Canisfamiliaris

This is what Alfred Wainwright wrote in The Southern Fells about Esk Hause. It is a very fine example of the meticulous detail in which Wainwright wrote his Guides to the Lakeland fells.

Esk Hause

'Sooner or later every fellwalker finds himself for the first time at Esk Hause, the highest, best-known and most important of Lakeland foot-passes, and he will probably read, or been told, that this is a place where it is easy to go astray. There should be no danger of this, however, even in bad conditions.

Nevertheless the lie of the land is curious (but not confusing). Esk Hause is a tilted grass plateau, high among the mountains. The unusual thing about it is that two passes have their summits on the plateau, two passes carrying entirely different routes; in fact, in general direction they are at right angles. If these routes crossed at the highest point of the plateau there would be a simple 'crossroads', but they do not: one is a hundred feet higher than the other and 300 yards distant.

The name Esk Hause is commonly but incorrectly applied to the lower of the passes, a much-trodden route, but properly belongs to the higher and less-favoured pass. What is almost always referred to as Esk Hause is not Esk Hause at all; the true Esk Hause is rarely so named except by the cartographers. The true Esk Hause (2490') is the head of Eskdale, a shallow depression between Esk Pike and Great End, and is an infrequently-used pass between Eskdale and Borrowdale; the general direction is south-west to north-east. The false Esk Hause (2386', with a wall shelter in the form of a cross) is a shallow depression in the high skyline between the true Esk Hause and Allen Crags, and is a much used pass between Great Langdale and Wasdale, general direction being south-east to north-west.

The likeliest mistake in bad weather is that a walker approaching from Langdale and bound for Wasdale may continue along the plain path beyond the shelter and so unwittingly be ascending Scafell Pike when he should be going down to Wasdale. (The path to Scafell Pike from the shelter, incidentally, first goes up to the true Esk Hause and there swings away to the right; fortunately there is no track leading down into Eskdale from the Hause, otherwise it might be thought that the valley below is wasdale - which would be a still worse mistake). The correct continuation to Wasdale is indistinct on the grass for 30 yards beyond the shelter before becoming clear. here is an example of a bifurcation (to Scafell Pike) having become better marked non the ground than the original path (to Wasdale). It is well to remember that the shelter is the highest point attained on the Langdale - Wasdale route.

The greater importance of the higher pass as a watershed is well seen from a study of the map. All streams crossed on the Langdale - Wasdale route within the area between Rossett Pass and Sty Head Pass find their way into Borrowdale, although the latter valley is largely screened by Allen Crags. No water from this wide area flows into Langdale or Wasdale, and the lower pass therefore has little geographical significance: it is merely an intrusion in the vast system of the Eskdale - Borrowdalew gathering grounds. The one function of the spurious Esk Hause is to deflect the plateau's waters into Borrowdale either by way of Langstrath or Grains Gill.'
The Southern Fells Esk Pike pp. 3-4

esk hause

Photograph showing the true Esk Hause

the 'false' esk hause

Photograph showing the false Esk Hause

Return to top