Starling Dodd

Starling Dodd was the last fell Wainwright climbed for his Pictorial Guides. Walk Lakes approaches it from the Bowness Knott car park, at the end of the public road along Ennerdale Water (NY 109 153). The roads in are narrow and twisting and the car park is small, so arrive early in the holidays. Walk back along the road to Rake Beck, follow the beck up through bracken, and climb steeply to Herdus and on to Great Borne, which has a trig pillar and a wind shelter. From there a grassy ridge runs east over Little Dodd to Starling Dodd.

The return drops south from Little Dodd down a heathery gully through a gap in the conifer plantations to the Ennerdale forest track. The loop is 12.4 km with about 730 m of ascent. There are a few rocky steps and some loose scree on the way up, and the descent gully is awkward in bad weather.

Other routes come from Loweswater through marshy Mosedale and up Red Gill, or from Buttermere or Ennerdale over the boggy Floutern Pass. Walking along the ridge from Red Pike or Great Borne is probably more common.

Fence-post cairns

The top is a rounded grassy dome. Its old cairn is reinforced with rusting iron posts from the Ennerdale Fence, and a newer cairn nearby is made entirely of metal. Little Dodd has a fence-post cairn too. Ennerdale Water fills the view south, with Pillar and its neighbours beyond, and you can see parts of Crummock Water and Loweswater, with the North Western Fells across Crummock.

There was iron mining on the steep northern slopes until 1877, and one level can still be seen near Scale Force.