Route: Beda Fell and Angletarn Pikes
Area: Far Eastern Lake District
Date of walk: 8th July 2014
Walkers: Andrew and James
Distance: 7.0 miles
Weather: overcast at start, plenty of sunny intervals later
This was truly a red letter day – red squirrels at breakfast, red deer at lunch and red sky at night
Our son James is on a mission to complete his first round of Wainwright fells and is only a few short of the total (214), so he decided we would climb Beda Fell, starting from Martindale
As we drove over from the west of the district it was raining quite heavily, but as we approached the far east the rain stopped and it was on with the walk. We parked at Martindale and soon gained the ridge leading to the top of Beda Fell. After reaching the summit we descended to Bedafell Knott where we had our picnic and were thrilled to see a red deer just below us. This is a conservation area for red deer and home to the oldest native herd in England so we knew that a sighting was on the cards
As we were munching away at our cheese and tomato sandwiches, James started looking further along the ridge and decided to include Angletarn Pikes in the round, so enabling him to tick off another Wainwright. Up we went to the top of this lovely fell, then came back down the same way, heading down into the valley once back at Bedafell Knott
When we reached valley level, there was a large herd of red deer nearby. We’d brought the long lens, a heavy piece of kit, but it had been worth lugging it up hill and down dale, as the closing pictures will show….
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Click on the icon below for the route map (subscribers to OS Maps can view detailed maps of the route, visualise it in aerial 3D, and download the GPX file. Non-subscribers will see a base map)
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Red squirrel in the garden this morning - it was raining quite heavily and we wondered whether to set off on our planned walk
We decided to give it a go and parked by St Martin’s Church Martindale - the weather was fine here
We climbed up behind the attractive cottage to gain the ridge above, leading to Beda Fell
Looking along Howe Grain
Looking back, Ullswater comes into view
Beda Fell ahead, with Boredale on the right
Ullswater again, with St Martin’s Church down below on the right
Beda Fell summit ahead
James on the summit
Ullswater
Boredale
The Nab, with Rest Dodd beyond, which we planned to climb the next day
Instead of descending back into the valley, James suggested that we should stay on the ridge and visit Angletarn Pikes
As we had our picnic we spotted a red deer, so out came the big lens
Lots more in the valley below - we hoped to get a closer view on the return leg
We continued along the ridge towards Angletarn Pikes
The distinctive north top of the Pikes
Angle Tarn
Brothers Water
James on the north top of Angletarn Pikes
We then retraced our steps before turning off the ridge to descend back down to Howe Grain (Martindale)
The telephoto lens was put to good use again - red deer were in sight the whole way down
Bannerdale
Dale Head
Walking back along the track
In an adjoining field we noticed yet more red deer so the big lens came out of the rucksack again
Credit to James for these photos - he crept alongside a wall and managed to get quite close
Eventually the herd wandered away and we finished the walk, here crossing Christy Bridge and looking along Howegrain Beck
The evening sky back home was a fitting end to this red letter day
