Littledale, Haylot Fell, Ward's Stone, Grit Fell, Clougha Pike, Lancs.
[ 21.9 km] Wed  09 Dec 2009

SD 5456 6180
I was now in a completely new area for me. I found a decent size car park, with no pay-for meter on Littledale Road. I arrived in the dark and as you’d expect I was the only person around. I set off down the road to Uldale Bridge and over Artle Beck. Then up the hill to New House Farm where I turned right to Crossgill. My original plan was to follow the path up the valley by Closegill Beck but the considerable amount of recent rain made me think again.

I didn’t fancy the prospect of miles of mud so chickened out and continued up the road to Roeburndale Road. It was easy walking and I had reasonable views across the valley up to the low cloud to the right and not so nice views of the wind farm turbines to the left. When I reached the end of the road at Winder a farm access track descended to the right. I headed down it towards Haylot Farm and soon noticed a large stone block in the field to the left. Closer inspection revealed it to be an ancient cross base with a not quite ancient Ordnance Survey bench mark cut in the top.

Later checks on the map showed my suspicions to be correct. At the bottom of the hill I crossed the wonderfully named Bladder Stone Beck then up the road to Haylot Farm. There was a wooden table with benches either side so I didn’t miss an opportunity to sit down and have some coffee. The farmer came in from the fields on his quad bike. He stopped and we had a brief chat about the weather and I asked him about the ancient cross base. Although he’d seen the stone he didn’t know anything about it or that it was an old cross base.

I continued across wet fields and up the side of Lambclose Syke heading towards Gallows Hill. There was no path but as I got higher the ground improved a bit. On Gallows Hill there was a reasonable path as far as High Stephen’s Head but then it soon petered out as I followed the dilapidated wall to Grey Crag. I turned right and had to cross some wet a peaty ground before starting the climb up Ward’s Stone. Just before the summit plateau is the interesting shaped stone called Queen’s Chair with a bench mark cut in the top. Off the main path and to the right I could see the first of two Trig Points. I checked it out before continuing to the next. On the way I came to a boundary stone with BS 1890 cut into it.

Small Tarn on Cabin Flat

The western trig point is shown on the map as 559.92m, one metre lower than the eastern point. The path across Cabin Flat took me to a stoned road which I crossed to follow a fainter path to Grit Fell. I headed towards Clougha but the trig point and shelter stones didn’t come in to view until I was almost there. I started to descend by Clougha Scar but the path was indistinct so I cut across right towards the stoned road I’d seen earlier. I hadn’t been on it long before I saw a fascinating group of three tall stone cairns and had to check them out.

Cairns on descent of Clougha Pike

Then I checked out a large single one a bit lower then rejoined the track. It was an easy walk down to the River Conder where I crossed over by a house and along a short path to Littledale Road. I turned right and had an easy walk back to the car.