Lake District

1 NY257148 Walk down to the main road through Borrowdale, and turn left then right towards Hazel Bank Hotel (driveway). Cross a bridge and take a stony bridleway track leftwards, shortly before the hotel entrance. The path bends right by a small private car park then heads more noticeably uphill. 2 NY261151 A footpath from Stonethwaite joins from the right; head left, still on the bridleway to Watendlath. Cross a stream shortly before a sidepath to Keswick’s Bowderstone. Stay on the bridleway over the saddle and drop down the far side into Watendlath with its pretty tarn, bending left around the tarn edge. 3 NY275163 Cross the Watendlath Beck on the replacement wooden bridge next to the stone packhorse bridge, damaged in the 2015 floods. A tea shop beckons, but head left around the barn ahead, towards the NT car park. Just before the car park, bear left on a bridleway towards Armboth and Wythburn. Follow the zigzag path up the steep hillside between two becks to a gate and a corner of a dry stone wall. 4 NY279163 Turn right to follow the wall. You will be following this rough line on an intermittent path for roughly 2.5km over innumerable minor side streams and boggy patches to Blea Tarn. Keep an eye out for a slight high point, where the view opens up significantly

NY289143 Cross the outflow stream on stepping stones, and head up the flank above Blea Tarn and onto the ridgeline. As you gain the ridge, fantastic views open up over Borrowdale, Glaramara and out to Honister. Follow the ridge over Low Saddle and High Saddle on Coldbarrow Fell.

6 NY291125 Beyond High Saddle you reach a fenceline; follow this to a corner, then cross it. Head rightwards following a couple of old rusty fenceposts to a cairn, then bend left over much leveller grassy ground to the summit cairn of Ullscarf, with a good view of Windermere ahead in the distance. 7 NY291121 The path now descends Greenup Edge in a series of ‘forward, bend right, forward again’ moves. The first of these comes as a noticeable fork in the path. Take the right path to gently cut a corner off the former fence line; then as you rejoin the

fence line towards the broad expanse of grassy col, head more determinedly right, once again roughly following intermittent rusty fence posts over somewhat boggy ground. 8 NY286107 At a

fence post atop a craggy outcrop, leave the fence line and bear rightwards on a faint and fading path over boggy ground towards the Stonethwaite Valley (this turn comes between paths marked on the OS 1:25k map). A couple of cairns then guide you further rightwards, over some boggy groughs, then towards a short grassy stub of a ridge. 9 NY283111 Bear right at the start of this ridge (Lining Crag), now on a pitched path, which descends steeply to run alongside Greenup Gill. Stay on the right side of the ghyll as it joins Langstrath Beck to form Stonethwaite Beck (at Smithymire Island – a popular paddling spot). Stay on this right side all the way back to the Hazel Bank Hotel bridge, passing a side turn to Stonethwaite. Turn left over this and retrace your route back to the car park.