Northern Pennines

Cross Fell and its three neighbours, over to the west, are essentially Tees / Eden watershed hills. Like many others, I climbed them on a Pennine Way day.

Five Hewitts lie north of Cross Fell, between the Eden and Tyne. I’ve not trod there yet, but plan a three-day backpack, hopefully for 2024.

Five others lie south of the Tees – two of these are on the Warcop ranges, a live firing area that needs special permission to enter; there are nine hills between Tees and Wear, and three north of the Wear.

One of my first wild country expeditions, in 1974, saw me pick up five of these; my 2015 cross-England walk deliberately sought out four more; and another five followed in August 2023. The two Warcop hills, and their neighbour Murton Fell, remain.

Cross Fell and its neighbours

I’m being quite restrictive in the definition here, by including only the four hills traversed by the Pennine Way on the memorable day from Dufton to Garrigill: Knock Fell (2605ft), Great Dun Fell (2782ft), Little Dun Fell (2762ft) and Cross Fell (2930ft).

For me, the memorable day was Tuesday 17 August 1976. I’d been on the top of Great Dun Fell (it’s the one with the weather station) five years previously, and rewalked the range in 1994. Details are on my High Pennines Pennine Way page, but here’s something else I found out, checking the back pages of my Wainwright guide.

I set off from Dufton at half past nine on a warm but breezy morning. Two hours later, I was on the top of Knock Fell, where I took a break. By 1 o’clock, I was on the top of Cross Fell. Time for lunch.

I was in Garrigill before 4. Again I hung around, but pressed on to Alston. I dawdled this a bit, getting there just after 6.

In all, just over 8½ hours; with breaks, just under 7½, for a little shy of 21 miles.

That’s pretty decent, but nearly 50 years on, I don’t think I’d be too much slower. Though I’m not likely to get back to find out.

The Cross Fell range, from Round Hill

And it worked very nicely. I found a couple of cairns that seemed to mark a way up, and as I tracked towards the top, there were indeed more beaters, but they weren’t too interested and indeed seemed to have finished their business and started moving off as I approached.

The wellies? A couple of famous markers that have been on the heathery summit for many years. The summit itself is a few yards north, not so nice.

I could clearly take a more direct line off the hill and indeed met the beater again back at the same spot. Dave, he was. “You can have a lift back to the road if you like,” he said. I reasoned with my conscience for, ooh, all of ten seconds, and hopped in. I found out that grouse shooting economics work like this: £2000 a day paid by the guys (mostly) with guns; £80 a day for the beaters.

That leaves the two Warcop ranges hills, Little Fell and Mickle Fell, plus Murton Fell. I don’t want to leave them to the end of my Hewitt exploration, so will try to fit them in during 2024.

I was back here on my Chapelfell Top day in ’23, see below; there’s messy stuff around here, I will have been fortunate to have been here in reasonably decent conditions, twice.

Westernhope Moor (2215ft) followed after Swinside Head. From here I’m less certain about my route; all I know is I finished at High Force, presumably the hotel. Quite possibly, I cadged a lift back along the road, rather than walk it.

This itself is over the 2000ft contour so the two-and-a-bit miles to Dead Stones (2329ft) doesn’t involve much climbing, neither does the mile-and-a-half to Burnhope Seat (2451ft). Whether it’s easy walking is another matter – the depression between the two hills looks decidedly messy.

From here I know I dropped down Harwood Common to the B6277 and returned to Langdon Beck. That would have been an anticlimactic four mile road walk at the end of a long day, but there’s no record of me hitching – not that the road sees many vehicles, even today. Perhaps I detoured down through Harwood proper. It will never be known.

The next day happened to be even nicer. Great Stony Hill (2323ft) is easy from here, less than an hour’s round trip. I went out past the old mine workings of Blackway Hole until I could see a fence crossing the track, then veered up the hill. With cairn and trig point, and indeed a few stones, it’s one of the best viewpoints for the Cross Fell ridge, and indeed the northern Pennines in general.

From the summit I could see the top of the mine workings so I descended through them. I was back at the track in no time.

I then drove to Swinside Head for the climb of Chapelfell Top (2306ft). It can be done as an out-and-back but I never intended this – indeed I’d first planned to drive to Swinside Bridge and climb from there, until I realised it made no sense to drive to an iffy parking place when the Head had a very good one.

It did lead to an unusual downhill stretch at the start. Across on the Top, I could see what seemed to be mechanical diggers working. Surely not? Then I saw a team working beside a hut just off to my left. Wary by now of grouse shooters, I wandered over to find out what was going on. The diggers, they said, were some sort of peat restoration project.

They themselves were working at the Weardale Ski Club hut. The north-facing corrie below Fendrith Hill hosts some of the best snow conditions in England, and there are a couple of ski tows here and enthusiastic club volunteers to maintain them and the other facilities.

By now I could see that, rather then drop down to Swinside Bridge as planned, I might as well just continue on pretty much a direct line to Chapelfell Top. There was a bit of a drop down to Swinhope Burn but from there I set myself a compass bearing and began the trudge uphill. I was expecting boggy, peaty stuff but it was all pretty straightforward.

Until I got to the ‘ridge’. This was just a mess of peat hags, with the cairn thankfully close at hand. So were the diggers, but they were silent, with no sign of their presumably human operatives. Spooky.

Running south from the summit, there’s a broad drain which gives the best route towards Fendrith Hill, though there’s still a bit of peat hopping. If it was wet this would be tough indeed. Things don’t really improve until you’re past the top of the ski tows, when a sturdy stone wall appears, indicative of firmer ground. Swinside Head is then not far away.