Start/finish large layby on minor road, about 3km north-west of Loweswater village GR: NY118224
1 NY118224 From the western end of the layby, go through the gate and follow the path across three fields. Go left along at a surfaced lane. Beyond Hudson Place, go through the left-hand of two gates. The path later enters Holme Woods. Keep right when it forks.
2 NY121217 Having walked about 300m into the woods, turn right along a track. You’ll soon cross the bridge over Holme Beck. Holme Force is just above the bridge, but off-piste exploration upstream reveals other, smaller falls. Further along the track, about 420m beyond the falls, turn sharp right, climbing steeply on a narrower path.
Soon after leaving the woods via a gate, turn left on a broad path.
3 NY124201 It drops to cross Highnook Beck and briefly becomes less clear as it swings left. About 350m beyond the bridge, take the broad path climbing right (south), almost heading back on yourself.
4 NY128198 When the track levels off, follow a narrow trail south-west. As this emerges from a hollow, it reaches the ridge. Soon after this, take the faint trail on the right (west, quickly veering south-west along the top of Black Crag). When bilberry gives way to heather, the path swings southsouth-west across the flat, often boggy fell top. Keep right at a faint fork, keeping to the highest ground. The trail leads to a cairn on an unnamed top, drops into a boggy dip and then makes for the fencetopped skyline.
5 NY116184 Cross to the fence’s western side on Gavel Fell. The summit cairn is just up to the left, but the main route goes right, following the ridge fence down to Fothergill Head and then up the other side.
6 NY113191 Where two fences meet near High Pen, cross the intervening fence at a stile and turn right, continuing with the line of the ridge fence – sometimes some distance to the right. The top of Blake Fell, marked by a small shelter, enjoys farreaching views that include the Galloway Hills to the north-west. To the east are some of Lakeland’s most impressive mountains.
7 NY110196 Drop north from the shelter. Keep to the clearest path, which quickly forks. Bear right (north) to regain the fence. Follow this north across soggy ground. Go through a small gate in a dip and immediately bear right to cross a stile in the ridge fence. Continue straight up the slope to reach the fence corner on Burnbank Fell’s summit.
8 NY110209 You now lose the guiding fence as you turn right along a path (north-east). With the descent steepening, you pass a cairn with a magnificent outlook over Loweswater, taking in Crummock Water too. Nearing the base of the fell, as one trail goes right, keep straight on to reach a track.
Turn left, through a gate.
9 NY107225 The track swings left after another two gates. When it does so, cross the ladder stile on the right. Keeping close to the wall on the right, the path becomes more track-like. Turn right at a surfaced lane and then keep right along a track near some cottages. After a gate, follow the faint trail half-left. In the next field, walk beside gnarled hawthorn trees on the left. Beyond another gate, head towards Hudson Place.
Just before the buildings, go through the gate on the left. Walk with the wall/fence on your right. Reaching a surfaced lane, turn left. Retracing your steps from earlier, remember to go through the gate on the right in 180m to join the path back to the parking area.