A gloomy night and equally gloomy morning. The haze is still here and I can hardly see the surrounding hills. It was a little colder last night and by the time I got underway at 7:45 it was 6deg C. I climbed the short distance up to the plateau of Wild Boar Fell to join the main path where I turned left and headed down to the small tarn on the saddle with Swarth Fell. The path continues up and over Swarth Fell but I wanted to descend via Uldale Gill. There was a rickety stile over the fence and I hoped it would indicate a path. Unfortunately it didn't.

I started the descent but could see no evidence of a path along either side of the Gill. To keep away from the rushes and bog I kept high and continued to Grain Gill where I had a fairly steep ravine to cross. It was an interesting area with many rocky outcrops. On the far side I saw a stone shelter which I climbed up to to investigate.

Is it a shelter or old lime kiln?

It was a well made structure cut deep into the hillside. It seemed to be nothing more than a simple shelter but it was also a place sheep had crawled in to die as the inside looked more like a charnel house. I stayed on the fell top and headed west until I reached the road.

Inside the shelter

Crossing Backside Beck

I followed it for a while then cut across towards Tarn House and joined the path down to Rawthey Bridge where I joined the main A683. Luckily there was a rubbish bin at the lay-bye so I was able to dump my rubbish and used gas canisters. A little further on I turned right over Handley's Bridge and walked up to Narthwaite Farm. I went through the gates and headed down towards Backside Beck. Two men were loading fence posts onto a quad bike as I passed and we exchanged a short greeting. I carefully crossed the ford at the bottom of the hill and stopped to take a photo. The quad bike followed and after crossing the river stopped briefly while we had another chat about the weather, what else?, and where we were going. They were heading up the SE side of Yarlside to repair a fence while I headed up the left side of Backside Beck.
 

I followed the remains of an old track running diagonally up the hillside. Way up ahead I could see the imposing silhouette of Yarlside. My problem was water. I needed to find some as high as I could to minimise the distance I'd have to carry it to the summit. I reached a good spring but there seemed to be another higher up. When I got there it was dry so I left my pack and descended to the previous one to fill my water bag. After a steady plod back up to my pack I put on my full load including water. There seemed an awful long way to climb up.
 

Mounain View farm from Yarlside.

Hazy view from Yarlside

I took it very steady and slow and took a couple of rests before reaching the saddle just to the south of the summit. On the last steep rise I heard the unmistakable burbling sound of running water. I'd carried about 4kg of water all this way for nothing. Never mind, there's no way I could have known about it as it's not marked on the map. The last rise to the summit was steady and I pitched just to the west of the summit cairn. It was a little windy but I couldn't find any shelter as the summit is flat.