Carrock Fell

On the road north from Mosedale towards Hesket Newmarket, a small parking area in an old quarry above Stone Ends Farm sits right under the steep eastern face. There is more space on the grass verge of the common nearby. From the quarry a path called Rake Trod crosses a scree chute and climbs beside Further Gill Sike on steep zigzags. It then goes up a deep heathery gully and past a sheepfold to the East Peak and on to the summit. It is steep and loose in places and you will use your hands, but there is no exposed scrambling. The eastern slopes below are strewn with boulders and crag, known as the Apronful of Stones.

A gentler approach starts from the road up the Caldew valley towards the old mine, where there is parking at about NY 328 326, and climbs the southwestern slopes.

Carrock's rock is unusual. Most of the Northern Fells are soft Skiddaw Slate, but Carrock is largely gabbro, the rough igneous rock of the Black Cuillin on Skye. The top is bouldery, with a windshelter. From it you look east across the Eden valley to the Pennines.

The hill fort

An oval wall ran round the summit in the Iron Age. Only its footings are left now, but you can trace the line. It is thought the fort was later wrecked by the Romans.

Carrock Mine, on the southern side, was the only tungsten mine in Britain outside Devon and Cornwall. It worked on and off from 1854, busiest in wartime, and closed in 1981. In 1857 Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins climbed the fell, and Collins sprained his ankle during the climb.