Lake District
8.5km/5¼ miles 3½ hours
1 NY231193 Go 100m up the road towards Keswick. Cross a stile into access land below Knott End. Follow the narrow, stone-pitched path, which leads just right of a large, solitary gorse bush, going over a vehicle track to rise diagonally and steeply uphill around Knott End’s lower flank. Once you have turned the corner, head upwards on steep bracken and heather-covered ground, aiming for a grassy line to just left of a prominent holly tree atop the heather line. Zigzagging is recommended.
2 NY234193
Here, above the holly tree, the gradient remains severe. Zigzag up narrow, grassy ledges between small outcrops, or take entertaining rocky diversions if you wish – six points of contact and a handful of heather may occasionally be useful! The ascent eases at a small, grassy terrace above a hawthorn tree, where the scrambling ends and the view of Cat Bells improves.
3 NY234192 A slight grassy col marks the boundary between Knott End and High Crags. An intermittent, narrow sheep track now alternates between slightly less steep, grassy terraces and steep rocky heather, but it isn't as exposed as Knott End.
4 NY236190 Above High Crags, the ground opens out into a grassy bowl. Head slightly right across a minor grassy dip, past a ruined building, then directly uphill to Bull Crag (below the summit of Maiden Moor). This looks improbable as a way up, but head right immediately below the crags, and into a somewhat hidden gully.
5 NY236183 This gully is much wider than it first appears and, although extremely steep and scree-ridden, provides a viable way up to the top of Maiden Moor that seems known to few, other than local Herdwick sheep. At the top, turn right onto a track which roughly runs along the plateau edge to reach the small cairn marking 576m 'summit' of Maiden Moor.
6 NY236181 The cairn makes a natural high point to turn back from. Navigation over the broad ridgeline of Maiden Moor and Cat Bells is straightforward, despite the multitude of paths. Stay on the middle of the broad ridge, in a roughly left-bending arc and down over a few rockier sections to a grassy col at Hause Gate. A well-defined track rises up the far side to the rocky summit of Cat Bells.
7 NY244198 The summit itself is lovely, scrambly rock (no hands needed); avoiding paths tends to result in a shorter but less pleasant rocky section. Now descend steeply along the ridgeline, with a couple of short but lofty rocky sections. Zigzag down beside erosion control fences above the road to a path junction. Fork left, then stay left at the next path junction to avoid an unnecessarily early descent to the road.
8 NY245211 Join the road by a small carpark, and head left along it towards Skelgill. As you near the farm entrance, fork left onto a bridleway to Yewthwaite roughly paralleling the ridgeline route in reverse under Cat Bells. After roughly 1.5km, fork left just before some mine workings to take an arc above one set of obvious workings and across the Yewthwaite Gill. The footbridge was washed away by floods in recent years, but you'll be able to carefully ford the stream in low spate.
9 NY238193 It’s easy going on the far bank down to a path junction just above a farmhouse. Descend directly to the farm track below, then follow this leftwards to return to your earlier path junction by a solitary gorse bush. Retrace your outward steps back down to the road, then left to return to the start.