Starting point: Seathwaite Farm, Borrowdale  (NY 235122)  Distance: 4.98 miles  Ascent: 2601'

One of the shorter rounds, this walk takes in four fells around the hanging valley of Gillercomb. 

Route:  Ascend Base Brown via Sourmilk Gill, contouring under the Hanging Stone before a walk to the summit cairn.  Continue up to the main ridge to visit Green Gable before retracing steps along the wide ridge to the bare top of Brandreth and on to Grey Knotts.  Here drop down into Gillercomb and return to Seathwaite via a step-stile, descending past the disused plumbago mines and the Borrowdale Yews.

Base Brown on a glorious May morning 

Seathwaite Slabs at the foot of Sourmilk Gill

The Lakeland mountain guide and self-styled 'Professor of Adventure', Millican Dalton used these rocks at Seathwaite Slabs as an overnight stop on some occasions in the early years of the last century.  Stan Edmundson recalls, 'He would sleep under a large rock at Seathwaite Slabs.  He always wore shorts, army type jacket; never wore socks, just bandages around his feet.  Millican got about on a bike for which he made a carrier from hazel branches bound by string.  Millican was a wonderful character when Borrowdale was a quiet, beautiful valley.' Millican Dalton: A Search for Romance & Freedom M. D. Entwistle p. 83

Beattie at Sourmilk Gill

Sourmilk Gill

Borrowdale from the ascent of Base Brown

Raven Crag is a popular climbing ground

The fallen stone drawn by Alfred Wainwright in The Western Fells Base Brown p. 4
Some idea of its size can be gauged from the photograph taken of Base Brown from Gillercomb. See below

The Hanging Stone is marked on Ordnance Survey maps. 
AW remarked, 'People with bad coughs should keep out of the line of fall' Base Brown p. 4

Beattie at the summit cairn of Base Brown

The summit of Green Gable

The north face of Great Gable, called Gable Crag

Not the usual view of The Langdale Pikes

Ennerdale valley as viewed from Green Gable

The 'massive plinth' of Kirk Fell

The summit cairn of Brandreth
AW writes, 'The cairn is sited at a meeting of fences, and is adorned with a Lonsdale boundary post.' Brandreth p. 8 (as it still is today!)

'The summit is a bare and cheerless place, a desert of stones with nothing of interest.' Brandreth p.8

Between Brandreth and Grey Knotts is this nameless tarn

Grey Knotts has two summits.  This is the lower western tor.

The east summit from the west

Beattie at the east summit cairn on Grey Knotts

Base Brown taken from the descent into Gillercomb
From here, the bulk of the fallen stone can be appreciated!

Gillercomb
Green Gable ahead with Great Gable peeping out behind!

Looking up the valley towards Seathwaite Fell with Great End in shadow behind

A spoil heap from the old plumbago mines

Seathwaite Farm below

Memorial Stone to John Bankes
The inscription reads, 'John Bankes Esquier 1752'

The Borrowdale Yews

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Comment from Steve Pearce
Lovely photos. Seathwaite Slabs were my son's first attempt at rock climbing. The fact he was only six months old and unable even to walk speaks volumes for his enthusiasm! Websites such as yours do so much to keep walking and general mountaineering popular. One day I am determined to put one up and hope it can reach your standard.  Steve.  Thanks so much for the kind comments.  Very much appreciated.  derek

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Photographs taken with a Fuji MX-2900 Zoom or a Canon EOS 20D
Copyright © 2009 Derek Cockell     All Rights Reserved