The Calf from Sedbergh

The Calf is the highest summit in the Howgill Fells at 676m, according to the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, which lists Calders and Arant Haw as the range’s other named tops. The park took in the Howgills when it extended its boundary on 1 August 2016, adding 417 square kilometres of Cumbria and Lancashire. The park authority quotes Alfred Wainwright’s description of the Howgills as “a herd of sleeping elephants”, a fair account of their steep, rounded flanks. Wikipedia’s summary of the geology explains why they look so unlike the dales to the south: lower Palaeozoic slates and gritstones, not limestone.

The standard route starts in Sedbergh itself. Visit Sedbergh, the town’s information centre, describes it from its office at 72 Main Street: Joss Lane, then Settlebeck Gill through a series of gates onto open fell, a steep ramp, boggy ground, and the main bridleway through Rowantree Grains and Calders to the trig pillar on The Calf. Walking Britain places the start at SD 659921, in a pay and display car park near the information centre. The summit is a plateau so flat that, in the park authority’s words, it hides the foreground, though it gives a twenty-mile skyline of the Lakeland peaks and the Yorkshire Three Peaks.

The longer alternative goes up the River Rawthey to Cautley Spout, which Visit Sedbergh calls England’s highest waterfall above ground. Walking Britain’s version climbs beside it and returns over Bram Rigg Top and Calders, at 16.3km and 697m of ascent. Visit Sedbergh warns of a crumbled section on the approach and says of the zigzag beside the falls that a fall into the gill could be fatal.

Visit Sedbergh gives the direct ascent as 13km and 800m, four to five hours, and says plainly that it is a mountain route and should be treated as one. Walking Britain notes that some sections have few landmarks, which matters on a flat summit in cloud. The direct route suits a fit walker who wants a full hill day on grass and bridleway with no scramble. A short outing, or a day led by waymarks, does not suit this hill, and the Cautley Spout version adds distance and a steep drop beside water. A shorter hill day on a path that is hard to lose is Pen-y-ghent, and Visit Sedbergh offers Winder, at 5.5km and 350m of ascent, from the same door.