10th May 2015
From Hazelgill Farm up the bridleway under the railway line and up towards High Dolphinsty. I had Jet with me today but we saw no boar. There were lots of sheep and so I kept Jet on the lead as we went through the land by the farm.
After the initial steep rise the gradient becomes more gentle as the moorland is crossed. Wild Boar Fell looked quite pointy from this angle, though in truth it is a large plateau. At a nick in the skyline a left turn took us up a nascent ridge called The Nab to the tumulus at the north east end of the plateau. From here the top is off to the west a few hundred metres. We crossed the plateau to the summit trig and shelter – no sheep here.
A brisk wind invited shelter by the trig. The Howgills across the way were being brushed with cloud and it looked a bit black to the south. After the brief rest we zagged back across to the east to the east top overlooking the Vale of Eden where there is a line of well made tall cairns easily visible from the valley below. Quite why they are there? Who knows.
We next followed the escarpment south and then west and down to the wet col with Swarth Fell. The prominence of Swarth Fell is sufficient to make it a “Hewitt” but (unlike Wild Boar Fell) not a Marilyn. The summit is probably the cairn but there are some rocks by the county wall and also between there and the cairn which may be higher. The wind was definitely becoming unpleasant but at least it was not raining. The plateau of Wild Boar Fell is well seen from here.
We then wandered over the Swarth Fell Pike passing a group of four. The ground became wetter from here and the wind even stronger. There is a large cairn on the Pike but the small rise, such as it is, is otherwise lacking in character. We followed the ridge line south for 700m and then set off east north east across wet country to Aisgill Moor Cottages and the land of sheep.
From there, rather than taking the road we followed paths/bridleways parallel to the road back to the start point. Near the end we had an encounter with two black lambs who romped up to us. Jet was unsure what to do and, if he had not been on the lead, I imagine he would have taken off somewhere – the brave hound! Anyway, Jet and the lambs sniffed each other and then the lambs bounced off to find something else new to look at.
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