MELBREAK COMMUNITIES WALK GASGALE GILL HORSESHOE – GRASMOOR, HOPEGILL HEAD AND WHITESIDE

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Image reproduced with permission of Ordnance Survey ‘s Gat-a-map service.

The walk starts at the small off-road car park at Lanthwaite Green (GR 158208). There are several ways of ascending Grasmoor from here, but the one that keeps closest to Gasgale Gill is the so-called (by Wainwright) “Direct” ascent up the north west shoulder. Alternates are the Lad Howes route or the (possibly steeper and looser) one up Red Gill. The first photo indicates the rough line of ascent as the line delineating sun and shade. You start by heading for the new bridge (the old one was washed away in the 2009 floods) spanning the Liza Beck just after it emerges from the confines of the Gill. Before reaching it, you will see a grassy track which takes you to the base of the screes at the bottom of Grasmoor. The best way up the scree is a matter of personal choice, but there is a sort of track that goes up the central heather slope rather than on the scree itself. Any of numerous ways will bring you sooner or later to the first flat terrace before the rocky part starts. Depending on your inclination for scrambling on often greasy, lichenous rock, you can take your pick as to the way ahead, but keep heading for the rock pinnacle that towers over you. There is a track that meanders through the rocks and which veers leftwards towards a gully that eventually takes you to the left of the pinnacle and to a second terrace,. The way from here to Looking down the gully

Looking down the screes the top of Grasmoor End is fairly obvious, eventually curving round to the small cairn at about 2400 feet (730m). (There is a very helpful drawing of the way in Grasmoor 6 in Wainwright’s North-Western Fells Book.) From here, the top of Grasmoor (2791 feet, 852m) is a short distance in an easterly direction and, when you get there, you will have ascended about 2300 feet (700m) from Lanthwaite. From here, you have a choice of 2 routes across the sprawling near-plateau of Grasmoor, one following the main track towards Crag Hill and the other branching off towards Coledale Hause. If the weather is clear, you can follow more closely the rim of Gasgale Gill passing Dove Crags and giving great views down into the Loweswater from Grasmoor End Gill. Coledale Hause is the pass between Coledale leading down to Braithwaite and Gasgale going down to Lanthwaite. Head slightly west of northwards up the obvious track towards Sand Hill (about 2450 feet, 756m) ignoring the fainter path heading off to the right to Grizedale Pike (unless you want to do this as well). Once on Sand Hill, Hopegill Head (2525 feet, 770m) is now visible a short distance ahead, but it’s worth heading to Grasmoor to Coledale Hause with Grizedale Pike behind its right to get a view of the cliffs of Hobcarton Crag before going to the top. The northern side of the summit is in stark contrast to the gentle slopes that you have just ascended with a sharp drop down rocky ledges to the small col before Ladyside Pike. To the east, Grizedale Pike has a classic conical profile from here

Sand Hill from Coledale Hause with the masses of Skiddaw and Blencathra behind.

There’s also a great view of what is possibly the highlight of the walk, the ridge heading due west to Whiteside. It goes up and down a bit, but is fairly level, only losing a couple of hundred feet to the top of Whiteside (2525 feet, 707m). There’s a narrowish, rocky part near Hopegill Head, although there’s a track to one side of the “crest” in most places, but there’s still a very airy feel to the walk. The best view of the deep declivity of Gasgale Head Whiteside ridge from Coledal e Hause awaits you when you get to Whiteside and look back to Coledale Hause. All the rocks here are part of the sedimentary, slatey Skiddaw Group and the Gill itself was formed by glacial activity, as evidenced by the dry glacial corrie below Dove Crags on Grasmoor. The only way now is down a track that alternates between steepish rocky outcrops and flattish tracks through the heather via the little top of Whin Ben. Once you get near the bottom, the track tends to take you to the location of the old bridge, so, if you’ve gone this way, you need to walk downstream along the beck to the splendid new bridge, from which it is a short distance back to the car park at Lanthwaite Green. You’ve now done about 3000 feet of ascent/descent and bagged three Wainwrights, Gasgale Gill so why not pop down to Buttermere for a delicious ice-cream at Syke Farm Café?

New bridge over Liza Beck with Whiteside behind