Rambling Pete on Walking Places

The Fairfield Horseshoe

Date: 16-Jan-2012

Map: Landranger 90

Weather: Sunny above a weak inversion, with a bit of mist on top

From the road next to Rydal Mount church up to Nab Scar, Heron Pike, Great Rigg and Fairfield. Return down the other half of the horseshoe to Hart Crag, Dove Crag, High Pike, Low Pike, and down to Ambleside : about 8.7 miles as measured on memory map.

Many moons ago I walked the Fairfield horseshoe from Rydal Mount. In the old days I was fast and wore denims! Nowadays I’m pretty sedate and wear proper gear. January has been a good month for walks and I’ve managed a few up in the lakes, one in Wales and one in Derbyshire. Needless to say I am way behind in all things blogging, but I’ll try to get up to date in the next couple of weeks. The horseshoe must be one of the most iconic walks in the Lake District and one that is very busy at weekends, a real tourist trail. Luckily it was a Monday and I didn’t see too many out and about, and they would have passed me by anyway – yet another plodding walk from me. The usual start point is at Rydal, a stones throw from both Grasmere and Ambleside – well a taxi ride away. There is good parking adjacent to the church at Rydal Mount, and all they ask is £1 in the honesty box at the gate.

The crux of a successful circuit is of course navigating correctly across the wide summit of Fairfield, which is easier said than done on a misty day – quite often then. Which is why I had this conversation today on the hause between Fairfield and Hart Crag … the elderly gent at the top who was walking down the wrong way.

He said to me – ‘do you know where you are?’

Me – ‘yes I do. Are you OK?’

Him – ‘I want to get to Great Rigg’

I looked at the map he was holding and turned it around 180deg. ‘That might help’ I say and pointed out Great Rigg on the other side of the valley…luckily for him he hadn’t come too far down from Fairfield.

He looked relieved as he could have ended up miles away from his intended destination. I bet the taxi drivers around here can tell a tale or two. There are 7 or 8 different routes up to and from Fairfield – you could approach from Rydal or Stone Arthur (Grasmere) or Grizedale Tarn (paths from Grasmere side or Patterdale) or St Sunday Crag or Hartsop above How (via Hart Crag) or Dovedale…so plenty of scope to go slightly awry.

But on days like today it would have been hard work to get misplaced even if it was a little misty up on top. I chose to walk clockwise, steeply up Nab Scar and onwards to Heron Pike. Behind me it was increasingly hazy, but as I got higher up the fells a weak inversion could be seen, with bright blue sky up above. A full inversion never developed but several banks of cloud drifted in allowing some pictures of peaks peeking through – and that’s always a great pleasure to see.

On from Heron Pike it was a long steady climb up to Great Rigg, and then on to the top. While I was struggling up the long ascent, a low rumbling behind me proved to be a Hercules low in the valley passing the ‘Lion and The Lamb’ at Helm Crag – no chance of a picture though.

The big positive about the horseshoe are the extensive views all the way around, and there’s a lorra, lorra fells you can see – too many to list here. Once you’ve attained the top it’s simply a case of picking the correct way around to the return leg on the other side of the valley. That is relatively easy in good visibility, and I soon walked over two more wainwrights in Hart Crag and Dove Crag, with great views again , this side looking at the Helvellyn range and some of the Eastern Fells of High Street et al. The route down is steady with a few steep pitches after High Pike, with an unavoidable drop down a scrambly piece of crag. It’s tough on the old knees with all the changes, and there a number of boggy patches down this side – but not today as the ground was frozen. Eventually I dropped down through a small coppice, crossed the Scandale Beck at Low Sweden Bridge, and ambled down into Ambleside for a well earned cuppa and a piece of cake.

Piece of cake? Easy enough to navigate and some fantastic views all round – not sure it’s in my top ten Lake District walks yet, but yet another grand day out.