A short walk up Hallin Fell

My wife and I have very different interests and hobbies. She is a creative, an artist. Part of an online Art Journaling community that collaborate and create elaborate pieces of Scrapbooking art. I on the other hand prefer the silence, solitude and simplicity of putting one foot in front of the other in the great outdoors, the sky above me and the earth below me. Occasionally, we venture into the other’s territory. I will go to the ballet where I will understand nothing of the subtle storytelling conveyed without words through the medium of dance. And she will join me in a walk up a hill, so long as it is not too big a hill, or too steep a climb.

And it is on just such an occasion, her birthday no less that we find ourselves at the bottom of Hallin Fell opposite the lovely church of St Peter’s in the equally lovely and quiet valley of Martindale. I’ve chosen Hallin Fell as Wainwright describes it thus: “There is one royal road to the top, this is the wide grass path leaving the hause opposite the church and it can be ascended comfortably in bare feet”. It is the perfect hill for the non hill walker.

It is a Wainwright though and they all count, but we forego the idea of walking up it barefoot and put our boots on. It’s a moody day in Lakeland, the higher fells are lost in cloud, the rain comes and goes and there is a bitter wind blowing which chills the bones even at this relatively low altitude. It’s not raining at the moment though and our little top is clear so off we trudge up the grass hillside.

There isn’t much I can say about the walk up. It’s a short walk up a grassy hillside straight to the top which is reached in half a mile. The views do open up a little and the view down Martindale towards The Nab and Beda Fell are pleasant, the ground looking luxuriant after all the recent rain. Shades of green and brown contrast in the valley and lower slopes. The green cultivated farmland giving way to brown bracken and black crags as the valley rises beyond the grey stone intake walls. The snow sprinkled higher tops intermittently appear and disappear out of the scudding, rain laden dark clouds above our heads.

In what seems like no time at all and it really isn’t, we are standing by the rather magnificent cairn at the top of Hallin Fell overlooking Ullswater. Not a lot seems to be known about the summit obelisk but it was certainly here in the fifties when Wainwright passed this way and it’s solidity suggests it may be here until the mountains themselves disappear into the sea. The top is indeed beautifully situated, about the half way mark along Ullswater it provides grand views along the lake, up towards Pooley Bridge and down towards Glenridding.

The chill wind and the threat of rain mean it’s not a day for hanging around though. I do suggest that we try a different path down but my wife subscribes to the SAS school of hill walking ‘Get In, Get It Done, Get Out’ and it is her birthday, so who am I to argue. And so we amble down the grass highway and in no time at all are back at the van. Half a mile up, half a mile down, hardly a sweat broken, this really is a Wainwright for the non hill walker, and this suited my wife just fine.

I now find myself five hundred words short on my usual 900-1000 word blog posts. Thankfully and unusually for such a remote, dead end valley, Martindale provides some rather interesting places to visit. Across the road from the parking spot is St Peter’s Church whose inside provides a calm sanctuary away from the blustery chill wind outside. The church dates from the 1880’s but has some impressive modern stained glass windows made by the artist Jane Gray and put in place in 1975. There is also a memorial to the men of HMS Glorious, sunk off the Norwegian coast in 1940.

Further up the valley we visit St Martin’s Old Church which dates from the 16th century. In the grounds stands a Yew tree that is estimated to be thirteen hundred years old, yes thirteen hundred. That means it was growing here in the 8th century, a time when England had many Kings, the Vikings were raiding and pillaging and the Lindisfarne gospels were being written. As somebody once said ‘History, it’s just one damned thing after another’.

Near the church there is another interesting historical and practical object, albeit a much more recent one. Set in a wall by a cottage is a Queen Victoria post box. She died in 1901 but when I posted my picture on social media somebody from the Letter Box Study Group (indeed!) got in touch to say that because it had a horizontal collection plate, this particular one would have been here prior to 1881. The wonders of information sharing on the World Wide Web.

And after that short tour through thirteen hundred years of British history we return to Keswick to celebrate Mrs E’s birthday. The Bank Tavern holds many happy memories of my own short time on this planet. 1983 was probably the first time I walked through its doors. So many memories with so many people but the decor, the food and the friendly atmosphere remains reassuringly the same. Here’s to the next forty years. 

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