Mountain Base Camps | Black Sail, Ennerdale

10th October 2025 | Words and pictures by Connor McElroy

Picture the perfect basecamp for a weekend in the hills. How about a remote yet cosy stone-built bothy, in the heart of a national park, at the head of a wild and wooded valley, and within easy striking distance of some of the UK’s finest fells? That basically describes Black Sail, one of the YHA’s best-loved and most-cherished hostels, which has been providing warmth and shelter to generations of fellwalkers for the best part of a century. This former shepherd’s hut is fairly basic by modern standards, but its unpretentious charm is all part of Black Sail’s allure, as is its enviable location.

The hut lies deep in Ennerdale, the wildest and most rugged of Cumbria’s valleys. In this remote and relatively unspoilt valley, birch and oak woodland creeps up the sides of the valley from the shores of Ennerdale Water, before giving way to upland grassland and heath, topped by imposing crags. The surrounding fells include the mighty Pillar, noble Great Gable and Wainwright’s personal favourite, Haystacks. With so many summits in easy reach, there is arguably nowhere better for prospective peak-baggers to stay for a night.

Perhaps that’s why this unassuming hostel has proved so enduringly popular ever since it first opened to the public way back in 1933. To cope with demand, various extensions and improvements have been made over the decades, culminating in an extensive refit in 2013. Today, there’s a welcoming common room with a wood-burning stove that doubles as a dining room and triples as a drying room, plus a simple guest’s kitchen and small single sex dorm rooms, with just 16 bunks in total. Space is often at a premium, so you’ll need to be prepared to be convivial. Still, modern guests at YHA Black Sail can enjoy a hot shower, a hearty meal and even a bottle or two of beer, though there is still no Wi-Fi – which, as far as we’re concerned, is a positive boon. After all, who needs Instagram when you can step outside and enjoy a spectacular, star-studded night sky?

Great walks in Ennerdale

Ennerdale's position at the western edge of the Lake District makes it a superb launch pad for tackling some of Lakeland's most celebrated peaks. The valley sits at the heart of a natural amphitheatre of fells, with summits rising dramatically on all sides. To the north, the Buttermere Fells form a spectacular ridge that includes High Stile, High Crag and Red Pike. The eastern skyline is dominated by the distinctive profiles of Kirk Fell and the neighbouring massifs that guard the head of the valley. Meanwhile, to the south, a succession of rugged peaks march westward from the valley head towards the Cumbrian coast. What makes Ennerdale particularly appealing for hillwalkers is the variety of approaches available. You can tackle individual summits as satisfying standalone outings, string together multiple peaks in ambitious ridge walks, or simply use the valley's network of paths and passes to explore this wonderfully wild corner of Cumbria at your own pace.

Borrowdale to Black Sail via Taylorgill Force and Great Gable

One of the joys of booking a night at Black Sail is planning which route you’ll take to get there. This option is one of the more adventurous alternatives among the many passes and paths that lead into Ennerdale. It offers walkers the chance to negotiate the famous Gable traverse, with views of slender Napes Needle, before climbing to the summit of Great Gable itself. Setting out from Seathwaite, climb alongside Taylorgill Force, tracing the course of the beck to Sty Head Tarn to reach the stretcher box at Sty Head. From here, take the path below the crags of Kern Knotts and Great Napes. A short detour will bring you to a fine viewpoint of the Needle, scene of the first recorded rock climb in the Lake District. Looking southwest there are spectacular views towards Wasdale Head. At the path junction, head uphill onto Westmorland Crags to reach Westmorland Cairn. Continue to the summit of Great Gable before descending to Windy Gap, the aptly named col between Great Gable and Green Gable. From here a handy path makes a beeline alongside Tongue Beck to the safety of Black Sail, where – hopefully – a hot supper, a cold beer and a cosy bunk await...

Black Sail to Bowness Knot via Pillar, Little Scoat Fell and Steeple

Though its name conjures up a towering column of rock, Pillar is actually a broad, rugged mass of crags and buttresses, with a siren succession of enticing and occasionally frustrating false summits that tease you into thinking you’ve reached its 892m height prematurely. When you eventually do gain the flat plateau that marks the summit, however, the views down Pillar’s fissured flanks to the thickly wooded valley floor below are truly impressive. This hulking fell is an obvious target for any walker departing Black Sail Hut. However, if you’re walking out from Ennerdale and back to the car park at Bowness Knot, it’s well worth continuing southwest from Pillar to Little Scoat Fell and Steeple, for what is arguably an even better panorama of the valley’s wild and rugged forest floor. Here, you’re right on the western fringes of the national park too, and if you turn west, you can gaze out over Cleator Moor towards the Cumbrian coast. You might be able to pick out Whitehaven and, further south, St Bee’s, the starting point of Wainwright’s famous Coast to Coast walk. From Steeple, descend via Long Crag to plunge back into wild Ennerdale. Stick to the southern banks of the River Liza before crossing Woundell Beck and the head of Ennerdale Water to return to Bowness Knot.

The Ennerdale Horseshoe

A classic fellrunning round that is often completed in a matter of hours, the Ennerdale Horseshoe is a popular circuit that hillwalkers can break into two epic days, interspersed with a welcome night at Black Sail. Most walkers start from the western end of Ennerdale Water and follow the lake shore clockwise, before climbing the fellside to Herdus and the summit of Great Borne. From here, the long ridge of the Buttermere Fells goes over Starling Dodd to Red Pike, then on to High Stile and High Crag before descending to Scarth Gap. The pass here leads straight down to Black Sail, but the full horseshoe route scrambles up the western face of Haystacks and then climbs again to Brandreth. The path across Gillercomb Head leads to the summit of Green Gable, then on to Great Gable. Only then does it make its way down into Ennerdale and Black Sail.

Day two ideally begins with a cooked breakfast and a cheery farewell from the warden at Black Sail, which ought to sustain you on the climb to Beck Head and then up past Rib End, on Kirk Fell's steep eastern face. After bagging the twin summits, descend to Black Sail Pass and climb out of the other side of the col, over the top of Looking Stead to the trig and shelter atop mighty Pillar. From here, turn west to Scoat Fell and Haycock. This slow, loping return is an undulating walk that connects the minor summits of Caw Fell, Lank Rigg, Whoap and finally Crag Fell before descending steeply to your start point.

Black Sail to Buttermere via Haystacks, Seat, High Stile and Red Pike

Another superb walk-out from Black Sail, this route climbs the head of the Ennerdale valley alongside Loft Beck before making for Blackbeck Tarn. It then visits Innominate Tarn, where Wainwright’s ashes were famously scattered, and explores the delightful rocky outcrops of the summit of Haystacks. Though this is far from the loftiest perch in the vicinity, it offers terrific views of the surrounding fells. As Wainwright himself put it in Book Seven of his Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells: ‘Haystacks stands unabashed and unashamed in the midst of a circle of such loftier fells, like a shaggy terrier in the company of foxhounds … but not one of this distinguished group of mountains around Ennerdale and Buttermere can show a greater variety and a more fascinating arrangement of interesting features’. As usual, AW was bang on the money. From Haystacks, descend to Scarth Gap before climbing again to Seat, High Crag, High Stile and Red Pike – a succession of glorious fells with wonderful views of Ennerdale to the south and the shores of Buttermere to the north, as well as the fells of Robinson and Hindscarth. From Red Pike, drop down via The Saddle and Dodd to Bleaberry Tarn, before following the path alongside Sourmilk Gill down into the village of Buttermere.

Getting there

To reach Black Sail, you’ve got two options – on foot or by mountain bike. The hut can be approached from almost any point of the compass, though most walkers set out from Buttermere and walk in over Scarth Gap Pass or come from Honister Hause and pick their way through the old mine workings. Others come over the fells from Seathwaite or cross Black Sail Pass from Wasdale Head. Bikers tend to cycle in on the six-mile track that runs along the valley floor from Bowness Knott.

How to book

Black Sail is a hostel owned by the Youth Hostelling Association (YHA), though you don’t need to be a member to stay there. It is usually open every day for bookings from mid-March until the end of October. It is open in winter but only for exclusive hire for group bookings. Bedding is supplied, but you must bring your own towels and toiletries. There are no credit card facilities on site so bring cash. Breakfast, packed lunches and supper can be ordered, and there is a bar. There are no electric sockets and only limited mobile phone coverage. Bedrooms, shower and toilets are all accessed from outside, so bring a head torch. Check latest availability

Insider Info

• Black Sail boasts a slate plaque dedicated to athlete, mountaineer and founder of the Brasher boot company, Chris Brasher CBE (1928 to 2003). It reveals that Chris spent a night with friends at Black Sail on 29 June 2002, recalled as: ‘a disgraceful episode at which we devoured 14 different curries and consumed nine bottles of good Australian wine!’
• The hostel is a popular stop for Coast to Coasters walking the 182-mile route devised by Wainwright – who himself described Black Sail as ‘the loneliest and most romantic of youth hostels’.
• Ennerdale is the only major valley in the Lake District that lacks a public road, which partly accounts for its relatively unspoilt nature. Since 2003, it has been jointly managed by the Wild Ennerdale partnership, whose mission is to allow ‘the evolution of Ennerdale as a wild valley for the benefit of people, relying more on natural processes to shape its landscape and ecology’.
• Ennerdale Water is the most westerly lake in the Lake District National Park. Its waters are home to salmon, trout and Arctic Charr.
• The valley is an important habitat for over 100 species of birds as well as deer, otters, rare butterflies and red squirrels.
• William Wordsworth, the pre-eminent poet of the Lake District, called the view from Ennerdale Head ‘a vista which cannot fail to strike the most indifferent observer with astonishment and pleasure’.