| Fountains Fell & Darnbrook Fell - Sat 5th May 2007 | |
| Today's circular walk starts from Malham
Tarn. The route follows the Pennine Way up to Fountains Fell, then heads northeast to Darnbrook Fell after which it descends to Darnbrook House and then climbs once again to Flask. It is then a fairly short walk back to Malham Tarn via Middle House. Distance is approx 12mls. |
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| Malham Tarn - with field centre across the water | |
| We follow the path anti clockwise around the tarn, through the woods and past the field centre at the back. |  |
| Malhan Tarn - Boat House | |
| Whilst walking through the wood a young deer strolled across the path not 20yds in front of us. It seem unperturbed by our presence. |  |
| Heading north through the upland pastures before descending to Tennent Gill. |  |
| We pass through the farm at Tennent Gill
and head north west for a further kilometre until we
reach the sign post where the Pennine Way turns northeast
to skirt the southerley flanks of Fountains Fell. We carry straight on following our northwesterley bearing up to the south top of Fountains Fell - 662m |
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| Heading towards Fountains Fell | |
| After we reach the south top - 662m we carry on north following the boundary wall and marker posts until we reach the summit of Fountains Fell proper - 668m |  |
| Fountains Fell - 668m | |
| We now head northeast for approx 0.5km
until our path crosses the Pennine Way at its highest
point on Fountains Fell, I assume this cairn is marking
this point. Our route now heads straight ahead to Darnbrook Fell as can be seen in the distance. |
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| Another descent then a short climb brings
us to Darnbrook Fell - 624m Erosion of the peat has left
the footings of the trig point exposed. Penyghent can just be seen through the mist in the distance. |
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| Darnbrook Fell - 624m | |
| We descend from Darnbrook Fell via a mish
mash of walls and paths (the ordanance survey map is not
quite accurate on the top of the fell) to Darnbrook
House. Follow the path through the gate on the left, once the road is reached turn right for about 30yds before regaining the path on the left. |
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| The path heads south through the meadow
and across the footbridge over Cowside Beck. We then climb some 170m straight up the fell to Flask - 481m (or thermos as Gerry has aptly nicknamed it). |
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| Footbridge over Cowside Beck | |
| The view from Flask looking across to Darnbrook Fell with Darnbrook House in the valley bottom. |  |
| Our walk finishes back at Malham Tarn
where a few moments earlier we had narrowly escaped being
trampled by the cattle as they raced down the hill to get
to the tarn!. An excellant walk even though my asthma was playing up somewhat. My thanks go to Gerry for putting up with my wheezing and spluttering!. |
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