The Fellsman

FellsmanLogo_New[1]

Click here for the Fellsman website

Date:  Saturday 27 April 2024

Distance:  61 miles approx (Long)

Ascent:  11000ft/3350m

Open for entries

The Fellsman is an old favourite for many of the Runfurther regulars, and it’s a special and unique race through the Yorkshire Dales.  The event centre is Threshfield and most people take the coaches provided to the start in Ingleton on Saturday morning.  It has one of the toughest kit checks in the country and the weather at the end of April can reflect any of the seasons.  The route follows a clockwise horseshoe over Ingleborough, Whernside, Gragareth and Great Coum before dropping to Dent.  After a short climb to Blea Moor you drop again to Stonehouse and the Artengill viaduct before heading up to Great Knoutberry.  The hills continue with Dodd Fell, the dreaded Fleet Moss and Yockenthwaite Moor.  Many by now will be running in the dark and so will be grouped for safety and company over the final summits of Buckden Pike and Great Whernside.  It finishes through the lovely village of Grassington and over the River Wharfe to Threshfield.

Checkpoints are manned by Scout groups and long-standing support teams, and we remember the race route by the food – homemade flapjack at Kingsdale, sausage rolls and beans at Dent, pasta at Stonehouse,  hotdogs at Redshaw, hearty bean stew and rice pud before the trek across Fleet Moss and fresh homemade vegetable soup at Cray.  All that washed down with lashings of tea, biscuits and fruit at all the roadside checkpoints.  Special diets can be catered for as well, as long as you tell them in advance.   The cooked breakfast on Sunday is pretty good too, and they provide a selection of breakfast items on the Saturday for those staying at Threshfield overnight.

It’s no longer possible to sleep in the sports hall before/after the event. Camping for vans is in the disused quarry nearby and a shuttle runs down to the school. Tents can be pitched on the school field. It is a very varied route, and navigation skills are needed – you have to make your own route decisions between checkpoints.