
Walk Information:
- Distance: 13.5km
- Duration: 6h
- Ascent: 837m
- Level: Hard
- Car park: Bowness Knott Car Park, CA23 3AU, Cleator, free
- What3words: Snuggled.laying.kinks
- Outdooractive map: here
- Dog friendly: Yes- no stile, sheeps in some fields,
Veuillez faire défiler vers le bas pour la version française.

This February the weather is really awful and we have not really be able to go hiking in the fells. So I went through my list of walks we did in the past that I did not have time to publish to write this week blog post. Last week I was telling you that at the end of the first lockdown we did Scafell pike. The weekend before that, we had decided in preparation for Scafell Pike, to go on a long walk as a training exercise after those long months without going in the fells.
So on a beautiful Saturday morning, we parked our car at Bowness Knott car park and followed the track along Ennerdale water. We had in mind to do Red Pike (755m above sea level) first before heading towards Little Dodd (590m), Starling Dodd (636m) and Great Borne (616m) going down by Steel Brown.

The path going to Red Pike is a bit steep but not too hard as it is mainly a grassy path. Once at the top, the view is absolutely stunning as it is possible to see on one side the Ennerdale valley and on the other side the Buttermere and Crummock valley. The path from Red Pike to Great Borne is very visible and easy. I think it is the best part of the walk as the views are incredible and it is mainly flat. However, the path that goes down around Steel Brown is really steep. I hated that section of the walk. Maybe we should have used the path via Herdus to go down to the car park. We had a small stop by Rake Beck to put our feet in the water before joining the road to the car park.
It was another great day in the fells, not too busy and we were even followed for a short period of time by a deer.
Have you done this walk?
View from the top of Red Pike and along the path to Great Borne
Le temps en ce mois de février est vraiment pas terrible ce qui fait que nous n’avons pas pu aller randonnée dans les montagnes récemment. J’ai donc regarder dans ma liste d’articles de randonnées que je n’ai pas encore eu le temps de publié pour écrire l’article de cette semaine. La semaine dernière, je vous parlais de la randonnée en haut de Scafell Pike que nous avions fait à la fin du premier confinement. Mais le weekend d’avant cette randonnée, nous avions décidé de faire une longue randonnée en préparation après avoir passé plusieurs mois sans faire de randonnées difficiles.
C’est donc un samedi matin sous un soleil magnifique que nous avons garé la voiture à Bowness Knott et avons suivi la route qui longe le lac d’Ennerdale. Nous avions en tête de faire Red Pike (755m d’altitude) en premier avant de partir en direction de Little Dodd (590m), Starling Dodd (636m) et Great Borne (616m) et de redescendre par Steel Brown.

Le sentier qui mène jusqu’au sommet de Red Pike est un peu pentu mais pas trop difficile car il est pratiquement recouvert d’herbes. Une fois en haut, la vue est absolument magnifique car il est possible de voir d’un côté la vallée d’Ennerdale et de l’autre la vallée de Buttermere et de Crummock. Le sentier ensuite entre Red Pike et Great Borne suit la ligne de crête et est assez visible et facile. Je pense que c’est la plus belle partie de la randonnée car les vues sont superbes et le sentier est peu pentu. Par contre, le sentier qui descend par Steel Brown est très pentu et difficile. Je n’ai pas du tout aimé cette partie de la randonnée. Je me demande si ça n’aurait pas été mieux de descendre par Herdus pour atteindre le parking. Avant la fin de la randonnée, nous nous arrêtâmes pour tremper nos pieds dans le petit cours d’eau Rake Beck qui est très agréable.
Ce fût une autre très belle journée en montagne, avec peu de monde et nous avons même été suivi pendant un petit moment par un chevreuil.
Connaissez vous cette randonnée?

Beautiful views!
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It is definitely a good one for views.
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I walked out from Buttermere across Floutern Moss and then up to Great Borne, Starling Dodd and Red Pike, before carrying on to High Stile and High Crag. You’re right about the walk and views from the summits along here, they are lovely in good weather and it looks like you had a lovely day for the weather
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That sounds like a good long walk that you did. I will check it maybe for this summer 😉. It is also great when the sun is shining.
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Love that you were followed by the deer. 🙂
I would like to do the lakeside walk. Well done on those steep summits.
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It was not affraid of us.
The walk around Ennerdale water is very nice. Let me know when you are in Cumbria and if you want we could go together ☺️.
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Thank you, maybe if we stay over that way again. 🙂
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Looks like you had a great day for it. Those views are wonderful.
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For sure we were lucky with the weather. The views is the highlight of the walk.
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What a beautiful day and yes, the views are marvellous. My husband used to do a lot of fell-walking in his youth as he lived in Manchester and then Lancaster and could get to the Lakes easily.
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We are lucky to live only 20 min drive to Ennerdale water.
We used to go hiking in the Peak District when we were living in Manchester. It is as well a beautiful national park.
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