Ullswater from Sheffield Pike Helvellyn ia a magnet for walkers on this October day and their figures are etched against the horizon. Wonderful panoramas to be had, the summiting experience, the thrill of Striding Edge and Swirral Edge. But the way to Raise is impoverished- nothing much grows up here. Why is that? What has blasted these fells? Relentless pressure of walkers along broad tracks to the tops, that’s visible. Overgrazing in the past? Mining and a change of geology? There is a patch of fir club moss close to the ski-station but it’s localised. I know the high corries of Helvellyn are of botanical interest, saved by being inaccessible.
Stone walls delineate boundaries with white grass on one side and heather habitat on the other. Glenridding Screes are too steep and inaccessible for man or beast. A biker who read about it on U tube comes over the top, looking shaken. Not entirely intrepid. Waterfalls cascade down the steep slope through shrubs of juniper.
Sheffield Pike is something else. A brilliant heather fell, thanks to conservation grazing and good management from Can and Sam Hodgson of Glencoyne Farm. There’s a subtle blend of rich autumn colour and texture, of heather knolls and boggy hollows. Wonderful. Can told me she was up there a few days ago, admiring colour. She doesn’t know Helvellyn. An intimate knowledge of their fells, and the satisfaction of achieving this splendid habitat.
It’s a steepish ascent up The Rake and onto the lower slopes of Sheffield Pike, with vistas of Ullswater and bell heather flowering and fading at our feet. A long flowering season. The headwaters of Mossdale Beck give a sudden transition to a boggy plateau of deer grass, bristly bronze like a punk haircut. There are tarns with wine-coloured cotton grass. A mix of ericas, with crowberry- although I find no berries. Decay blotches bilberry leaves and they colour-up rose and gold, surrounded by seed heads of heather. I love the intricate detail, and the bigger picture- the way swathes of colour sweep across the fell.
It’s a steepish ascent up The Rake and onto the lower slopes of Sheffield Pike, with vistas of Ullswater and bell heather flowering and fading at our feet. A long flowering season. The headwaters of Mossdale Beck give a sudden transition to a boggy plateau of deer grass, bristly bronze like a punk haircut. There are tarns with wine-coloured cotton grass. A mix of ericas, with crowberry- although I find no berries. Decay blotches bilberry leaves and they colour-up rose and gold, surrounded by seed heads of heather. I love the intricate detail, and the bigger picture- the way swathes of colour sweep across the fell.
An off-piste descent from Raise, coming down below the track beside Keppel Tarn, beside a beck green with water plant. The sun came sweeping over the fells in the afternoon. Over juniper by the Swart Beck waterfalls. A party ghyll scrambling in helmets in the beck in the dale.
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