Green Crag

A row of rocky knotts sticks up out of Birker Fell moor between Eskdale and the Duddon, and from Eskdale they make a jagged skyline. Green Crag is the highest of them. For a fell of only 489 metres it feels remote.

The shortest way up starts on the unenclosed Birker Fell road between Ulpha and Eskdale Green, where there are a few rough gravel pull-ins rather than proper laybys. After that it is pathless moor. Head north-east, cross Highford Beck twice, climb a steep grass ramp to Great Crag, then go east past Broad Crag to Green Crag. Walk Lakes puts the round at 6.6 km with 316 metres of ascent. From Eskdale, the better line follows the old sled gate, a graded track once used to drag peat down on sleds, which climbs near Birker Force. On the Duddon side, waymarked paths run through the plantations from the Forestry car parks.

The moor is wet all year. Tussocky grass makes for tiring walking, and there is a deep peat hollow with undercut banks to watch for, especially with dogs or children. The summit rock is only easy to reach from the north or west, and even that way needs a little mild scrambling.

A small cairn stands on the bare rock at the top. North, the Scafell massif fills the view, with Harter Fell to the north-east and the sea to the south. Devoke Water lies south-west beyond Seat How. The slopes still carry traces of the Gate Gill iron mine, worked for haematite in the 1880s, along with the old peat roads and huts.