High Pike [Caldbeck]

No Lakeland fell further north reaches 2,000 feet. High Pike stands above Caldbeck, and its broad northern slopes run down towards the farmland between the village and Carlisle. Direct routes start from Caldbeck. Chris Bonington, who lives in the village, has said that up here he feels at home.

From the south, a common start is the parking area in an old quarry above Stone Ends Farm, on the road north from Mosedale. Walk Lakes climbs Carrock Fell first, then follows a wide, boggy path over Miton Hill and crosses a gravel track to High Pike. The way back drops past old mine workings and down a mine track above Carrock Beck, about 10 km in all. Another option leaves Mosedale, goes straight up High Pike and returns down the Cumbria Way beside Grainsgill Beck, passing Lingy Hut and the remains of Carrock Mine.

It is easy walking on grass and moorland tracks. There is no rock work on High Pike itself.

There is a lot of stonework on top. A big cairn is the ruin of a shepherd's cottage, and its stones were used to build a large windshelter. There is a trig point with a Millennium plaque, and a slate bench carries a memorial to Mick Lewis, who died in 1944 aged 16. Northwards you look over the Solway Firth to the Scottish Border hills. Skiddaw and Blencathra block most of the view south. Caldbeck people still light beacon fires on the top to mark big occasions.

Caldbeck's mines

Miners have worked these fells since the 1500s. Roughtongill is said to have produced twenty-three different ores, and Sandbeds and Driggeth mines took copper and lead. Several reopened for barytes in the Second World War, and the last closed in 1966.