Great Rigg

Published 30 July 2013

The summit of Great Rigg

The Fairfield Horseshoe is a well known walk, and a classic one at that. It takes in a whopping eight Wainwrights. The usual walk is to start at Nab Scar, pop via Fairfield in the middle, and end on Low Pike. The third fell on the horseshoe is Great Rigg.

Before I’d set off to do the Fairfield Horseshoe I’d felt a tad concerned. By doing eight summits in one day, would it not be that by the end they would all have blurred in to one?

To that end, I’d decided that I’d treat each fell with the reverence it deserved. At each summit I decided that I’d stop, pause, reflect and admire its beauty. After all, these were no fly-by-night fells I was climbing. Heron Pike comes in at 612m above sea level, whilst my next destination was a whopping 766m. Fairfield is, of course, even higher.

Indeed it’s only as I left Heron Pike to do the mile and a half ridge walk to Great Rigg, that I began to understand the sheer enormity of the Fairfield Horseshoe. There, looming in the distance was Great Rigg and that was one serious fell. And lo, behind it, there’s Fairfield and that’s massive. So much so did Fairfield dominate the skyline that no matter how much I tried to look at Great Rigg, my eyes were inevitably drawn off to the bulk of Fairfield behind it.

Pool of water on Heron Pike

I suddenly felt rather daunted by it all, hit by a momentary lack of confidence until it suddenly dawned on me that I’d done the hard part already. The view was just deceiving.

Just getting up to Heron Pike had seen me rise six hundred metres above sea level. All I needed to do was go up a mere hundred and sixty to get to Great Rigg. It was nothing compared to the hundreds I’d already gone up that day. And to seal the deal, I sat on the fell’s slopes and munched on a reviving Chorley cake.

Spurred on by the power of sugar, pastry and raisins, I pushed on to Great Rigg’s summit. Initially being fooled by a large cairn, I headed to the slightly smaller one nearby that was clearly higher in height. I rested for a moment, before attempting to take in the view. Although even as I did, I couldn’t help but want to be on the move again.

Despite being a fine fell in itself, the star attraction was waiting for me. Fairfield was just a mile away.

Next up: the star of the show. Yes, it’s Fairfield.

Almost at Fairfield now!

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