DISCOVER Skiddaw’s hermit
In 1863, a tormented artist built himself a ‘nest’ on a Lake District fell and attempted to live a truly free life. Country Walking sets out to tell the strange, sad, extraordinary story of George Smith.
THIS IS THE story of a man and his mountain. But possibly not the one you’re thinking of. If I mention an eccentric fellow who took to living on the side of a Lake District hill in a bid to escape the rat-race, your mind may leap quickly to the name of Millican Dalton.
The self-styled ‘Professor of Adventure’ made his home in a cave on Castle Crag every summer from 1904 to 1946, and his name has become a kind of totem for the romance and idealism of living free among the mountains.
But this isn’t about him. It’s about one of his predecessors: George Smith; AKA the Skiddaw Hermit. Or more accurately, the Dodd Man. Some 40 years before Millican first came to the Lakes, George Smith built himself the humblest of humble abodes on a ledge on Dodd, an outlier of mighty Skiddaw. And there he stayed for three years, resolving to live close to nature and free from the trappings of house, job or family.
Everybody in Keswick knew him. Newspapers and photographers told his story. Reams of column inches and court reports were filled with him. George Smith was famous. And later, sadly, infamous.
Yet today, you can mention the Dodd Man and get blank looks even from seasoned Lakeland wanderers. The internet knows only the barest facts about him. He’s a ghost.
But before we bring George back to life, let’s pull back for amoment and focus on the mountain rather than the man.
I’ve come for a walk on Dodd partly to follow the story of George Smith, but also because I love this hill to bits. Dodd sits at the southwestern edge of the Skiddaw massif. From most angles it forms a perfect cone, with a dense conifer forest rising up its slopes almost to the summit, which has been shorn to reveal a grey dome, like a monk’s tonsure. Most people who visit Dodd come for two reasons: a very nice tearoom (the Old Sawmill) and wildlife, principally red squirrels and (in some years) ospreys. Others may come for the genteel trails which are carefully maintained by Forestry England. Alonger trail goes to the summit, but it’s easily the quietest. Dodd is seldom mentioned in the same breath as Cat Bells, Latrigg, Castle Crag and Walla Crag when people talk about the much-loved mini-mountains of Keswick and Borrowdale, which I think is a real shame, because it’s a lovely summit, with big views and a rich story. So here I am, setting out from the tearoom, looking for a fo
