Sauntering 19. Viewpoints around Keswick (part 2)

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Saunterings: Walking in North-West England

Saunterings is a set of reflections based upon walks around the counties of Cumbria, Lancashire and North Yorkshire in North-West England (as defined in the Preamble). Here is a list of all Saunterings so far.
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19. Viewpoints around Keswick (part 2)

After our previous Sauntering around some of the viewpoints and viewing stations of Keswick, we aimed to tackle a third OSVP (Ordnance Survey viewpoint), Skiddaw. We could have passed Keswick’s fourth, Latrigg, on the way but preferred to avoid the standard route up Skiddaw and visit instead the empty northern slopes. However, Skiddaw was in cloud, and so we set off in hope rather than expectation. We began from the village of Bassenthwaite, which for some reason gives its name to the lake, or vice versa. The village immediately appealed for having goalposts on its triangular green. In most villages the green seems sacrosanct.

Skiddaw in cloud from near the village of Bassenthwaite

We followed the bridleway to pick up the Cumbria Way but left it as we entered open access land in order to zigzag up Cockup (505 metres). Here we paused to review the situation. Angry clouds hovered not far above Binsey (447 metres) to the north and the Uldale Fells to the east. Clouds billowed over Skiddaw to fill Southerndale, intermittently obscuring the dramatic slopes of Ullock Pike. An assault on Skiddaw seemed pointless, so we contoured below Broad End to explore Barkbethdale and Southerndale.

At White Horse we came upon a clear path that led upward. We decided to follow it up: if the clouds came lower, we could safely follow the path back down; if the clouds magically lifted then we could continue to the top of Skiddaw. They didn’t. We climbed high enough (to about 830 metres) to see the fence from Bakestall but we could see nothing in the direction of the top of Skiddaw. Since it would obviously be impossible to appreciate the OSVP of Skiddaw, we aborted and ambled back to Bassenthwaite.

Cloud from Skiddaw billowing over Ullock Pike, with the foot of Bassenthwaite Lake below

However, having visited Skiddaw before, I feel qualified to say that Skiddaw is not a perfect viewpoint even on a cloudless day. Naturally, being higher than all but three other Lakeland peaks, it offers a 360 degree panorama. On a clear day, the Isle of Man, the Galloway hills, and the northern Pennines are all in view. But the one-mile long flattish top of Skiddaw blocks some of the view from the trig point. In particular, the magnificent bird’s-eye view of Derwent Water and Borrowdale is not seen from the top but only from the ‘south top’ of the ridge.

We tend nowadays to mock West’s viewing stations and the idea that visitors need to be told precisely where to stand for the best view, especially when they were encouraged to view the scene backwards, using a Claude glass mirror. However, the OSVPs are little better. The 38 OSVPs [*] are a strange set. They range in height from Skiddaw (931 metres) to Lane Ends, Pilling (about 2 metres). Skiddaw is the only one of the Lake District’s peaks over 400 metres to be an OSVP. Ingleborough and Great Shunner Fell are the only Dales peaks to qualify. Many OSVPs (such as Jubilee Tower, below Clougha Pike) mark places for motorists to pause to admire the view. Often a little effort would yield a better view, for example, by walking up Clougha Pike from Jubilee Tower. Some OSVPs have a special tower from which to view. I have no idea what criteria the OS uses when deciding whether to slap a viewpoint symbol on the map. All their other symbols are objective statements of fact. The OS should not give us opinions.

However, it is my purpose in life to give them, so I will assert that Skiddaw affords the best phewpoint in the Lake District. The exclamation ‘phew’ expresses a mixture of tiredness, surprise and awe. So phewpoints involve toiling up a long, possibly dull, slope to reach a place where a surprising awe-inspiring view is suddenly revealed. A viewpoint is a place; a phewpoint is a moment in time. For example, Orrest Head is a much-acclaimed viewpoint, with its quality as a viewpoint independent of how you reach it, but for a phewpoint we need to specify the approach (say, along the leafy lane from the A591), the position (that is, Orrest Head itself) and the view (say, west towards the Langdale Pikes over the head of Windermere). That would be a good phewpoint but not the best because the approach is too short to cause tiredness or to build up a large element of surprise.

Most of the central Lakeland peaks provide good viewpoints but not necessarily good phewpoints, because the views on the way up are not so different to the new view from the top. On the standard route up Skiddaw from Keswick the best view (towards Derwent Water) can always be seen and the new view revealed at the top is of the relatively dull hills north of Skiddaw. On the other hand, the view from Skiddaw having arrived from the north is a surprise (at least, to virgin Lake District walkers!) because of the contrast between the rounded hills of the Caldbeck Fells, with no lakes, and the shapely peaks of volcanic rock encircling Derwent Water south. So, I nominate the walk up Broad End – a long toil over grass, heather and bilberry and then over the stony plateau – to the south top of Skiddaw to reveal the view over Derwent Water as providing the best phewpoint in the Lake District.

Eventually (too late) we saw some blue sky

[*] These are the 38 OSVPs, from north to south:
     Skiddaw
     Latrigg
     Knott Head, Whinlatter
     Nine Standards Rigg
     Castlehead Wood, Keswick
     Surprise View, Lodore Wood
     Bowness Knott, Ennerdale
     Orrest Head
     Miller Ground, Windermere
     Brant Fell, Bowness
     Great Shunner Fell
     Side Bank Wood, Downholme, Swaledale
     Latterbarrow, Hawkshead
     Carron Crag, Grizedale Forest
     Tom Croft Hill, Garsdale
     Scout Scar, Kendal
     Gummer's How
     Long Stile Gate, Oughtershaw
     Ruskin’s View, Kirkby Lonsdale
     Hampsfell
     Hoad Hill, Ulverston
     Arnside Knott
     Askam, Duddon Estuary
     Ingleborough
     Jubilee Tower, below Clougha Pike
     Tithe Barn Hill, Glasson Dock
     Lund’s Tower, Sutton-in-Craven
     Lane Ends, Pilling
     Beacon Fell
     Jeffrey Hill, Longridge
     Crowshaw House, Stonyhurst
     The Atom, Wycoller
     Singing Ringing Tree, near Burnley
     Billinge Hill, Blackburn
     Peel Park, Accrington (n)
     Peel Park, Accrington (w)
     Darwen Hill
     Anglezarke Reservoir.
I may have missed one or two.

    Date: July 13th 2018
    Start: NY230322, Bassenthwaite green  (Map: OL4)
    Route: E – Peter House Farm – SE on Cumbria Way – access land – W, S – Cockup – SW – White Horse – SE – near north top of Skiddaw – NW – White Horse – W, NW – High Side House, Bassenthwaite
    Distance: 9 miles;   Ascent: 670 metres

The two following items:
     21.   The Fortunes of Fleetwood
     20.   On the Sunny Side of Pendle
The two preceding items:
     18.   Viewpoints around Keswick (part 1)
     17.   Sheep-Wrecked Matterdale?
Two nearby items:
     61.   Knott Alone
   155.   Two Sides of Bassenthwaite Lake and One of Derwent Water
A list of all items so far:
             Saunterings

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Top photo: The western Howgills from Dillicar
Bottom photo: Blencathra from Great Mell Fell