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High Blind How (Claife Heights) from Far Sawrey.
Start. Far Sawrey.
Route. Far Sawrey - Boad Mire Intake - High Blind How - Three Dubs Tarn - Moss Eccles Tarn - Far Sawrey.
Notes. I think today my expectations were set too high, over the years many people have recommended Claife Heights with it's many small tarns, it was somewhere I'd never bothered visiting, time to put that right. With Sue for company I set out from Far Sawrey on what I considered to be a dreary trudge along muddy forest tracks, views were limited to say the least. We met a couple of people hunting for a viewpoint at High Blind How, the guide book they carried milked the views for all they were worth, so much so I thought we may be on the wrong crag. There were some lighter moments the tarns were delightful, would I go back? I'll consider that while I write the next paragraph.
We set out from Far Sawrey a fingerpost invited us to climb Claife Heights, ascending between dry stone walls before the lane opened out onto green pastures. A small tarn was passed before turning left to follow a green lane, this allowed access to vast plantations of Corsican Pine. Navigating along forest tracks, we blindly picked our way to the trig point marking the summit of High Blind How. We descended by a narrow slippery path to access more forest roads, a short diversion to Three Dubs Tarn followed before escaping the pine plantation. Further down the hill we were welcomed by Moss Eccles Tarn. On leaving the Tarn we casualy wandered down the lane before turning left to follow a way marked path to Far Sawrey. Strolling along the banks of Wilfin Gill we soon stepped onto the tarmac of Cuckoo Brow Lane, all that remained a short walk down hill to Far Sawrey.
Would I go back? well this is still the Lake District, there are an awful lot of paths up there, one in particularly jumped from the pages of the map sheet when it was unfolded back home. To be fair I can only compare Claife Heights to a well recommended restaurant, the food's not quite up to scratch when the relief chef's on duty. Maybe we caught Claife Heights when the relief chef was on duty, would I go back? most definitely.
The prospect to the west, across the skyline the Coniston massif with Carron Crag to the left.
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The same scene from further up the field.
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And again a slightly wider angle.
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Sue hunts for frog-spawn, if any Toads or Frogs appear she'll soon be back on the main path.
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Views to the east, over the trees School Knott and Grandsire.
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The highest point on Claife Heights the summit High Blind How.
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Free of the trees for a moment, views to the north.
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Across an unnamed tarn Three Dubs Crag.
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Well at least the colours are nice, we're about to tramp back into the woodland.
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This was my favourite place on the whole walk, Three Dubs Tarn with its boathouse built in 1908.
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Across Three Dubs Tarn Claife Heights.
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Free of the trees at last, with a decent view thrown in, Wetherlam leading to Coniston Old Man.
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Moss Eccles Tarn with views to the lower wooded slopes of Colthouse Heights.
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Moss Eccles Tarn known to be the inspiration behind the famous children's book, "Tales of Jeremy Fisher", the author Beatrix Potter fished these waters regularly, she purchased it in 1913, bequeathing it to the National Trust after her death in 1943.
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Over the trees Wetherlam.