Bowfell – Big Mountain Walks near Ambleside

Bowfell from Crinkle Crags

Bowfell - Mountain Walks near Ambleside

Today we’ve been out on the Langdale hills with John. The plan being to cross the summits of Crinkle Crags then head for Bowfell. So that’s exactly what we did.

This is a route I don’t walk often, but there’s no justification for that. It offers continuous interest, outstanding scenery. A wide mix of terrain types, including short scrambling sections if wanted. And on a glorious day like today it really is hard to think of a better route.

We set off from The Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel and aimed for Stool End farm, then into Oxendale before beginning the long ascent via Brown Howe up to Red Tarn. Then it’s a right turn and a slight easing of gradient as we passed by Great Knott.

The terrain remains quite friendly, albeit somewhat rocky, as it passes over the 7 Crinkle crag summits (depending on how you might count them, but I counted 7). We included the infamous ‘Bad Step’ which is a delightful little scramble (see image). It was here my friend Jim caught us up. He was up here working as a Fell Top Assessor, providing valuable information for hill goers. Thanks goes out to the 3 guys providing this service, Jim, Paddy, and Zac.

Bowfell was in our sights, but before tackling its steep slopes we paused at Three Tarns for a refuel. Most summits were free of cloud and the views far reaching. For a time even the Scafell Massif appeared under the high cloud, but everything else was bathed in sunshine and putting on a jolly good show.

We could here the wind whistling through the gullies of Bowfell Links and braced ourselves for what could be quite a buffeting. As Jim passed on again on his descent from Bowfell he informed us the wind speed was 34mph, so strong, but not enough to be concerned with.

We paused briefly on the summit to absorb the views, but it was indeed chilly and breezy, so a retreat to lower slopes was in order. I took John over to look at The Great Slab and offered this as a descent route, but he was happy to stick with the more regular path, so that’s what we did.

Back down to Three Tarns then a left turn to join The Band and this would lead us back into the valley and The Old Dungeon Ghyll. On the lower slopes of The Band it was short sleeve time as t he temperature was hitting maybe as much as 15’C - pretty good for early March in the Lakes.

So for the most part this route is on good paths that are straightforward to follow. However, crossing Crinkle crags and the summit plateau of Bowfell are far from straightforward to navigate in anything but perfect conditions. So if choosing to self guide on a route like this it is Essential to have map & compass and be proficient with their use. If unsure of how to navigate, consider hiring a guide as this will take away all the stress of route finding and offer many other benefits.

I hope you’ve found this helpful and interesting. As well as guided walking days, we offer a range of adventurous activities here in The Lake District, check out this link for more information.

Thanks for reading.

Mark

The Bad Step on Crinkle Crags

Langdale Pikes from The Band