Jump to . . .Step by Step | OS Map | Downloads | Gallery | Fly through
Part of the reason that so many of our group live in Bentham is easy access to the Yorkshire Dales and the Forest of Bowland: We really love these areas.
However, recent walks at The Old Man of Coniston and Askham reminded us just how spectacular the walking in the Lake District can be, so for this challenging route, right at the edge of our “patch”, we start just outside Helton and climb Heughscar Hill to get spectacular views of Ullswater. We then take the High Street (Roman road) down to an atmospheric stone circle before scaling Arthurs Pike and then Bonscale Pike where the scenery is just jaw-dropping. Our return route runs along the edge of the ridge at Barton Fell giving us even more great views. Finally, we return to the cars via the Pulpit Holes at Moor Divock.
- Total distance 15.2 km (9.4 miles)
- Total ascent 421 m
- Challenging walk
Step-by-Step
Before we describe the walk, a matter of full disclosure: You will notice that some of the pictures are taken on a sunny day, whilst others are clearly taken under more challenging conditions. The reason for this is that the final “recce” for the walk took place on a sunny Saturday, a few days before the group walk the following Wednesday. We use the pictures from the first day to show how scenic this area is, and the second set to show how beautiful the group members are.
Our walk starts just outside the small village of Helton, using parking next to the minor road across Askham Fell. To get to there, take the M6 to junction 39, signposted for Shap, then follow the signs into Shap village. Drive through the village heading North on the A6 for 3 miles, crossing under the M6, then back over. You then enter Hackthorpe. Continue past a number of newly built white properties, and then take the minor road on the left toward Askham. The road soon comes to a crossroads – go straight on and follow the road round the back of Lowther Castle to arrive at Askham. Continue up to a T junction at the top of the village and then go left. And continue to Helton, where the road forks – we go right and then almost immediately right again to climb steeply onto Askham Fell. Once the road levels out, look for the unusually low fingerpost on the right to pinpoint the start of the walk. If you are using Satnav to get to this point, then try CA10 2QA as a postcode but be aware that this relates to a business in Helton itself. If you have access to What-3-Words, then the tag for the exact parking spot we used is cabbies.requests.blame
We start off by taking a broad path signed for Roehead, on what must be the shortest fingerpost sign we have ever seen. What will be immediately apparent is that on the ground there are a large number of paths to choose from – many more than indicated on the OS map. This is a good thing in the sense that we have lots of options, but it makes communicating our route a little challenging, so if you want to be sure to follow the recommended walk, we recommend a GPS enabled device and a download of our GPX data.
After about 300m we see a large stone adjacent to the path. This is highlighted on the OS map as the Cop Stone and is shown as the site of an antiquity.
At first glance the stone looks like an erratic, and indeed it may simply be that, but its location near a clear ring cairn, along with written records from the late 19th Century suggesting that this stone was just one of ten or more in an aligned embankment, also make it possible that this is a Bronze Age site of ritual significance.
To read more about the Cop Stone click . . .
We continue northwest along the track for about 200m, and then get a glimpse of the ring cairn itself – in effect it’s a stone circle. This is worth taking a few moments to explore – it’s largely intact and is clearly a deliberate construction, lending weight to the diagnosis of the Cop Stone as something more significant – it may or may not be a coincidence that the stone and the ring cairn align with the top of Heughscar Hill.
We continue on the smaller path past the ring cairn, and then bear left to come up to another track across Askham Fell. Here we go left for just a few metres to find another track, this time on the right (quite faint) that heads toward the tree line at Heughscar Hill. As we approach the bottom end of the wooded area, we find a good quality wide track that heads along the woodland edge and up to Heughscar Hill, where there is a cairn, and just below that a number of prominent rocks that provide a great place to pause for a quick break. At this point we get our first views of Ullswater and might ponder that in his book The Outlying Fells of Lakeland Wainwright’s describes the approach to Heughscar Hill from Askham as “A gem for aged fell walkers”.
From here we see a wide path heading downhill as if toward the top end of the lake. We take this for about 200m and then meet a broader track crossing ours – we go left here – we are now on the High Street Roman Road. Often described as the most famous Roman Road in Cumbria, it runs for about 20 km on the high fells between Ambleside and Brougham Fort near Penrith. The highest point of the road is 828m on a fell also known as High Street. The road is designated at M74 where M indicates the Margery Roman Road numbering system, but despite this there is significant doubt as to whether this really is a Roman Road – much of it is sunken in a hollow, rather than being built on top of an embankment or agger in the usual Roman fashion, so it may simply be an ancient route that is predominantly straight leading us to misdiagnose it as Roman.
To read more about the High Street and Roman Roads click . . .
We walk south on the High Street for about 800m to arrive at another stone circle, this one designated as the Cockpit on the OS map. Askham Fell and Barton Fell (where we head next) have between them more than 100 Bronze Age sites. The Cockpit Stone Circle is the most obvious and the most well-known. It stands at a crossroad of two ancient trading routes making it an important meeting place in Bronze Age Britain.
To find out more about the Bronze Age Cockpit, click . . .
The Bronze Age in Great Britain lasted almost 1500 years, and it is hard to date the Cockpit Stone Circle because it has features of both the early and the late Bronze Age. It has stones set within a low embankment suggesting a late date. However, it is more than 20m in diameter and has more than 20 stones greater than 1 m high, which suggests an early date. All we can say is that it is at least 3500 years old and could be as much as 5000 years old.
From the Cockpit we continue west and after just 100m, the track forks. The Roman Road is to the left, but we stay right and contour round the base of Barton Fell – clearly visible ahead now is the looming bulk of Arthur’s Pike, and beyond that Bonscale Pike. After about 1km, the path arrives at the edge of a drystone wall enclosure with a gate. We do not go through the gate; we merely use it as a landmark and look up the ridge where we see the path fork again. We head uphill and take the left hand option for the outbound leg – we come back on the right hand path
The left hand fork climbs relentlessly for 1200m until we get to the cairn at Arthurs Pike – we need to take care here not to follow a clearly visible path to the left of the cairn which goes over to Loadpot Hill – that would add too much to today’s walk.
The reward for the steep climb is the view: So far, we have been on the side of the ridge that looks toward Bampton Common, but once we reach the cairn at Arthur’s Pike, we have an uninterrupted view along the length of Ullswater with all the more northerly Lakeland fells beyond.
Also visible from here is our next destination – Bonscale Pike. It’s less than 1km away, but from here looks further and as we need to drop down nearly 50m to cross the Swarth Beck before reclaiming that height, it may also feel further.
To get there we take the rightmost of two paths leaving the pike and follow it downhill until we get to a ruined building adjacent to the beck. We need to cross the stream to get to Bonscale Pike, and how much of a challenge this is will depend on the recent weather: After a dry period, traversing Swarth Beck requires nothing more than walking through at a depth of a few centimetres. After heavy rain it may become impassable, and as we need to re-cross the same beck later in the day at a more challenging location, be prepared to take the sensible choice here and backtrack. We were lucky in that the route was just about passable by heading upstream of the ruined building a little to find a crossing point.
Once safely over Swarth Beck, we look up to Bonscale Pike and see a clear and obvious path which we follow to the top, revealing a view of the lake, arguable even better than the one at Arthur’s Pike – Hallin Fell over to our left is much more visible from here – it look absolutely stunning in the autumn sunshine as the bracken gains a rusty hue. You may also see one of the Ullswater “steamers” heading into the pier at Howtown below us.
We are now at the far end of our walk: We could simply reverse the outbound journey to get back, but we opt to take a different route back along the front (lakeside) edge of the ridge. This gives us stunning views, but some care is needed – there are many paths visible here and not all avoid the dangerously steep face of the crags, so if in doubt – always follow the option to the right and avoid the edges.
So, we start by heading for the upper of two intriguing beacons (columnar cairns). “Bonscale Tower” is the lower one, and both are placed on the edge of the crags. From here the path dips down to meet the Swarth Beck again, and as before, crossing this can represent either a trivial or unmeetable challenge depending on the weather.
Once over the water, we keep slightly to the right as the available paths fork and take a route along the edge of the ridge, but never so close that there is any danger – if you accidently take a path that is leading into steep rocky scree, we recommend that you backtrack.
We follow this path for 1.5 km now, enjoying great views across the lake all the way along. We eventually arrive back at the junction with our outbound path and follow it back to the Cockpit again.
From here we again avoid repetition by taking a different route. The Roman Road that we used in the morning is now to to our left, but we carry straight on heading east. After just 100m, the path approaches a small ditch. There is an option to walk with the ditch to our right but that goes to Askham and is therefore not a good option for us today, so we cross and take the smaller path eastbound for a while.
We pass a pair of very attractive ponds to our right – these are nothing more than shake holes that have filled with water, and beyond these a series of dry sink holes identified on the OS map as the Pulpit Holes. The reason for the odd name is unclear, even to Google.
From here we soon meet the broad track we started out on earlier in the day, and we continue along this until we get back to our cars.
Bentham Footpath Group walks are rated according to distance and elevation change, and this one comes in at just over 15km making it challenging. If the weather has been wet, this is exactly how it will feel. After dry weather and in good sunshine there are no specific challenges, so if you have survived our moderate walks don’t assume this one is out of reach – you would be missing some stunning sights.