A good day above Grasmere today taking in Stone Arthur and Seat Sandal with Great Rigg, a little hazy but still some great views from the tops.
We set off from Grasmere at 10am and headed up the lane behind The Swan, taking the footpath up by the stream to emerge above the houses onto the open fellside.
It's a steep pull to start with here as we climb alongside the trees but it's not long before the gradient eases and the path starts to zig-zag up the shoulder leading up to the summit of Stone Arthur.
We were soon on the summit of Stone Arthur, about one hour after setting off from Grasmere, there were good views over the vale of Grasmere this morning but the longer views were pretty hazy.
We pressed on climbing up the ridge towards the summit of Great Rigg, it's quite a long drag up this slope but steady going on a good path and we were soon joining the Fairfield Horseshoe path climbing the final slope up to the summit of Great Rigg.
From the summit of Great Rigg we decided to miss out the summit of Fairfield from today's route, instead we would take a route skirting around to the west of the summit to meet the path again near Grisedale Hause.
There wasn't much of a path to start with but it was pretty easy going as we skirted around the flank of Fairfield, soon enough a path started to form and it was easy enough skirting around, added to that we were out of the breeze on this side of Fairfield.
We decided to stop for lunch a little before we met the main path descending from Fairfield, finding a nice spot by a stream.
After lunch we crossed to the footpath, looking back towards Morecambe Bay the light was amazing, the sun shining through the clouds was giving Morecambe Bay a pink colour and the light on Windermere and Coniston Water was also making the water glow.
We were soon across to the main path descending to Grisedale Hause, a good newly laid path and were soon starting on the short steep climb up towards Seat Sandal, our final summit. The first section of this path is a little loose, it seems to be getting a little worse each time you come up this way, but it's not too long before the path improves and then the gradient eases as we follow the old wall up towards the summit of Seat Sandal.
We passed a couple sheltering behind the wall by the summit, the first people we had seen all day and after a short stop on the summit we crossed to the western cairn, a little lower but a much better view down over Grasmere.
The path down the southern shoulder of Seat Sandal is one of my favourite descents, all the way down you are rewarded with magnificent views over the Vale of Grasmere, despite the haze today the views were still great, the light was catching the lakes today.
We were soon down at the gate, in the past we were forced to contour around to Little Tongue from here for a legal route down, but since the open access laws changed 10 years ago we are now able to continue down the ridge through the fields to meet the main path by the barn below.
We noticed the large amounts of tree planting that is going on alongside Tongue Gill and the smart new building for the hydro project before emerging onto the roadside just above the Travellers Rest Inn, from here it was just a short walk back to our cars.
