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Skiddaw via Little Man Difficulty: Hard Latrigg is the small hill to the south of the car park. Despite its small height of only 368m above sea level it is actually on the Wainwright list and if you ever go to the top and take a look at the view down Derwentwater into the jaws of Borrowdale you'll more than understand why Mr Alfred Wainwright included it in his magical illustrations. Recently a fantastic project has taken place to develop a wheelchair access path from the car park over to the summit of Latrigg. I think that despite his dislike of the mass tourism of the From the car park the way is signposted very clearly. There is a gate at the far end of the car park that is signposted to Jenkins Hill. The path heads left following the route of the Cumbria Way for a few hundred metres. The Cumbria Way comes up here from Keswick so anyone wanting to expand the walk and start it at Keswick could do so by starting in Keswick and simply following the Cumbria Way to this point. After a few hundred metres the paths split and the Cumbria Way carrys on ahead round the contours of the massif while the Skiddaw path you need to take heads left towards a small stone cross memorial. The Howell Memorial was built in recognition of three shepherds of the Howell family who worked on Lonscale Fell, there are a few nice sentences to them on the memorial itself worth reading. From the memorial the path now starts to climb quite steeply in a rather erratic zig zag fashion up Jenkin Hill following the left side of Whit Beck. The path goes rough at times on the zig zags but as it gains height and levels out on the top of Jenkin Hill it again appears as a simple track. Looking behind you as you gain height on Jenkin Hill the views continue to open up over Keswick to Derwent Water, Borrowdale and beyond. Once on top of Jenkin Hill itself the track levels out and comes to a wooden gate where the path once again splits. The track signposted to 'Skiddaw Summit' heads off through the gate and to the right where it skirts the eastern side of Little Man. For those who do not wish to bag Little Man then you can follow that particular through the gate and round the mountain and meet up with the same path again on the other side on the col between Little Man and Skiddaw. However most will want to walk to the top of Little Man as it is a Wainwright and a worthy one with rewarding views. So don't go through the gate and instead carry straight on in a north westerly direction on a path not marked on some maps for whatever reason despite being obvious and heading to the top of a popular hill. The path will head uphill straight onto the top of what seems like the summit of Little Man but is in fact another slightly lower summit known as Lesser Man. The summit of Lesser Man has a stone cairn mixed with old metal fence posts. From Lesser Man continue north along the obvious path to the clearly slighty higher summit of Little Man and its stone cairn. From Little Man head north to north westerly off its summit and head down towards the obvious col between Skiddaw and Little Man where you will meet up with the track again you left earlier. When you descend Little Man if the weather is bad an the way ahead not clear then simply follow the fence to your right until it comes to a right angle, at the right angle turn right with the fence and you will get to the gate for the path you left earlier, from here simply head left now going uphill towards the ridge of Skiddaw. The track is ridiculously wide and obvious now as it heads first northwest then after meeting a few paths from the left heads directly north straight to the summit of Skiddaw. There are a few false summits and also one last small dip downhill before the actual summit with its trig point and stone cairn. The views from Skiddaw's lofty summit stretch for miles. to the north you can see the skyline of Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland over the Solway Firth. Also to the north in close proximity is the area known as Back o'Skiddaw with its remote rolling hills somewhat different to the rest of the rough and craggy Lake District. To the east is Skiddaw's wonderful neighbour Blencathra and beyond the Lake District is the bleak and high Northern Pennines. Moving south east you'll see the huge bulk of the Helvellyn range then directly south the rest of the Lake District over the gorgeous Derwent Water and the Borrowdale Valley. To the west looking over probably Skiddaw's best ascent route the Long Side ridge you'll see the Irish Sea and the Isle of Man on a good day. The summit itself is a rocky place with a brilliant stone topograph topped cairn detailing all the sites and the usual OS trig point pillar plus a stone circle shelter for sheltering from the elements. Skiddaw is the Lake District's oldest existing mountain. The area behind Skiddaw and in much of the far north and western area is made up mostly of Skiddaw Slate. Skiddaw Slate is unlike the rest of the mainly volcanic Lake District in that it is mostly sedimentary, created by mud and sediments from ages old ocean beds, the softer rock make up is of course a lot more likely to be shaped by the elements, giving the Back o'Skiddaw area its unique rolling hillsides. However in a few instances where the slate is bared by the forces of weather at high altitude it can take on a completely different aspect especially on the summits of Blencathra and Skiddaw and there many exposed ridges. The sedimentary slate beds created here are extremely thick and in areas can even affect a compass bearing so be warned. From the summit simply head directly south and then follow the track south east back down into the col between Little Man and Skiddaw and then at the col head left following the track round the contours of Little Man until it rounds the mountain and reaches the point at the wooden gate where earlier you ignored the track and went up Little Man. Turn left heading downhill and follow the track all the way back down to the Howell Memorial and on to the Gale Road car park where you started from. On an evening descent the views on the way back that were behind you on the ascent are now there for you to see and the sun will be setting behind the Derwent Fells. |
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