Route: Lank Rigg
Area: Western Lake District
Date of walk: 23rd June 2014
Walkers: Andrew
Distance: 7.1 miles
Weather: sunshine and blue skies
Lank Rigg is one of the remotest fells in lakeland and is not often visited. As Wainwright puts it ‘Die here, unaccompanied, and your disappearance from society is likely to remain an unsolved mystery’
With those unsettling words ringing in my ears I parked on the Coldfell Road and set off along the track (unaccompanied), leaving it after a while to take a pathless course up to Boat How – a new route for me
I was blessed with lovely weather as I made the easy but seemingly never ending climb to the top. Once there, I hid some buried treasure near the summit cairn, in what has become a tradition since the publication of Wainwright’s Guide to the Western Fells – read on for more. I then made my way down the gentle slopes over to Latterbarrow and thence back to the start.
Although the gradients are easy everywhere, much of the way is pathless and anyone following this route (or indeed any other up Lank Rigg) needs to know how to navigate. It would be a bad place to become lost and landmarks are few and far between, especially in poor visibility. A spell of dry weather helps as well, since there are some juicy sections
I didn’t see another person at any point of the walk
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)
Scroll down – or click on any photo to enlarge it and you can then view as a slideshow
At the end of yesterday’s walk I’d seen a sign in Cumbrian dialect and here’s another at the start of this one, something to do with foxes
I can understand what this sign means, and follow the track to Kinniside Common
Walking into the sun towards Lang Rigg top left
I cross a footbridge over the River Calder
Sellafield and the Irish Sea soon come into view
Heading up towards Boat How, easily mistaken for Lank Rigg on this approach
Another view back to the west coast
and again from higher up
Looking towards Ravenglass in the distance
Lank Rigg ahead
An unexpected silhouette of the Scafells as I press on up the slope
Lank Rigg Tarn just below the summit of the fell
Lank Rigg summit - Grasmoor is the prominent fell in the background
Looking the other way towards the sea, and here’s where the buried treasure comes into the picture……
Extract from Book Seven of Wainwright’s Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells
If you see an extra 5p piece on top of the 2p piece on the right - that was mine. Help yourself but send me an email just for my amusement
Heading down now towards Latterbarrow
Latterbarrow top (summit being too grand a word)
From the same place, looking back up to Lank Rigg
Heading back down towards the River Calder
I cross over the beck where it meets the River Calder
A last look back up to Lank Rigg just before I arrive back at Coldfell Road
