So this was our last walk on this visit to the Lakes, picking off 3 fells that I needed. The awkward Hartsop Above How, which I like that Wainwright included, as it makes you think about “how to get it”, then St Sunday Crag and Birks. The only way to to do these three together is via the Deepdale Round, which picks off some of the Fairfield Round as well, but so be it. Hart Crag and Fairfield are great fells and worthy of adding to any walk. We started off by parking at Cow Bridge, not in the pay car park but the layby the other side of the bridge which doesn’t require any money being handed over! Yet again the parking was easy, and even at 9.30am,on a fine day in mid May we were around the 4th car to pull up and park, lots of further space available. As has been the case throughout my Wainwright journey, parking in the week is easy. We set off for Patterdale, along the path which hugs the A592, occasionally walking the road itself. We quickly found the church in Patterdale and after passing the mountain rescue station, we turned left, heading along the road we had walked a few days before, when we headed to Catstycam. This time however we turned left through a gate, and starting climbing steeply up the nose of Birks, our first fell of the day. We followed the main path, rather than the final very steep section up the nose, which takes you to a col between Birks and St Sunday Crag, all around us the cloud was dropping and rising off the higher fells. Reaching the col meant a quick out and back was needed, to bag the fell of Birks. But this was a simple undertaking and before long we were back looking steeply up at St Sunday Crag, as the sun started to come out.

We stopped for lunch number one after climbing part was up to St Sunday, enjoying the views to Ullswater and Place Fell. Before long we hit the summit of St Sunday with some stunning views across to Striding Edge, heading further along the ridge we hit a real surprise in Cofa Pike, not a Wainwright but it is a Birkett. It’s a bit of a rocky scramble stuck up across the path, where a grassy ridge had been the norm on this walk. Infact we struggled here and it took us over an hour to get from St Sunday Crag to Fairfield. Still we weren’t in a hurry and once at Fairfield we set off to Hart Crag and then ensured we found the right path to Hartsop Above How. This is always a tricky area for those on the Fairfield Horseshoe, and picking the right path to Dove Crag can be problematic in low cloud, we made sure to head north east and down steeply to the Hartsop ridge. This ridge goes on forever, undulating constantly and then finally rising gently to the summit. After that the undulations continue, and the views rarely change to Place Fell and Angletarn Pikes, until finally the path drops and crosses the wall to steeply fall to the woods. It carries on through the woods, and I would think in wet weather that this path could become very awkward. Still in the dry we made it back to Cow Bridge and then end of our hardest walk on the visit, and one I would repeat again in a heartbeat. This is a superb walk showing the best of Lakeland, with lots of highlights around the walk (including Helvellyn and Striding Edge) but the number of valleys in view, will give the walker the feeling that they have seen lots of the Eastern fells, all in one walk. So this gave me 209, 210 and 211 Wainwright fells completed, so just 3 left to do, with Blencathra and Mungrisdale Common and finishing on Haystacks. So come August I should be done with this 14 year project!!

Start – Cow Bridge

Route – Bridgend – Patterdale – Glenamara Park – Birks – St Sunday Crag – Deepdale Hause – Cofa Pike – Fairfield – Rydal Head – Hart Crag – Hartsop Above How – Low Wood – Cow Bridge

Distance – 11 miles  Start time – 9.45am  Time taken – 8hrs 15mins  Highest Point – Fairfield 873 metres

Weather – Lots of cloud to start which lowered, but then cleared to give sunny loveliness