Red Screes & Fairfield
DAY 1
1 NY377044 The town hall is 150m north of the main bus stops. Immediately above it, take a lane north signed for the waterfalls. It bends right to run above Stock Ghyll woods. Take a gate to a wide path above the little river. Fork left to cross a footbridge, and continue upstream to cross another bridge above the waterfalls. From the waterfall viewpoint just below, contour away from the river to rejoin the lane.
2 NY383044 Turn left for 1km. Just after a stream bridge and cattle grid, turn down left to a footbridge over the river. Turn downstream to a small gate, then slanting up a field to a shed and farm track. Turn up right to a tarmac lane, then back left out to the Kirkstone Road above Ambleside. Turn up the narrow, enclosed road for 400m, to a gate on the left.
3 NY385053 A track leads up between fields, soon running between widely spaced walls. The left-hand wall is absent for a while, then returns. After a long climb of 1.5km, this former drove road ends at a ladder stile onto open hill. Follow the wall on your right up to the ridgeline just above. A clear path heads up the ridge to the trig point of Red Screes.
4 NY396087 Slant back just south of west to the top end of a wall, and follow the path down to the right of it to the major col of Scandale Pass. Head up to right of a wall, then a fence, to the col west of Little Hart Crag. Wainwright-baggers will divert to this nearby summit, before following the path up away from it, beside a broken fence, to a wall on the plateau of Dove Crag. Follow this north to the nearby summit cairn.
5 NY374104 The wall ends in the next shallow col. The rough path leads on over Hart Crag, down into the narrow gap of Link Hause, and up onto a wide, near-level ridge. This runs west, then bends north-west to the many cairns of Fairfield summit.
6 NY358117 Descend north, on a spur that narrows to rather steep bare rock – awkward when wet, but can be avoided by dropping left. A narrow col leads to the rocky little hump of Cofa Pike and a short but airy ridge, before a steep spur with a rocky path. After the long, narrow ridge along Deepdale Hause, the wide path leads up to St Sunday Crag.
7 NY369134 The path leads down north, then more steeply north-west, to the start of a long, level ridge. Here you could continue along the ridge over Birks for a scenic but steep descent. However the main path slants down the left-hand flank, then down the lowest part of the spur to a gate. The lane at the start of Day 2 is not far below, but don’t go through the gate. Instead take the path to the right, contouring around the base of Birks, to a gate into woods. Here fork right for the youth hostel, or left for Patterdale
Hotel.