LOUGHRIGG FELL, LAKE DISTRICT

DISTANCE 10.2KM (6.3 MILES) CLIMBING 330M (1,082 FT) TIME 45MINS TO 1HR 30MINS

Route summary: A short but challenging loop (especially in the dark) around what are usually busy trails, making for a wonderful night ride below the peaks and big dark skies

Start/finish: Vicarage Road or Rydal Road car park (postcode: LA22 9DH, grid ref: NY 374/044)

1 Go north along the one-way road (A591) in Ambleside. At the crossroads by the cinema, turn left and immediately left again on Vicarage Road (signed to Rothay Park and Loughrigg). Pass the church and school, and join the cycle route through Rothay Park and over the bridge to the road. Head right, passing over a cattle grid, then go left on a tarmac bridleway, uphill, past Brow Head Farm.

2 Keep straight ahead on a rocky bridleway, following this main track. Bear right at a fork towards Ivy Crag and then straight ahead to Tarn Foot Cottage. Turn sharply right here at the track crossing, around a campsite, then continue past Loughrigg Tarn on a good track.

3 Join the tarmac, keeping ahead/right. As another road joins from the left, head to the right, passing through a gate onto the Loughrigg Terrace bridleway. Go right, across the hillside then keep right at the far side, on a permissive bridleway – beware of the drop-off at the rocky section just along here!

4 Follow this track to the caves and then follow the trail downhill to the left, to the edge of Rydal Water, and keep right. Make a right at a minor road just before Pelter Bridge. After passing over a cattle grid, return to the entrance of Rothay Park, where you came from at the start, and retrace your tracks into Ambleside to finish.