Oliver Gill Scrambling

Tue 10 May 2016
As it’s named after me and I’d heard good things about the scrambling in it, I thought it was high time I had a look at Oliver Gill. Most Lake District aficionados have probably never heard of it and don’t know where it is so, not only will I tell you, I’ll provide pictures 🙂

click on photos for full size/resolution – Richard’s photos as marked

Under the west side of Scafell, Oliver Gill gives a great route up onto Great How Crags from Burnmoor Tarn. From the east end of the tarn, head towards Scafell’s broad side by crossing both rivers across the boggy moss towards Great How Crags. Keep walking under the steep side of the Crags until you reach a pretty gill heading up them.

On the way past Burnmoor Tarn, we saw where the fire had been the day before. The Fire Brigade were in Boot Village eating ice cream from the village shop when we arrived back from our walk the day before.

On reaching the gill, all starts off very calmly and, for a while, I thought the scramble was only really going to consist of rocky walking along slabs in the beck. As it was dry weather, the water level was quite low and the rocks were very dry so it was pretty walking but very tame. It was a lovely hot day though so neither Richard nor I minded this. He pretty much stuck to the bank and took photos as he doesn’t feel supple enough for scrambling nowadays.

R Wood

At one point, there was a lovely, long and narrow arête on the left-hand side which we both balanced along the top of for the practice. For some reason though, neither of us seemed to have thought of taking a photo of this which is a shame…

Richard took a photo from it though…

The gill soon reaches a corner where it suddenly leaps upward in a large double waterfall either side of a high, smooth block. The right-hand section is the more practicable (the left side looked well out of my league for lone scrambling) and, in the dry, is fairly easily ascended. I only chickened out at one point and went up exceedingly steep grass to the right for a short distance…

(following photos R Wood)

I initially avoided a tight corner near the top of the fall with a small chockstone at the bottom but, after studying it from above, went back down to tackle it instead.

from directly above (click for close-up)

from the approach – Richard waiting above

After a few brave (for me) moves, I was atop the chockstone and looking at a short, slimy chimney. I puzzled over this for a while but, in the end, did my scrambling ‘party trick’ and went up backwards! People find this really strange and one of my guides was very amused to see it but it seems a great way of wedging yourself up a tight spot. I basically just put my leg high up on the opposite wall and push myself hard backwards up the opposite wall. With it being slimy, this was extra easy and I soon had my bum on the step above. From there it was a bit of easy clambering to join Richard at the top.

Just came up there 🙂

Richard’s photos of the left branch of the waterfall – too tough for me!

The top of the fall was a great spot to lounge in the sun on the large rocks in the middle of the river.

R Wood

I sent Richard to look at my ‘tight spot’ on the waterfall and we eventually strolled off along the upper gill towards its source.

R Wood

If you didn’t mind getting your feet wet or were suitably shod, you could easily scramble the whole gill but the pools were a bit deep and I didn’t want to either scramble in bare feet or get water in my boots so I had to stick to the bank from here.

final look back to Burnmoor

couldn’t get to this rock ladder on the right for a pool (both R Wood)

The side banks are pretty steep in places but I think you could proceed along either side. We chose the right-hand side which had a bit of a path along it so I think we’re in the majority there. All was very straightforward.

Steep sided gorge

At a split further up, we stuck to the left-hand branch but, if you wanted to visit the seldom-visited summit of Great How Crags, you’d be better on the right-hand branch as that heads straight for them.

Final look back…

Richard’s photo is actually better I think

I knew we could pick up the Terrace Path back to Eskdale (Wha House carpark) if we headed towards the foot of Slight Side so that’s what we did. There was a mile or so of tedious pathless moorland walking to reach it and we were surprised to find a small piece of crashed plane along here. I remembered hearing about a crash under Slight Side but couldn’t remember the details and we couldn’t see any more sections of plane.

Slight Side (R Wood)

We were soon heading down to Eskdale on the excellent Terrace Path. I’ve only ever followed this in ascent to Slight Side to do Scafell and have to say that I found it harder to keep track of in descent. It’s very pretty though and keeps a nice gradient all the way back to the road.

Back to Slight Side (R Wood)