Dawson Pike, Walna Scar, White Maiden and White Pike

18 February 2006

After some indecision about where to walk today, I decided to stay near to Broughton again, and, inspired by the sight of Dawson Pike on the map near Pikes yesterday, I decided to visit it, and to make the walk a decent length by extending it to include the infrequently visited tops of Walna Scar, White Maiden and White Pike.

On a beautiful morning, From above Broughton Mills, a view up the Lickle valley, with yesterday's fells of Caw and Pikes on the left, and today's White Pike, White Maiden and Walna Scar on the right, with the diminutive Dawson Pike somewhere near the col in the middle

A view through a gap in the felled trees on Broughton Moor

George on the forest road

As we reach the stile at the end of the forest, a view ahead towards the moor proper, with White Pike on the right

Stephen and George on Natty Bridge

Dawson Pike. Quite why this nondescript lump is deserving of a name on the OS maps is unclear, but it certainly needed visiting nonetheless!

George does a bit of exploring of his own

On the summit of Dawson Pike

From Dawson Pike, looking back to yesterday's summits, Pikes (left), Caw (centre), and Green Pikes (right)

We continued along the path to reach the quarries of Walna Scar

Huge piles of slate waste line the hillside. Here we look across one to Harter Fell and the Scafells

Looking past a quarry building to the Walna Scar Road working its way across the slopes of Walna Scar to the col between Walna Scar and Brown Pike

Having reached the top of the pass, and seen the only other walkers of the holiday (who we cunningly avoided by a short-cut), we reach the summit of Walna Scar the hill, here looking south to White Maiden (left), and White Pike (centre-right), with Caw poking in behind.

Looking down to Coniston Water

And south to the sea

From White Maiden, looking north across Walna Scar to Grey Friar (left) behind the slopes of Dow Crag (centre-left disappearing into the cloud), Buck Pike and Brown Pike, and Coniston Old Man (right, appearing to merge with Brown Pike)

And a superb view of the snowy Scafells

George and Stephen on White Maiden

From White Pike, a view across Dawson Pike to Caw. We need to get down there, somehow

And from the same point looking down on Caw Moss and the Broughton Moor forest. That direction looks more promising, but still very steep with lots of little crags

By heading roughly for the gap between the two wet patches in the previous photograph, we managed to keep to steep grass almost all the way down, and found a track running along near the base of the hill at around the 415m contour, not marked on the OS map, which neatly took us back to the bridleway

Looking down the Lickle valley

A last look back at White Pike and some of the locals. White Pike, despite being 598 metres (1962 feet) high, a "proper" fell, and easily walkable from Coniston, is not even included on a walk in Wainwright's "Outlying Fells" book (though Walna Scar and White Maiden are). Although included in Bill Birkett's 541 Complete Lakeland Fells, it must be rarely visited: it is a grand fell, and deserves better.

And a waterfall across the Lickle valley which took my eye, sliding appealingly across the surface of this rock.

In total, 10.2km, 616 metres of ascent, 3 hours 59 mins (including 1 hour 9 mins stopped)