Walks from Hardknott and Wrynose Passes

If you want an adventure then Hardknott and Wrynose Passes are worth crossing just for the experience. Although they've got some fairly ferocious gradients and some tight bends they are negotiable by any car (one of us did it in an Austin Allegro when were a lot younger!) but it's probably not a road for the tiro driver. Anyway here's three new walks for you starting from the passes which we've added recently. They vary in character a lot:

Harter Fell (Eskdale) and Wrynose pass

• Cold Pike and Pike of Blisco - this one of the finest routes too with excellent views and a great feeling of remoteness. The walk also visits Red Tarn, which gets its name from the colour of the surrounding rocks: a less common form of copper oxide weathers to red.
• Hard Knott Roman Fort - a little way up Hardknott pass from the Eskdale side just before the higher really sharp hairpin bend are the remains of a Roman Fort still with the flat parade ground a little above. What a place it must have been in its day. Overlooking Eskdale, high, and remote. A beautiful place when the sun shone, but brutal in the cold and rain.
• Harter Fell (Eskdale) - from the top of Wrynose Pass, Harter Fell stands framed by the hills of either side, a triangle of almost mountain perfection. The climb up from Eskdale is a pleasure to some great views at the top of this Wainwright.

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