Fairmile Gate, Linghaw, Whin's End, Long Rigg, Four Lane Ends, Cumbria.
[ 9.3 km] Tue  10 Mar 2009

My walk was a last minute unplanned decision. The weather looked good for the rest of the day so I decided on a short walk in the Howgill Fells. I arrived at Fairmile Lane late in the morning and parked just north of Fairmile Gate. I’d previously seen a path which isn’t marked on the map running directly up the side of Linghaw. It was warm and sunny when I set off and felt more like a summer’s day.

Approaching Whin's End along the drove road.

Over the summit there’s no cairn and little sign of the main path running up to Fell Head. On the saddle a delightful old drove road runs across the south side of Fell Head. A wandered along it taking in the wonderful view and stopped part way along to eat my sandwiches as it was now lunchtime. The path curves round at Whin’s End and starts to descend more steeply. I wanted to say high so took a rough line which followed the contour towards Long Rigg Gill.

At the gill a faint sheep track took me on to Long Rigg. This is a wonderful and unspoilt ridge which must be one of the best in the Howgills. The views were excellent in the clear sunny conditions especially the view down in to Long Rigg Beck with the sun shinning behind. I followed the quad bike track down to the valley bottom and then was on the more substantial track.

My 23 Feb 09 walk came this way and I photographed a recently deceased sheep. In the intervening 2 weeks it had decomposed to just a skeletal scatter of bones. Nature doesn’t waste it’s time. At the Castley buildings I was walking on a surfaced track and then joined Howgill Lane at Four Lane Ends. It was about a mile and a half walk back to the car.