Lake District
16.6km/10¼ miles 6 hours
1 NY435191 With St Peter’s church on your left, head down the road (south-west) and fork left and left again, to take the road to the ‘old’ church of St Martin, a place of worship for at least 750 years, and with its 1300-year-old yew tree. A right of way sign points along the wall above the church. Ignore this, and seek a path that climbs up the hillside to traverse the slope at a higher level. Look out for a bright red-roofed building in the valley, the former shooting lodge built for Kaiser Wilhelm’s visit, and now a selfcatering holiday cottage. This path takes you eventually to Brownthwaite Crag, before the path sweeps left to bypass Gowk Hill. Stay with the path as it continues to curve around to a stream crossing and a ruined building, an excellent coffee or lunch stop.
2 NY447169 Behind the building, another walked line heads directly uphill for a few metres before angling right and taking a steady ascent to the southern side of Wether Hill. The path brings you to a wall corner near the top of the ridge. Shortly after you meet a slightly wider grassy track – part of the High Street Roman road route – coming down from the right. Turn left and follow it for just over 2km over the bumps of Wether Hill, and past a ruined shooting lodge to the trig point on Loadpot Hill. 3 NY456181 From the trig point, continuing on the widest path would enable a longer spell on the Roman road (in bad visibility you could do this and turn left on the Ullswater Way at NY481222). But for this route, leave the summit northnorthwest on a grassy line, taking a bearing for the summit of Bonscale Pike. This leads you down off Loadpot Hill, then on a gentle undulation over Swarth Fell towards the lumpier ground of Bonscale Pike. Look for a small cairn, and beyond, two further pillars on the steep slope below you – the lowest being Bonscale Tower. The views of Ullswater are well worth it. Staying above the towers, head south-east and pick up a path down to a sheepfold by Swarth Beck at NY456199. On its left, cross the stream and a small grassy path heads off north-east. After approx 800m this should lead you up to the summit of Arthur’s Pike. 4 NY460206 Head east off the summit, onto a thin path running just left of a ruined wall section, and the path will meet up with a wider grassy track. Go left on this, heading north-east around 1.5km down to a track junction. Turn left (waymarked Ullswater Way to Howtown) and follow the bridleway for about 4km, keeping left at waymarked junctions to stay above the boundary wall, until the track drops down through a gate onto the drive at Mellguards.
5 NY445195 Head down the gravel drive and through a waymarked gate on the left, to a stone clapper bridge. Cross the bridge and head up the hill, crossing a lane, to curve right with the bridleway above another boundary wall (or go right down the lane if seeking refreshments at Howtown Hotel). After just under a kilometre, look for a split in the path, near the top of the hill, and head right – you’ll quickly pop over to the church where you started.