We arrived in Màrtindale about 8.30 and Peter had brought ham and egg pies for breakfast.  It was certainly very cold as we set off and I already had 4 layers on, hat and gloves and a very full rucksack.  We took the path around the back of the church and set off walking away from Loadpot Hill strangely.  After a short while the path was no more than a sheep path, climbing diagonally higher and higher above the forest below.  The path was very narrow and at times difficult to get a foothold.  As we got close to a stream in front of us, we took a left turn and started to climb straight up now.  This was now much steeper until we reached a flatter part which took us over a stream to a ruin where we sat down for Christmas lunch.  We started with chicken drumsticks marinated in garlic, ginger and honey.  For dessert we had mince pies, Christmas cake and custard although for some reason my custard had thinned out in the flask.  All of this washed down with a bottle of wine.

We set off again for the final push to the summit, walking straight up a grassy slope.  The top was in mist but we could see the general direction.  As we reached the ridge we knew it was generally left we were heading but we could not see.  We got to a small cairn but we knew it was not the top.  As we set off further along the path it seemed to be descending which was concerning, so we turned back the other way.  We walked that way for a hundred yards or so and realised that was not right either.  Just then, the mist cleared and we could see the top in front of us but there was a bit of a drop and more importantly another climb.  We were so close though, so we carried on.  Once we were climbing it was not as bad as it looked and we reached top number 51 about 12.30.

 

We turned around and headed back down, the wind had picked up now and it was freezing.  The grassy slope was much easier coming down than going up as it was quite spongy.  We were heading straight for the ruined hut but there was someone in it this time so we went for the smaller ruin just behind where we had lunch.  Peter had brought some oatcakes, cheese and home-made pickle which went down very nicely with the last drop of wine we had.  We were now ready to make the final descent back to the car.

I had in my mind the narrow path but I had completely forgotten the initial steep descent back to the narrow path.  It was difficult finding the path but we thought we had found it and followed it in the direction of the car.  It was particularly difficult going the other way and the height was something that was playing on my mind.  There were several times when I had to resort to crawling along as there were no footholds.  I was almost at the point of giving up (although there was no option other than to go on) when we saw a cave we had passed earlier that morning.  At last we were back on the proper path.  It was still a difficult walk but better than it was.

We eventually reached the car about 3.30. A very satisfying walk and my Fitbit device told me we had done over 28000 steps, around 11 miles so a long walk too.  The last one of 2014, we will be back in 2015.