Dead End Club Hillgrimage 2025

Tobes
Aug 4
3 min read

On 1 August 2025 we took to the lanes of the Eden Valley and the Eastern edges of the Lake District for our annual Hillgrimage. If you're new here, that's our (at least) annual ascent of the highest road in Britain - the dead end track to the air traffic control tower at the summit of Great Dun Fell. This year we threw in two extra dead ends at Martindale Hause and Haweswater Reservoir too (the latter for the "longer route" riders only).

This year's Hillgrimage was no different in format to most of our group rides - "we're going for a bike ride, it'd be lovely if you want to join us". Over 20 riders assembled in Pooley Bridge and set off together for the first section of the day - the out and back dead end lane to the summit of Martindale Hause beyond Howtown.

We kept everyone together for this first section of flat road down to the Hause for the stunning picturesque beauty of the switchbacks and then after regrouping at the summit we sent those riding the longer 125km route ahead with the hope that we would meet them against later in the day.

After the split, the shorter 100km route riders set off for our cafe stop of the day at the EXCELLENT Mill Yard Cafe in Morland. On the way there through gently rolling country lanes the first glimpses of the golf ball on the ridge of Cross Fell were visible in the distance - target acquired - but first coffee and cake!

After a brief stop (where we had half expected to see the rest of the group catch us up) we set off for the main event of the ride - Great Dun Fell itself. The weather was decent on the day, if not exceptional - a slightly unusual North-North-Westerly wind adding an element of uncertainty to the climb ahead for those of us that have sampled it regularly in the past.

Last year's Hillgrimage had zero visibility at the summit despite a clear line of sight to the golf ball from the valley below and for much of the climb, so no chickens were being counted on the potential for a view from the top this year - Cross Fell has it's own approach to weather conditions and we knew we'd have to climb it to find out - so we did!

At this point, the breakaway was working nicely together and still ahead of the rampaging peloton behind - but we saw them briefly on our way back down - a lead of over 45 minutes and the satisfaction of knowing that what lay ahead of them was very quickly disappearing into the distance for us ;) !

The final 30km of the ride were again rolling through the beautiful and quiet lanes of the Eden Valley to Langwathby and then the horrible sting in the tail of Strawberry Hill back into Penrith for a "Little Red Ambulance" and the last leg down into Pooley Bridge.

A top day out! Thanks to those that came along - same again next year, yeah?