Dodd

For decades conifers covered Dodd right to its top, and there was nothing to see. Wainwright complained about it in 1962. Forestry clearance began at the summit in 2001, and the top is now open, with the aim of letting it turn back to heather moorland.

The Old Sawmill tearoom on the A591, opposite Mirehouse, is the place to start. It has a pay car park shared with the Mirehouse estate. Waymarked posts lead from the tearoom over a bridge and up a forest road beside the ravine of Skill Beck to Long Doors, the col between Dodd and Carl Side. There a smaller track signed for the summit crosses cleared slopes with benches and viewpoints before a short climb to the top. A round trip of about 7 km, with 450 metres of climbing, comes back down a steep zigzag path through dense forest. Most of it is on forest roads and good paths, and there is no scrambling.

A stone pillar with a plaque marks the summit. You look down on Bassenthwaite Lake and along Derwentwater, and further south you can see Scafell Pike, Great Gable and Bowfell. To the north the hills of Dumfries and Galloway show on a clear day. Carry on from Long Doors and you can climb Carl Side and Skiddaw the same day.

Ospreys and a hermit

Ospreys nest near the south end of Bassenthwaite Lake, and since 2001 a viewing platform in Dodd Wood has let people watch the nest from a safe distance. The wood is also a stronghold for red squirrels. In the 1860s a Scottish hermit, George Smith, lived on a ledge on Dodd in a shelter of branches against a wall, and earned his keep painting portraits at local fairs.