A moderate route in Yorkshire Dales. Check the GPS track on Outdooractive for full details of the route, waypoints, and terrain.
Starting Point: High Barn (SD 635 888), or parking on driveway up to High Barn
Terrain: Gate, track, fair track and path, track forks (critical navigation - right fork essential), uphill past grouse butts, wall following, wild walking return (no marked route), ridgeline descent, long grass and marshy ground (pick way in places), sheepfold, wall following, gate, stream crossing, uphill, pasture fields, another stream crossing (bottom left corner of field).
This is a memorable circular walk to Calf Top, England and Wales's smallest mountain and England's newest mountain, holding special significance as the walk that introduced me to Hewitt bagging. I'd recently finished The Wainwrights and was at a loss for what to do next when, on a few days away with the lads, we decided to walk to the hill visible from the back of our rental house. It turned out to be Calf Top, its colourful trig point adorned with 3 green stars - a mystery I investigated online (the best answer: someone painted them because they wanted to or that similar combinations are often found in esoteric, occult, and sacred geometry traditions to symbolize the unification of different realms of existence.). This search revealed that the hill was actually a Hewitt and therefore a mountain - the smallest and newest in England - launching my new challenge to bag the other 315 Hewitts if not already done. The route follows a fair track from High Barn, taking the critical right fork at SD 648 887 as the left track is a dead end, meandering uphill past grouse butts to pick up the wall at Long Bank. The path follows the wall as it swings right over Barking Top, offering great views across to Whernside and particularly across Sedbergh and beyond to the Howgills, before arriving at Calf Top's colourful trig point. The return involves wild walking with no marked route - turning right from the trig towards Middleton Fell before picking a path down the ridgeline in as straight a line as possible towards the start. Fairly easy walking despite long grass and marshy ground requiring careful navigation in places, reaching a sheepfold before following the wall to a stream crossing gate. Another stream crossing in the bottom left corner of the final field completes the adventure. A significant walk marking the beginning of a new mountain-bagging journey.