Dunnerdale Forest Run

Harter Fell summit

The plan for this run was a round of the Duddon Horseshoe.  It's a route I did a few years ago, a nice 17 or so miles, although I extended it slightly.  Our fortunate position of living right next to the Western Lake District means that we sometimes see these southern fells as a bit of a hike.  I think we drove for an hour!  Alastair and David were looking forward to visiting some less frequented fells as well as the challenge of the route.  When it came down to it, David's foot problem meant that we sensibly cut the route short after five or so miles and took a relatively flat route back to the car.

Starting from the Newfield Inn at Seathwaite, the route goes around the local climbing hotspot of Wallowbarrow Crag and into Dunnerdale Forest.  It goes through the forest.  The path is much improved at this stage compared to the last time I was here.  As soon as you leave the forest, you climb steeply up to Harter Fell.  After taking the north western grassy track over to the high point of Hardknott Pass, the route crosses the road and goes up to Hardknott fell.  Due to David's injury, we stopped at the road.  We went down the road to the bottom of the steepest part, past a stationary car with the familiar smell of burning clutch in the air, to the point where a footpath and good track turns south off the road along the side of the River Duddon.  This was a nice track although some recent logging activity has made it less pleasant in a few spots.  It brought us back around the opposite side of Wallowbarrow Crag and an impressive boulder field scree back to the car and a quick pint in the Newfield Inn.