Beatrix Fell Run, Forest of Bowland

It was Saturday morning and Pete and I were going for another fell run.  Pete picked me up and we drove out in to the Forest of Bowland towards Dunsop Bridge.  The temperature in Lancaster was in the single digits (centigrade!) so we were a bit surprised to see the odd patch of ice  on the road up to Jubilee Tower.  However Lancaster is always a few degrees warmer than further land due to it’s proximity to the West Coast, so by the time we got to Dunsop Bridge there was still a fair bit of snow around.

Do the ducks know that they are at the geographic centre of Britain?  I doubt it!
We set off up the path by the River Dunsop, before striking out North-Westwards towards Beatrix Fell.


We avoided the patches of ice as we gained height, and quickly an overcast but still picturesque view of the Hodder Valley opened up.

Shortly after reaching the flat top of the Fell, I noticed something in the grass.  It turned out to be a flask which someone had dropped, and even had some partially frozen coffee inside.  Pete kindly managed to fit it in his bum bag so I could try and reunite it with it’s owner via the various internet forums.

Beatrix Fell Summit Trig
Carrying on from the summit we moved away from the fence to try and find the remains of a crashed World War 2 US Air Force bomber.  All we managed to find was a stunted tree, so we will have to go back and have a look another time!
Our search meant we had overshot our path, so we struck out across the fell towards the Whitendale Valley.

Descending to Whitendale.

The terrain steepens as Whitendale Farm comes in to view.
On reaching the farm we crossed over the river and made our way over the saddle of Middle Knoll to Brennand Farm.  From here it was up to the Ouster Rake Path, which is relatively steep and narrow  for the Trough, traversing above a steep’ish slope and gully.  I have wondered that on the few occasions that the Trough gets substantial amounts of snow, this gully might make an interesting grade 1 winter route.  Today there was a substantial amount of ice in part of the gully, so maybe one day it will come into condition.
Getting to the top of the path we followed the fence southwards.

After a short while Smelt Mill hove into view.

It was then simply the case of taking the road towards Dunsop Bridge, and then a path across the fields back to the car.


Looking back towards Smelt Mill.