Ullscarf

Weather was  overcast but the cloud base was high and rain not expected.
We parked at Dob Gill car park and took the well marked path up passed the waterfall to Harrop Tarn.

The Beacon

On reaching the tarn we left the marked path and turned left, over the footbridge to head for the Wythburn fells. We unfortunately initially missed the path heading below Birk Crag and soon found ourselves on a very wet and boggy path skirting the tarn. Realising our mistake, we retraced our steps and found the correct route which went through gate with the wall on our right. Carrying on up to above the forest fence the path headed towards the ridge with the Beacon, an obvious landmark on the horizon, just above us on the right.
From here the path disappeared and we ,sometimes following sheeptracks but mainly without any tracks, along the ridge up to the cairn marked on the OS map just before Castle crags. here we changed direction and made our way westward for what seem an eternity. The wind was strong and the temperature dropped considerably. We knew Autumn had arrived and winter was not far away. this was hard walking on pathless, boggy moorland with very little to guide us as to how far to go before we reached the summit plateau. However eventually we met the broken fence running north/south across Ullscarf and a few minutes heading north we were on the summit.

Gable form Ullscarf

Ullscarf is said to be the centre of the Lake District and the views in all directions were tremendous particularly over to the west across to the Scafell  and Gable range.The route down was easy enough. Continuing by the fence descending until joining the path from Dob Gill to Watendlath, turning right and heading down toward the forest and rback down to Harrop Tarn and then the car park.

Time 4hrs 30 mns
Grade Excellent
Memories

• 360 deg view from summit of all the Lakeland ranges
• Autumn had arrived
• Hard walking with no paths once on the open fell

Completed 130  To go 84