Difficulty: Long, hard walk not for the faint hearted (should not be attempted in poor weather conditions)
Time to complete: 8-9 Hours
Start Point: Seathwaite Farm Campsite CA12 5XJ
We arrived early at Seathwaite farm campsite, around 8.15am and managed to get the last 2 parking spaces on the side of the road just before the farm, although the farmer does offer all day parking for the very reasonable cost of £5 so if you plan to arrive any time after 8am I would suggest you bring some cash.
We then set off on our walk unsure of what lay in front of us having been able to find very limited information on cockily pike ridge and this route in general which in turn led me to write this blog.
Heading straight to the farm entrance bearing slightly left, and on to the long straight path which heads in to the valley. The path will lead you to Stockley bridge (see image below) cross over, pass through the gate and then turn immediately left and begin to follow the path which initially runs alongside the wall.
This will take you through the valley in the shadows of Seathwaite fell, heading towards the imposing Great End. Once the path arrives at a cross roads take the left fork and follow for 500m, you will then arrive at a fork in the path bear right heading towards Esk Hause.
It is this point where the path levels out, enjoy this short lived respite, as soon enough you begin to head back down following the River Esk through the valley, with the flat wide open Great Moss in-front of you and the imperious summits of Great End and Ill crag to your right hand side.
The decent is not the easiest with tough terrain, while we were fortunate enough to have picked a day during a rare march heatwave and with no rainfall for over a week, I can imagine that during winter or times of heavy rain fall the ground will be wet and the River Esk could be running much higher.
Follow the river down towards a narrow gorge (seen in image 2)pass through here and continue around 400 metres.
Now this is where the fun starts!
Upon your right you will see the unmistakable Cockily Pike Ridge a 400 meter sustained grade 1 scramble (see images 3 and 4 below)
One of the best things about cockily pike ridge is undoubtedly the diversity of routes and paths I am pretty sure you could climb it multiple times and go a different way each time.
We started from the right side as you face ill crag and began to work our way up, each tackling different routes of varying difficulty. Nearly all difficult sections can be bypassed along as you are looking ahead.
After what seemed like no time at all we reached the summit of ill crag and had time to finally turn round and take in what we had just climbed (see image 5)
After a 5 minute break we then set our sights on Scafell Pike, we joined the path to Broad Crag and then begin the short decent between Broad Crag and Scafell Pike, finally meeting with the crowds who had ascended via the corridor route, for the final push to the summit.
Upon reaching what was a very busy trig point we immediately began our return route to the cars in seathwaite.
We opted for the corridor route, which begins with the steep decent you have just climbed before turning left and undertaking what is a rather unpleasant route down on loose scree and rock for several hundred metres.
Once you have got to the bottom of the steep section the path flattens out and you get to take in the better aspects of the corridor route, keeping right underneath Broad Crag follow the path, you will eventually reach a simple traverse which is barely grade 1 scrambling.
The route then bends around and Stylehead tarn comes in the view, the walk from this point is thankfully very forgiving while quite long, the gradient is nowhere near as severe as we had already experienced.
Walk past Style head Tarn and follow the path crossing the wooden bridge, eventually this will bring you back to Stockley Bridge and then turn left to Seathwaite Farm campsite.
All in all this is one of the best days out I have had in the lakes and not to be missed !