(Pathfinder Eastern Lakeland Walk#25 10 Miles, 7 Hours)
Thursday, and the weather forecast was favourable with sunny weather given for the whole day.
We decided to tackle the Hartsop Round and to add an additional fell to the route giving a Wainwright count of 4 fells.
1) Thornthwaite Crag (2572ft)
2) Gray Crag(2293 ft)
3) High Street (2716ft)
4) The Knott (2423 ft) already ascended in 2011
The day was as warm as expected and after a hearty breakfast at the Patterdale Hotel we drove the short distance to the National Trust car park at Hartsop, just a couple of miles up the road from Patterdale.
We arrived at around 09:45 to find the car park already quite busy so would advise an early start if you want to be sure of a space, judging by the amount of other walkers we saw it is a popular area.
Donning rucsacks we set off along the path by the road the short distance to Hartsop village, passing though and heading off along pasture bottom and initially fairly flat, but stony, paths through the valley.
The path soon started to slowly ascend as we approached the end of the valley with Thornthwaite Crag straight up ahead of us. There was about a mile of slow, steady, but rocky ascent to around 2000ft before Threshwaite Mouth was reached.
Susan requested frequent stops at this point! It was quite hot and hard-going.
A good long rest was had at Threshwaite Mouth as we could see the way up onto Thornthwaite Crag was a VERY steep and rocky one. With great care and trepidation we slowly ascended the rocky scramble to the top. The views across to Windermere were stunning and worth the effort.
Finally, we were at the top and found the cairn of Thornthwaite Crag (the largest in the Lakes, not easy to miss)
We diverted off the main High Street track to visit the first cairn of Gray Crag. Though the cairn was not marked by stones as such, more a hump or bump in the grass. The way was easy across to this and a slow slight descent along slightly rocky but grassy though not too distinct tracks. (See Below)
Once back on the High Street track, after about a mile we diverted off the main track to find the High Street cairn (as it does not lie on the main track). We found it easily and stopped to enjoy the views at 2700ft.
As a centre of attraction High Street has long served a popular purpose with descriptions from 1955 mentioning "High Street, on whose flat top horse racing and wrestling and athletic sports and all sorts of fun used to be enjoyed". On some maps today, the summit is marked as "Race Course Hill"
Above, the view down to Haweswater Reservoir on the Eastern Side.
The view back along High Street from where we came.
Passing The Knott we chose not to divert and ascend it as we had done so last year.
The path then descended slowly and rockily until a left branch point was reached at around 1500ft, and then a steeper, but grassier quite long descent down to the bottom end of Hayeswater and the small dam crossover to the Hayeswater Gill path back to Hartsop. (See below)
The final two miles were along slowly descending rocky paths from around 800ft to Hartsop village and then back to the car park.
A full days walking (7 Hours, 10 Miles), and some hard pulls, with over 3, 500ft of ascent.
The views were spectacular throughout, from the low level valley start, to the view going up Thornthwaite Crag to Windermere, and the spectacular views both East and West from High Street.
In our limited experience of Higher level fell walks, this was the most spectacular walk we have done to date (and for us, one of the most demanding).
Our Walk Score: 9/10
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