is Tom Rudd Beck. I followed the straight fence line towards the distant Graystones and Kirk Fell.

On the way I walked round the grassy embankments of an old reservoir that is shown on the map. There is no water in it now as the lower embankment is breached. As I got higher the wind became much stronger and by the time I reached a small cairn on Graystones I could hardly stand. I sat behind it to try and get some shelter and tried throwing a stone in the air to see what happened. I was amazed to see the wind throw it higher and a considerable distance to the north.

I skirted the north side of Kirk Fell to try and get out of the wind as soon as possible. A stile took me over a wire fence where I started a NW descent towards my next objective of Harrot. I reached a track above Tooth Haw Plantation and followed it to a gate. Harrot was visible to my left but also visible were rain clouds coming in on a very strong wind.

Crossing towards the summit I had to cross some very wet ground then decided to head for the shelter of a plantation of trees on my left. They did the trick and I got out of the wind and rain for a while. Harrot summit was very windy but I got over it with the wind behind me.

After a steep descent I was on a farm track then down to the road. I had almost 2 miles of road walking to get to High Side Farm then it was down a track towards St Cuthbert’s Church.

It began raining again as I wandered down the lane but at least the Church was open when I got there. The existing building is from around 1813 and was probably built on a much older site. The rest of the walk was along the road in the rain but fortunately not much traffic.