High Seat

High Seat is a mountain in the part of the Yorkshire Dales that is in Cumbria. It’s not the only mountain with that name; there’s one in the Lake District, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there were others. It seems like the kind of name a lot of places would end up with.

This one is the highest point on an area called Mallerstang Common, which stands over the Mallerstang Valley, which I walked up from.

I drove quite a way to get there. The last settlement I passed through was a village called Aisgill, and I continued most of the way to the next village, Outhgill. But before getting there, I reached a dirt parking area on my right with space for a few cars. I started from here.

Randygill Top

Randygill Top is a mountain in the Howgills range, next to Yarlside, which I climbed recently. I’d intended to do both in one go, but that didn’t happen, so I went over there again and climbed Randygill Top from the other side. And I did end up taking in a second summit on the way down, which was a bonus.

I can’t find any information about how Randygill Top got its name. The ‘Top’ part is normal, but ‘Randygill’ is harder to guess at. But I guess some things just get lost – at least to amateurs like me.

Yarlside

I’ve been in the Howgills again, this time climbing Yarlside. I was actually going to do a second summit, Randygill Top, but that ended up not happening.

The potential name origin I’ve found for Yarlside is that it comes from words for ‘Earl’ and ‘hill pasture’. It’s not an entirely unique name – for one thing there are a ‘Great’ and a ‘Little’ Yarlside elsewhere in Cumbria. But this mountain is what comes up when you Google the word.

To get to the fell, I drove to and through Sedbergh, leaving by the A683 on the far side of the town to me. I know that’s not the most helpful description, but I’m not sure what else to say, because I didn’t pass through any more towns or villages. But I kept going until I reached the Cross Keys Temperence Inn, very shortly after which there’s a small parking area.

Simon Fell

I did this walk three weeks ago, but I had a bit of a backlog of posts – hence why I did two last week. I like having a little bit of backlog, because it’s nice to know for definite what the next two or three posts are going to be. But it was getting to be a bit much.

Anyway. Simon Fell is classed as a subsidiary summit of Ingleborough; there’s a ridge with three summits – the other one being Park Fell. I think most people who do the non-Ingleborough ones do all three in one go, but I’m not the type to go for more than summit at a time (although if I had to do three, it would probably be these ones, since it’s not down and up again).

Birks Fell

Birks Fell is one of three summits on a long ridge separating Wharfedale and Littondale. For a long time it was disputed which summit was the highest point, but in 2012 it was discovered that Birks Fell was bigger than it had previously been recorded as, which not only confirmed at as the highest point on the ridge, but just edged it over the minimum height for a mountain.

‘Birks’ comes from the Old Norse word for birch, because there were once a lot of birch trees on the lower slopes.

Along with Buckden Pike and Great Whernside, Birks Fell is part of the Wharfedale Three Peaks Challenge. So I’ve now climbed all of them, but will almost certainly never attempt the whole thing. I think that would ruin them all for me.