Middle Dodd

Published 1 September 2015

Middle Dodd sees from Red Screes

A three fell tour of Wainwrights near the Kirstone Pass Inn, starting at Red Screes, and then heading to fell two: Middle Dodd.

Whatever you say about Wainwright’s Pictorial Guides, there’s no denying that they’re comprehensive. Wainwright covered pretty much everything that was classed as a fell (at the time of writing). Even ones that there barely seems to be any point to doing. For that’s the problem with Wainwright bagging. He’s been comprehensive, so you need to be too.

It’s a ridiculous notion really. One person creates documents loads of fells, and lots of other people go off and think “I know what, I’ll visit them all just because good old AW did!”

So you do. And that means you end up visiting fells like Middle Dodd.

Such is Middle Dodd’s popularity, that it’s one of the few Wainwrights not to even have a proper public footpath over it. Regardless of whether you’re walking from the valley, or completing the ridge walk from Red Screes, it’s up to you to make your way there as best you can. Thankfully the half mile walk isn’t a navigational nightmare by any means. All you need to do is to follow a path off Red Screes in a north westerly direction until you meet a tumbledown dry stone wall. Then you follow it north east. When the wall heads off to the right, keep going straight on. Lo, you’re at the top of Middle Dodd.

Approaching the summit of Middle Dodd

That sounds a little easier than reality. For the lack of any path – and the fact that the wall is on the slopes of Red Screes – means that you end up walking at a slight angle. But still, it has hardly an arduous walk. It took me a mere 45 minutes to do the traverse, and half of that was spent having a rest on the hillside.

Contrary to my expectations though, somebody had built a rather substantial cairn on the slight lump that marks Middle Dodd’s summit. And it did have some nice views down to Patterdale. However from that cairn it was more obvious than ever that really, Middle Dodd is nothing special; merely an arm of Red Screes; one that, dare I even say it, perhaps doesn’t really even deserve it’s presence in AW’s guide.

But the fact remains, he had included it. And I’d had to go there. And now my duty was now done.

Next up: it’s Little Hart Crag. View all 44 of my Red Screes and Friends walk photos on flickr

The cairn at the summit of Middle Dodd

Comments

thomas norman

9 May 2021 at 6:28 pm

If you look at Middle dodd from the north and climb its north ridge it looks like a proper mountain should and is unrelentingly steep, a good challenge and great way up…

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