Hardknott To Love This Place
There are many wonderful locations for photography in the Lake District. For such a relatively small area, it is jam packed with stunning places to visit. Some are highly accessible and others require a little more effort to get too. In the Western corner of the Lake District lies the Duddon and Eskdale Valleys. Two of the more secluded valleys in the county. In between both is the remote and rugged Upper Eskdale, a colossal wall of towering peaks at the end of each valley. The only way to access this remote landscape is via narrow country lanes, where you don't want to meet other motorists, and high mountain passes, which will further test your motoring skills. The drive over alone is an epic adventure and you've not even set foot on the fells as yet. I've visited many times over the years and its firmly become of one of my favourite places in the world. A place that always seems to blow my socks off everytime and one I'm lucky enough it is on my doorstep. On Friday, with the weather looking to have some potential, I decided to pop up Hardknott Fell and Border End for a quick explore, some mind blowing views and hopefully some epic light and exceptional photography.
The Scafell Massiff - From left to right - Slight Side, Scafell, Scafell Pike, Broad Crag, Ill Crag, Great End and Esk Pike.
Its around an hours drive from my home to Eskdale, but one that certainly feels longer. My preferred route is into the Duddon Valley, then over the wonderful Birker Fell and down into to Eskdale. However the Birker Fell road was closed, so I continued through the Duddon Valley. Quite a pleasant drive to the small hamlet of Seathwaite, however from hear on the going gets a little more difficult. The roads narrow substantially to essentially a single walled track road and the surface has clearly seen too many winters with pot holes galore. These roads where never designed for todays influx of motorists and big bulky vehicles. It sure isn't a smooth ride. After around half an hour of avoiding pot holes and tootling along, I arrived at the Bottom of Hard Knott Pass, a little shaken but all good. I decided to park up and not risk the pass..nerves were already shot and not always guaranteed a parking place, anyway from the Duddon side its only a 10-15 minute walk up. So I zig zagged my way to the top of the pass, then a sharp right and onto the path which leads up to Border End and Hard Knott. For such a short walk it really does pack some punch, I think its the drive over which really tests you, the walking is a doddle.
Dappled Light over Border End - The impressive view point from Border End looking towards Upper Eskdale.
After 25 minutes of squelchy walking I hit the summit area of Border End and the view opens up in all its wide eyed splendour. The Scafell Massif impressively sits at the head of Upper Eskdale and is a fine old view. The highest peaks in England and from this angle, in my opinion, the best and most dramatic view point. The topology of the area, for me, is really pleasing for photography. Plenty of rocky outcrops interspersed with the grassy upland. The rock has a natural blueish tint and it works really well with the warm tones in the grasses. I was hoping for a good hour or so of scouting, however on arrival the light was starting to break the cloud and was casting gorgeous dappled light over the Scafell's. So I quickly set up and took a close up of the Scafell's catching the light. We were now starting to get light on foreground and it was wonderfully warm, rich and made the landscape sing. Again I hurriedly found a composition which incorporated some foreground to catch this lovely light. After this I moved on again, more towards the Eskdale Needle side of the fell. As I was dropping off the top of Border End the light was further filtering through the clouds and highlighting certain areas. So I set up with the hope I'd get some light break over the needle....which luckily I did...it was perfect timing.
Eskdale Needle Accentuated - Gorgeous dappled light beautifully highlighting the Needle.
If that was it for photography I would have been pretty pleased, however, luckily there was more in store for me. It's no surprise I made a b line for the Needle and a wee scene I've photographed many times before for golden hour. However these plans looked to be scuppered as low cloud rolled in and obscured the Scafell's. Now I have to say this is a bit of a killer for me and the scene really doesn't work without the fells as your backdrop. As you can imagine I was a little frustrated that the light was there, the composition was there but the view wasn't...the definition of frustrating. As I always say, its worth hanging around as the conditions can change in an instance. We were now into golden hour and slowly but surely the low cloud that had persisted for well over an hour now started to clear. It was just a matter of waiting for the cloud to fully clear and combine it with the gorgeous golden light that was slowly inching across the foreground. I wanted light on my foreground rocks, the needle and the Scafells to be mostly in shadow as that would help to separate the Needle from the background, as Its a key feature in the composition. Some times it can get lost in the wider scene if the light doesn't fall right. I'm happy to say that all the elements aligned perfectly and created an image I'm really pleased with. It was also a composition i hadn't shot before, so that was also very pleasing.
The Scafells and Eskdale Needle Gold - The elements all falling into place at Golden hour.
The sun slowly started to dip and the low cloud, again, started to roll over the high summits and at this point I decided my photography was done. Well that and the leg falling off my tripod and making handheld shooting in the low light difficult...must get that fixed. I did, however, find a composition for the future that I may return to. It was a pity the test shot was a little blurry as it might have made for a nice image, but I'll go back. With that and pleased with my afternoon's work, I made the half an hour trip back to the car while the light remained ambient. Luckily for me it was a pretty uneventful drive home, with only a few reversing manoeuvres required and gladly not in the really narrow stretches...wouldn't fancy that in the dark. A wonderful afternoon spent and I only saw two people all day and that was from a far. I definitely got my epic views, scouting and photography in equally good measures. Happy Days.
Tim