It’s been just over a year since we did this walk – I just never got around to posting about it. With spring finally sprung though, now feels like the perfect time to look back at this walk. We did this route on our way over to the Lakes for a long weekend last Easter: we were keen to squeeze in as many Wainwrights as possible. I may have regretted this slightly a few days later as this walk, coupled with an outing along the High Stile Ridge the day after, left me hobbling and unable to manage a proper walk on the third day of our trip!
The route we followed was this 8 mile circular from the WalkLakes website. We parked up in the pay & display car park in Grasmere, which was surprisingly quiet for Good Friday bank holiday – however, the free parking areas on the outskirts of the village were extremely busy! The walk sets off along the road in Grasmere for a short way before picking up the track you follow to the summit of Stone Arthur.
The going is steep in places and fairly hard work, but at only 500m Stone Arthur is one of the smaller Wainwrights and it doesn’t take too long to get up there, and once we did the views were lovely. We didn’t hang around though with a few couples hot on our heels, setting off quickly for Wainwright number two – Great Rigg.
The walk over to Great Rigg was straightforward on a grassy path, with a mildly scrambly step as you approach the summit. The view are again lovely, with the broad ridge across to Heron Pike stretching out in front of you. When reading back through my notes for this fell I’ve written ‘had an argument over how much time I was spending taking photos of the dogs’ – but really, who could ever get enough photos of their dog in the Lakes on a sunny day?!
From this point onwards it started to get a bit busier with traffic (people) on the Fairfield horseshoe – the return leg of this walk uses part of the Fairfield route. Walking across to Heron Pike was a pleasure, with more great views and a good path. Best of all, it was all flat or gently downhill! The midges were making their presence known up here so we didn’t stop lest they descend upon us, carrying on to Nab Scar – another easy walk across which was mostly steadily downhill.
I’d loved the views all the way around (a sunny day always makes a good view great), but Nab Scar had (if you ask me) the best views of the day. Rydal Water appears in addition to Windermere, and you can see across to Rydal Cave if you look carefully. Enjoy the view because the descent is steep, and at the end of a long day the jelly legs set in for me!
At only 450m the descent from Nab Scar isn’t long, although with my shaky legs it felt like forever. Once you get to the bottom it’s a fair walk back along the Coffin Route to Grasmere – made 20 minutes longer if you take a wrong turn like we did. At least we saw a red squirrel on our excursion! Although sunburned (forecast 10 degrees and cloudy, and therefore I had not packed my suncream) and knackered I could maybe have lived without the red squirrel on this occasion.
Dog friendly rating – 2/5. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t take your dog on this walk – fit adult dogs will be fine. However, it’s a long day out and exposed, so take some water for them. There are sheep throughout this walk and some places with steep drops, so leads should be on for the majority of this route. The final thing of note is the presence of a stile at the end, but both of ours managed this without too much trouble.
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