A wonderful day on the Fairfield Horseshoe from Ambleside today, warm and sunny for much of the day with good views throughout.
Our Fairfield Horseshoe walk started from Ambleside this morning at 10am, setting off along the Rydal Road to the track leading up to Rydal Hall, we were soon on the steep lower slopes of Nab Scar.
It was pretty hot in the sun this morning and the steep slope was hard going, but we were soon up onto the top of Nab Scar and admiring the wonderful views down over Rydal Water and Loughrigg.
From Nab Scar we followed the ridge north to our next summit, Heron Pike.
From Heron Pike the views ahead opened up to give us some wonderful views over the Fairfield Horseshoe and north to Skiddaw and Helvellyn. The view west was just as good, with great views over the Coniston Fells, the Crinkles, Bowfell and the Scafell range.
From Heron Pike we followed the ridge climbing to the summit of Great Rigg and then up to the summit of Fairfield.
We stopped for lunch by the summit shelter with wonderful views east over St Sundays Crag and Deepdale and across Patterdale to the High Street range.
We were now half way round the Fairfield Horseshoe, but had done nearly all the hard work for the day, we crossed the ridge to the summit of Hart Crag and then onto Dove Crag, from now it is really all downhill back to Ambleside.
It was good to see that the wall descending over High Pike (Scandale) and Low Pike was being repaired, it's long overdue!
We crossed the summit of High Pike (Scandale) and were soon down on the final top of the day, Low Pike. We followed the ridge south dropping down to Low Sweeden Bridge and followed the track back into Ambleside.
