Great Borne

Ask in west Cumbria and you will often hear this fell called Herdus. Great Borne strictly names only the summit area, and some guidebooks list Herdus, a lower top half a kilometre west, as a separate fell. The name may mean great boundary, as the fell marked the edge of the Loweswater forest in the 13th century, or it may come from an old word for a stream.

Walkers start at the car park below Bowness Knott, at the end of the road into Ennerdale. The car park fills at holiday times. Walk back along the road about 300 metres, cross the stile before the bridge over Rake Beck and follow the beck up. The path skirts the Herdus crags on their east side, climbing steeply by a ravine, and then crosses small crags and rocky steps to the top. You can also climb the grassy east ridge of Herdus and cross to the summit. Carrying on east along the fence to Starling Dodd and dropping through a gap in the Ennerdale forest back to the valley track makes a round of about 12 km. That descent is steep and largely pathless.

The upper slopes are grass with rocky outcrops and boggy hollows.

The summit has two tops divided by a shallow dip. The southern one is slightly higher, with a trig point and a big wind shelter. The northern one has a large cairn that can be seen for miles and may be the boundary marker behind the name. The views take in the Loweswater Fells, the Grasmoor fells, Pillar and the Gables.

The southern slopes drop to Ennerdale Water in crags and scree of pink granophyre, which gives them a reddish tint. Traces of a medieval field system survive below them.