Ponsonby Fell - Lake District Walk
Wednesday 14th September 2016
The last two fells on this walk have been on the to-do list for a number of years now, today we finally got around to doing them. Whilst there was nothing difficult about the walk the lack of stiles and paths made it one of those walks that you swear blind you will never repeat.
Start: Stakes Bridge (NY 0562 0679)
Route: Stakes Bridge - Infell Wood - Ponsonby Fell - Stone Pike (381) - Swainson Knott (382) - Needless Gill - Stakes Bridge
Distance: 5.25 miles Ascent: 321 metres Time Taken: 3 hours 55 mins
Terrain: Predominantly pathless once on the fells.
Weather: Hot and humid
Pub Visited: George IV, Eskdale Green Ale Drunk: Yates Golden
The start of the walk was supposed to be alongside Scargreen Beck in fact it was a path way above the beck
through rather a lot of brambles. Not the best of starts to a walk.
Having negotiated the brambles the path cleared to ascend through Infell Wood.
Once we started climbing Ponsonby Fell the views improved. Here looking out to the Irish Sea, shame about the nuclear plant spoiling the view.
Approaching the summit of Ponsonby, not as straightforward as it might seem. After the first field the fell is primarily made up of tussocks and marshy ground.
Since I was last here the skull has disappeared from the summit cairn.
Once on the summit the views more than make up for the effort you need to put in to ascend this diminutive fell.
Caw, Haycock, Red Pike and Seatallan are all visible from the summit.
We had lunch at the summit looking out towards Seatallan and the Screes.
The next two tops of Stone Pike and Swainson Knott seen here in front of Lank Rigg.
After negotiating a gate fastened with barbed wire and clambering over a wire fence, which was nearly all topped with rusty barbed wire, we eventually found ourselves on the summit of Stone Pike.
From here the route from Ponsonby Fell looks quite easy.
After yet another gate fastened with barbed wire and more boggy ground we reached the summit of Swainson Knott.
The views haven't altered much since we left Ponsonby Fell, Seatallan has got further away
and Lank Rigg has got a bit closer. The remainder of the walk involved more marshy ground and then a walk along a track, where we were shadowed most of the way by a herd of cows, so taking photos was the last thing on my mind.
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