SEATHWAITE, LAKE DISTRICT (BIG RIDE)

Distance 24.5km (15.2 miles) Climbing 890m (2,920ft) Time 3hrs to 4hrs 30mins

Route summary Escape the busier parts of the Lake District on this lovely, remote ride, which features stunning views, satisfying singletrack and technical, rocky trails Start/ inish Seathwaite, by the Newfield Inn (grid ref SD 227/960, postcode LA20 6ED) 1

Go north on the road, keeping left at the fork after 1km. Continue for another 3km, then cross a stone bridge over the River Duddon. Follow the bridleway to the right, bear left into the trees, then go out and past Birks (farm), up their track to a forest road. Turn left on this, uphill. Exit the trees, then, after it goes around a bend to the right (with a rough track o to the left), turn left on some singletrack.

2

Go downhill, keeping left through Grassguards (farm), then follow the walled bridleway uphill. Bear left before a house, down the steep, technical rocky trail at Wallowbarrow Crag, then join the tarmac at High Wallbarrow until a T-junction just past a house. Turn left over the bridge and then left again, back to Seathwaite.

3

Continue on the road for 1km and bear right at the fork this time, signed to Coniston. Go right at the next fork, on Walna Scar Road. Keep right/straight ahead on a rough track (the main track bears left over the bridge) and up a rocky climb for 1km. Go through a gate, then turn right on a narrow track by some slag heaps. Keep left after the second lot of old quarry works, leaving the main track (which becomes a footpath). 4

Follow a grassy (possibly boggy) climb on a faint track, but keep right as it becomes more obvious. Keep to the right-hand side of the valley, on superb singletrack, to Stephenson Ground. Go right (before the road), through a gate, signed to Seathwaite, uphill between two walls to a gate onto the moors. Bear left and descend, with a wall on your left. 5

Head left across the (possibly boggy) plateau and keep bearing left on a more obvious track, next to a wall, going uphill and then on good singletrack around the hillside. Ignore a bridleway on the left, climbing instead to Raven’s Crag, then bear right at the fork up here, not left in the steep-sided valley. 6

Follow this trail around the side of the hill, down to a crossing with a good track (Park Head Road). Turn right on this, climbing steeply to a path beneath Goat Crag. Keep ahead/left downhill, and then stay on this bridleway, bearing right at a fork further down, back to Seathwaite.

NOTE: There’s a closer car park at the northern tip of the route, at Dunnerdale Forest, but it means finishing with a ride up the road – after the pub!