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).

Latrigg

Latrigg is one of the smallest fells in the Lake District, but it is Keswick’s hill, making it the one to climb while staying in Keswick. I’d like to give some information on the name, but, I think possibly for the first time ever, I’m not finding anything. So I’ll move on.

There’s a car park somewhere, but I climbed it from Keswick. It wasn’t very far away, and it’s having to walk a long distance to get to a hill that I find difficult, more so than actually climbing one. Heading out to the outskirts of town is Penrith Road, which passes under an old railway bridge. Where the railway once lay is now a bridleway, so you get up onto this bridge, cross the road and the river, and walk on until you’ve passed the old railway station and have reached the car park of a leisure centre.

Cat Bells

Despite being about the longest walk I have done in some time, this post isn’t that long because it is a very straightforward walk. Cat Bells is the kind of hill where once you’re on it, it’s a steady and clear path to the top – at least from the angle I did it. Also, there seem to be a number of places in this area which have more than one possible spelling, or can be written as one or two words, so I’ve just had to pick one for each place.

So, Cat Bells is a fell less than three miles from Keswick, and on the shore of Derwentwater. It’s not that big – I don’t believe it qualifies as a mountain – but again, it’s the longest walk I’ve done in a while. The best guess regarding the name’s origin is that it comes from ‘Cat Bields’, meaning ‘shelter of the wild cat’, but no-one’s really sure.