Great Dun Fell, Cumbria (14. Junction of Pennine Way and road)

The ease of access was because there was a road most of the way up the mountain. This was an old mining road. When the radar station was built, the old mine road was extended to the summit and surfaced. It is actually the highest road in Britain and, as Wainwight wrote, “the only one with a mountain top as its objective”. Manley himself made around a hundred visits to the hut, generally driving over the Pennines to and from Durham. He usually parked at Garrigill and walked the 6 miles to the hut, but from his notebooks we know that he sometimes walked up from Knock following the same route we have taken today. Manley often used skis for the final stage of his journey to the summit. It was sometimes quite an effort to reach the hut so it’s not surprising that Manley stayed overnight. The hut was equipped for camping and had cooking equipment and tools for clearing snow. You might think that it would be frightening to be here alone on a winter’s night but Manley wrote: “Occasional small misadventures in the darkness, mist, wind and snow of a December night were offset by the many pleasures.” Directions to stop 15 Begin your descent of Great Dun Fell following the road. Although this is a quiet private road, do watch out for vehicles. After about 750 metres there is a road which forks up to the right. The hillside up to the right is marked as ‘Green Castle’ on the OS map. Stop at this road junction.