The Mike Walker Blog - Climbing the Munros by Motorhome

The Crianlarich Munros - Part 1

Day 1: Heughscar Hill

Heughscar Hill summit cairn with Ullswater in the distance

While I do have the ambition of eventually climbing all the Scottish Munros - I also entertain the more modest goal of completing all of the lumps and bumps featured in Alfred Wainwright's Outlying Fells book first published in 1974. Having already complete three-quarters of these (sometimes/often) scrawny little puddings I pulled off the M6 at Junction 39 and headed through Shap and Hackthorpe to Cumbria's most attractive village of Askham. There was plenty of parking near The Queens Head and I was soon heading south west following a rough track by Askham Beck, gently climbing Haber Hill, Howe Gill and the intriguingly named Riggingleys Top before heading north west round a stand of trees and up across short grass to reach the summit cairn of Heughscar Hill - my eighty-fourth Wainwright Outlying Fell. The weather was glorious - hot and sunny with a little breeze - and the views truly sumptuous towards Helvellyn, Little Mell Fell, Ullswater, Bonscale Pike and Loadpot Hill.

From the summit I headed southwest down a clear grass path but when this failed to head towards Ketley Gate like it was supposed to, I took a left turn at a path crossroads to put me on the right track. To be honest, there are so many grass tracks on Heughscar Hill that finding the right one was always going to be a bit of a lottery. At Ketley Gate - where a single stone is all that is left of the original gate - I headed southeast on a clear track across Askham Fell and Moor Divock to reach a lane at Dewpot Holes.

Ignoring a stone stile in a wall (with no indication of a path on my OS map), I continued southeast through a gate and along a walled track to emerge on another road at the entrance to Widewath Farm. The (now tarmac) road continued southeast to a junction where I headed north into the village of Helton. With no pub (for a drink) or village shop (for an ice-cream) in evidence, I continued north on the road with fine views of Knipe Scar (another of Wainwright's Outlying Fells yet to be bagged) over my right shoulder. Before the road bore north-northeast back to Askham, I headed through a hand-gate in a wall to cross a field & into Gillriggs Cover. From there a track leads to St Peter's Church and the River Lowther.

Built in 1832 on the site of an earlier building dedicated to St Kentigern (the first bishop of Glasgow) the church is a simple structure, solidly built with few adornments. The River Lowther is formed by the confluence of Keld Gill and Keld Dub near the village of Keld in North Yorkshire and flows through Cumbria to join the River Eamont at Brougham Castle south east of Penrith. The River Eamont is the outflow of Ullswater at Pooley Bridge and eventually joins the River Eden in Langwathby which flows in turn into the Solway Firth near Carlisle.

1674 House in Askham village

Beyond the church, the road heads southwest up past the Punchbowl Inn back into pretty Askham. In the village, near the crossroads, there is a house with a 1674 datestone carved into the stonework above the front door picked out in white on a red background.

The weather had been glorious all day and despite taking my new Berghaus jacket with me - it had stayed safely stowed in my rucksack all the way round. In fact I had more need of suntan cream than a waterproof and windproof barrier on this particular walk.

After a refreshing soft drink and a calorie boost (chocolate), I headed for Scotland where I planned to climb the munros Cruach Ardrain and Beinn Tulaichean the next day. Having researched a number of routes, there seem to be two popular approaches. The first of these starts on the A82 southwest of Crianlarich where there is a long lay by. From there you can follow a track beside the River Falloch past woodland to a footbridge. Once over the river you head east up onto Grey Height and then south up to the summit of Cruach Ardrain itself. Beinn Tulaichean is across a bealach to the south. The disadvantage of this route for me was that this route would be an 'out and back by the same route' walk (which I like to try and avoid if at all possible) and I didn't much fancy sleeping in the lay by overnight due to the cars and trucks doing 70mph on the A82 rocking my springs. As it turns out, there was a lot of construction work going on in the area so it was best well avoided.

The other route up Beinn Tulaichean and Cruach Ardrain starts from Inverlochraig to the south east where there is a car park at the end of a long, single track road about 12km west of Balquhidder, Auchtubh and the Kingshouse hotel on the A84 between Lochearnhead and Callander.

I got there about 11.00pm when it was just getting dark. I was the only one in the car park so I pulled up the blinds, drew the curtains and settled down for the night.