Fairfield Horseshoe

Keep Walking - Keith & Mark

Thursday, 6 July 2023

Ascent:       1132 metres

Distance:     21 kilometres

Time:           4 hours 30 minutes

Nab Scar        442m

Heron Pike     611m

Grear Rigg      766m

Fairfield           873m

Hart Crag         822m     

Dove Crag        793m

High Pike          657m

Low Pike          505m

I usually meet up with Mark who was my regular walking companion during my fourth round of Munros during our week in the Lakes. He moved to Ambleside 8 years ago after retiring and has lost none of his obsession with hill walking, having now completed 20 rounds of the Wainwrights. He finally completed a Munro round this year by climbing the two hills that required some rock climbing. the Inaccessible Pinnacle and Am Baister on Skye. An experienced mountaineer from his Kendal walking club had more or less forced him to face the challenge. Mark has climbed over 3500 Munros, which for most people would equate to about 12 rounds of Munros which would put him in the top ten of Munroists in the all-time list. 

With people visiting or arriving in Langdale on different days at the start of the week and then focusing on some of Gregor's remaining Wainwright hills, it was Thursday before we managed to arrange an outing. I suggested the Fairfield Horseshoe as it could be done from Ambleside and it would be good for the guests to tackle this classic Lake District fell walk. I had probably walked the horseshoe a dozen times but not since 2010. I recalled that Aileen and I had walked it on a fine day in 1997 when our three children missed the Langdale week for the first time when they were on a school trip to Canada. 

We started from Mark's house at 10:45am having been told it was one of the few places to park in the town.  We walked through Ambleside before beginning the climb from the narrow roads leading north from the square that was the bus station, past the Unicorn, my father's regular pub when he was a keen cyclist in the pre-war years. We passed the old Charlotte Mason College which was the girl's PE teacher training college, a source of talent in the days when we were young and camping, hostelling, or staying at a friend's flat in the Lakes. The college is now absorbed into the University of Cumbria. We walked to Nook End Farm and then through Rydal Park along the track to Rydal Hall. Surprisingly we had never visited here during our many years of holidaying in the Lakes. 

Mark and I were in deep conversation and the others shot off up the steep ascent of Nab Scar, they continued apace but Amy waited for us on Heron Pike. Thereafter we had a relaxed chance to catch up as we fell into a comfortable pace around the horseshoe. When we reached Fairfield Emily and Gregor had already battered on. We stopped for some food near the cairn where several other parties were also taking a break. There was a strong cold wind for mid-summer that prompted us to move on. The descent along the long ridge to Hart Crag, Dove Crag, High Pike, and Low Pike was mainly over grassy paths with some rocky sections and fairly minimal ascents to each hill. Wainwright was never one to require measurement to make it into his tabulation of peaks, it was more about where he could do a sketch. The rain had held off and visibility was good.

We dropped into Ambleside to meet Gregor and Emily who had had coffee and some chips at a local cafe. Emily had managed to achieve a Strava crown on her charge-up Nab Scar to add to the one on the ascent of Scafell Pike a couple of years ago. We had added 8 Wainwrights for those collecting them, Gregor had already done these hills a couple of times. In Mark's case, it was his 120th visit to what is his local walk. We walked back through the town to collect the car and bade our farewells. We were already thinking ahead to the next day when Gregor would complete the Wainwrights.

Heading up Nab Scar from Rydal Hall

On Dove Crag

Looking back to Fairfield