Great Borne
1 NY109153 From the Bowness car park walk back along the road over a cattle grid, then take a footpath right by the Rake Beck to enter access land.
2 NY109159 Follow a narrower path right beside the stream, crossing the beck after about 100m. You’re now heading west to the far slope leading up Herdus. A path leads up by the drystone wall to a corner then joins a wider grassy track through bracken. Just before you reach the rounded ridgeline take a narrower crossing path rightwards and uphill, then fork right and more steeply uphill at a small cairn as you round the northern flank and begin to rise into the heather line. (Don’t forget to look behind: on a clear day you may glimpse the Isle of Man – just beyond a far hill on the west coast following a line across Ennerdale.)
3 NY115165 As the gradient eases the path veers to the south-western edge of the summit plateau of Herdus, with great views over Ennerdale, Bowness Knott and Whoap/ Lank Rigg and out to the coast. Gain a cairn at a slight rise then veer slightly in from the edge to cross a shallow heathery col. An increasingly rockier slope leads to the summit of Great Borne, where the paths fade somewhat over the final ‘gritstone pavement’ to the summit shelter and trig point.
4 NY123163 Head south- east, soon picking up a wide grassy path beside a wire fence. This descends to a corner. Follow the fence line briefly left then the path short- cuts across the headwaters of the Clews Gill before rejoining a fence line again.
5 NY137160 The fence line ends at a corner, and the path on the ground now roughly follows the watershed line directly up the spur of the north-west ridge of Starling Dodd, arriving at a ‘modern art installation’ of old fence posts next to a small cairn at the summit!
6 NY142157 From the summit head west down a steep grassy slope to pick up the head of Starling Gill. This is the nearer of two ghylls, and starts lower down the hillside than Clews Gill. Cross the ghyll after about 550m and follow faint sheep trods and grassy ramps down to the Ennerdale rain gauge. Continue descending to a fire break in forestry between paler larch trees and darker pine trees (bracken in this lower section may make passage more difficult in late summer). Enter the forestry through a gate and descend the fire break to a narrowing.
7 NY133150 The path now bends rightwards and descends more gently across the slope, passes an old settlement (stone ruins), then emerges onto a gravel vehicle track near the Smithy Beck. Turn left onto this and stay with it as it bends almost immediately right at a junction with a grassier vehicle track.
8 NY122149 Fork right off the clear vehicle track onto a narrower descending path. After about 100m, just at the end of a short stand of conifers on your right, look out for an easily missed narrow path leading to a bridge over the Smithy Beck. Cross the bridge, enjoy an unexpected waterfall, then turn right at a track junction almost immediately after. Ascend gently, over another stream bridge, then descend diagonally to the lake-shore track. Turn right along this – it’s about 700m to return to the car park.