Gosforth, Ponsonby Fell, Swainson Knott, Cumbria.
[ 18.3 km] Wed 24 Aug 2011

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I reached Gosforth and found that the car park didn’t have any restrictions and was free. There were also toilets so it’s a very visitor friendly car park. I set off east to my first call at the Parish Church of St Mary. In the cemetery is the wonderful Gosforth Cross which is a large stone Anglo-Saxon high cross 4.4m high and dating from the early 10th century. It’s the first time I’d seen it and it made the day worthwhile as the rest of the walk was going to be rather dull.

Parish Church of St Mary, Gosforth, interior

I had a copy of Wainwright’s ‘Outlying Fells of Lakeland’ with me and it describes my next objective, Ponsonby Fell, as follows. ‘There are no fells not worth climbing, but Ponsonby Fell is very nearly in this category. The only justification for spending time on it is the splendid approach through Blengdale Forest.’ At Wellington Bridge I left the road and headed up the private road to Bleng Bridge. It was quite pleasant until I reached Blengdale then I was on a stony forestry road for a while before reaching the sign for the path I needed. Everything was very wet because of overnight rain and I wasn’t looking forward to heading in to the long wet grass. Wainwright’s description of the forest being splendid didn’t agree with my view.

A ‘footbridge closed’ sign didn’t help as I assumed I’d have to wade across the River Bleng. There was a wet and slippery descent down to the river and the path seemed to go nowhere. I followed it upstream and saw the footbridge ahead. When I got to it there were some remnants of red and while tape hanging down where they’d tried o prevent people crossing. The bridge looked fine and as I walked across I couldn’t see what the fuss was about. With so much wet foliage about it was difficult to see the way ahead. The path turned left then swung round to the right to head up through the trees.

Thankfully I was going the right way and soon came to the stoned track I’d been on earlier. The dark and overcast weather was now turning rainy. The straight road left the forest and out into open fell side. Ahead I could see the working farm of Scalderskew and this was their access road. The post van had even just been along and back. As soon as I left the trees I tried to get to Calderskew Beck but soon gave up because of the impenetrable wet grass and rushes.

I continued to the cattle grid at the river and put on full waterproofs to get some protection. Ponsonby Fell was covered in cloud and as I headed up the wet hill I remembered Wainwright’s description of walking this same route. He described it as ‘slow and tedious, with only an overhead cable by which to measure progress.’ The summit was a small pile of boulders that some enterprising person or persons unknown must have carried up. It was raining and with no views I headed off down to the NW to find the way to my next fell, Swainson Knott.

I crossed an old bridleway then to a boundary wall where I got a fleeting view of the Sellafield Nuclear Plant by the sea, but it was soon lost in the mist. A fence line took me to Stone Pike and a large circular stone sheepfold. It struck me as a very exposed place to build such a thing. I headed north across boggy ground to Swainson Knott. There was now a bit of a view and I could see some distant fells.

I descended to the west towards Needless Gill and the access road to Thornholme. I’d now reached tarmac but still had a long way back to the car. After Stakes Bridge are some remains of Calder Abbey but I looked carefully over the wall but couldn’t see anything. At Calder Bridge I reached the main A595 road and should have heeded Wainwright’s advice which was ‘Don’t plan to walk back along the A595; it is busy, dangerous, and has no footpath.’ I found to my cost that he is exactly right. The rain was now pouring down and many motorists didn’t even seem to see me. One came so close I had to jump into the hedge side. Somehow I survived the 2.5 miles back to Gosforth. By now the car park was almost full and considering the rain I wondered what they were all here for.