Familiar to travellers passing the Brotherswater Inn on the Kirkstone Pass road, Dove Crag forms the rugged backdrop to Dovedale. In spite of a romantic name, the eponymous crag is one of the fiercest, and therefore to climbers most compelling, crags in Lakeland. Its eastern face, guarding a tangle of knobbly ridge and cradling rough coves of stirring beauty, looks a little like a hooded monk and has a certain mystique.
Perched high on its northern face, and from every angle apparently unassailable until the approach path out of Houndshope Cove is directly underfoot, is the Priest’s Hole cave (off Route 1). Considered to be natural rather than man-made, it offers a thrilling balcony, peering directly into Hunsett Cove. This place is thought to have been the crater of a long silent volcano, and is littered with huge boulders spilt from the crag and henged by knobbly ridges culminating in the upper cleft of Hogget Gill.
Those who visit the unremarkable summit of Dove Crag will likely either do so almost unwittingly on their way round the Fairfield Horseshoe, unaware of the craggy drama at their feet, or as the culmination of an expedition from Brothers Water (1–4) or Ambleside (5–8), savouring the complex topology of Dovedale or the wild drama of Scandale respectively en route.
Dove Crag from the approach up Dovedale
Ascent from Cowbridge 22 off map N or Caudale Bridge 21
Via Houndshope Cove →5.5km/3½ miles ↑640m/2100ft
By far the most popular approach, with a couple of variant options, and deservedly so.
1 From the Cowbridge car park a delightful track overhung by trees leads by Brothers Water, via gates, to pass Hartsop Hall. (If you park at Caudale Bridge, walk up the road to the Brotherswater Inn to take the bridle-track through Sykeside Camping Site and across the valley to the same spot.) From the hall a track leads by the outbarn and stock pen. As you pass the larch spinney bear off the track part-right onto the green-way. This leads via gates under the spoil banks of the old lead mine abandoned in 1942 after at least 400 years. Continuing on with a wall to the left, the path rises gently through woodland to emerge at a hand-gate above Dove Falls and almost directly beneath Dovedale Slabs, seen high above.
The popular path leads steadily up into Hunsett Cove, and the steeper parts of its ascent have now been pitched. Passing a ruin, thought to have been the retreat of a persecuted religious sect, the path climbs a loose gully, an uncomfortable passage, to emerge onto the peaty shoulder close below the precipitous cliff of Dove Crag.
In fair weather walkers with a head for heights may peel off here to inspect Priest’s Hole. The approach path is not too difficult to find. Bear half-left from the solitary erratic boulder, and go up the grass bank and boulder scree to find a path leading onto the cliff and continue until the cave is reached: the ledge in front offers no security above a precipitous 200m drop! Please do not tamper with the metal casket which holds a visitors’ book and bare provisions for benighted climbers. Retrace your steps.
Continue the steady ascent of Houndshope Cove to meet the broken wall turning left (southeast) to reach the summit.
2 Alternatively, start with Route 1 but remain with the main track after the outbarn to continue across a flat meadow to a plank footbridge spanning Hartsop Beck. A clear path winds up through the bracken, crossing a further small gill. The path runs parallel to the principal beck and gives views to Dove Falls as it rises to a hand-gate. Keep by the wall to view the upper falls, then, where the old metal fence meets the wall, go with the fence to pass a large erratic beside the beck. Ford the beck to join the main valley path above the north bank (view right to Dove Crag).
Via Hogget Gill →5km/3 miles ↑640m/2100ft
There are two further little-used lines out of Dovedale.
3 Start with Route 2, but approaching the Dovedale meadow ford the broad Hartsop Beck on a track which leads to a gate. Pass the old sheepwash and fold with no sign of a path, and pass up the flood spill to reach the foot of Hogget Gill. Keep to the bracken ridge on the right of the ravine, clamber up the initial outcrop and follow the sheep track up the low ridge beside the deeply incised gill. Where the second open gill enters from the south descend left on a sheep trod and ford Hogget Gill. Ascend the side-gill keeping to the left fork to gain the steeply rising fellside. The blunt ridge, although rocky in parts, offers no barrier to a steady climb to the brink of Black Brow. Follow the broken fence right (west) rising onto the main ridge, and keep right at the ridge wall to gain the summit.
Hartsop above How from the shepherds’ wall shielding the top of the Dove Crag buttress
Via Stangs →5.2km/3¼ miles ↑640m/2100ft
Arguably the best-kept secret is the Stand Crags ridge.
4 Diverge left from Route 2 at the point where the fence meets the wall corner. Follow the wall contouring, then slightly rising, across the shoulder of Stangs. At the point where the wall crosses the ridge and prepares to plummet into the Hogget Gill valley, bear right up the ridge, initially with bracken on your left, and weave up by a crag to top a broken wall and continue on to crest the Stand Crags ridge on grass. Join the fence and cross the head of the Hogget Gill ravine, marvelling in a fabulous view into Dovedale and towards the white-washed Brotherswater Inn. Follow the old fence to the Black Brow fence-junction, and turn right to complete the ascent onto Dove Crag.
Splintered outcrop on the plateau above the Dove Crag buttress
Ascent from Rydal Road 17 off map S
There are two basic lines of approach from here. The principal and most entertaining route climbs via Low Sweden Bridge onto the Low and High Pike ridge. The second and distinctly quieter journey advances up Scandale, with two options at the dale head – to go by Scandale Pass or, slightly more adventurously, High Bakestones.
Via High Pike →8km/5 miles ↑745m/2445ft
5 From the car park, cross the mini-roundabout into Smithy Brow, turning left into Nook Lane. Tarmac continues to Nook Farm. Here go through the gate and cross Low Sweden Bridge. The ensuing track switches up right above the bank then goes left, keeping the wall to the left. Beyond the next gateway the path forks, with a way bearing up left accompanying the ridge-top wall, via ladder-stiles, and negotiating the awkward Sweden Crag ‘bad step’. (This is a very minor challenge in ascent but still some walkers prefer to take an alternative scarp path
