Explore with Amie

It was a blustery day out on the fells when we decided to tackle part of Newlands Horseshoe. This is a fantastic route in the Newlands Valley, just outside of Keswick and it involves some epic views across Derwent Water and the central lakes. The full route also takes in six Wainwrights: Robinson, Hindscarth, Dale Head, High Spy, Maiden Moor and Catbells. That is quite the haul! We had already bagged High Spy, Maiden Moor and Catbells so instead opted to do a truncated version of the route which is still a walk that I would highly recommend.

We opted to tackle the route anti-clockwise by first following a lane past Newlands Church and High Snab Farm. It was around this time that my sister realised that she’d left her water bottle in the car and whilst we felt we still had enough water between us, it was meant to be a fairly decent walk and it was better to be safe than sorry. Alex kindly ran the kilometre we’d walked back to the car. Luckily it was in the car and Alex was actually able to get his coat too, which he hadn’t realised had been left behind. It was a win-win really!

We pretty much got a very mixed bag of weather. So much so, it looks like a lot of these pictures were taken on different days – I promise they weren’t! We started off with glorious sunshine was initially made our way down the valley but as soon as we were more exposed the wind was insane! It was probably one of the windiest walks I’ve ever been on. I’m sure he would disagree but I think Alex was very glad to have his coat for the walk.

Just after the 1km mark, the lane becomes a path and you begin walking along the valley bottom. The path follows alongside the beck before coming to a lovely tarn. It’s here that you need to look out for a path to the right. We actually missed this and went on a bit of a diagonal to rejoin it so keep an eye out for the path. We rejoined the gravel path alongside Robinson Crags. There’s a bit of false peak before moving onto Robinson. It was incredibly windy along this path and it is fairly exposed so it was an interesting experience! From Robinson, you get fantastic views across towards Great Gable and over towards Grasmoor. At 737m, it ranks 67th of all the Wainwrights. But despite, it not making it into the top 50, it’s a great fell.

Next, we aimed for Hindscarth which we could see from Robinson. The descent is fairly steep initially but you can see down to Honister Pass and the Mine in the next valley which is pretty cool. The cars look tiny making their way up (or down)! Then it’s a gradual climb along the side of the of the valley towards the peak. The three Wainwrights on this walk are all fairly similar sizes as Hindscarth is just 10m shy of Robinson at 727m and ranks 70th on the list. Luckily for us, a 100 or so metres from the peak was a stone shelter which was the perfect spot for lunch. The wind was really blustering and we couldn’t have found a better place. A couple left the shelter just as we approached so there was plenty of room for the four of us. It was a quick stop as we didn’t want to get too cold.

From Hindscarth, we made out way across to Dale Head. It’s a fairly easy path between the two with the option to head over the rocks or avoid them. It wasn’t any serious scrambling or anything and some may not even have to use their hands but, we opted to use the small paths around as it was quite exposed to be wind at this point. Dale Head peak has a fantastic cairn on the top and you can see clearly across to Derwent Water, Keswick and Cat Bells. Dale Head is the highest of the peaks on the route at 754m and ranked 63rd. I think it was also my favourite of the three; simply because of the cool rocky cairn at the top. From the summit, you want to descend on the path towards Dalehead Tarn. From here, you have two options.

If you want to extend this walk, you could continue along the horseshoe to bag High Spy (653m), Maiden Moor (575m) and Cat Bells (451m). However, Alex and I have already bagged those three in another walk recently. In fact, this walk used the same path to descend as we did on that occasion so, we’ve almost completed the full route in two halves – both of which are satisfying in their own right. From the tarn, to descend from here, you want to take the path on the left following the beck. Ensure that you cross the beck first, so you’re following it with the water on your lefthand side. It’s a fairly easy descent but a little bit rocky in places so take care when it’s wet. There are some beautiful waterfalls down here, too!

Once you’ve completed most of the descent to the valley floor, the path is grassy before becoming a gravel track past the Carlisle Mountaineering Club Hut. Continue following this gravel track for around 2 and a half km. Be sure to look behind you to see the fantastic route you’ve completed and the iconic view of the Amazon Fire Stick screen saver. Towards the end, you should actually see the car park down to your left but you have to go past it a little bit before taking the path on the left to cut down the road back to the car.

And there you have it! Another fantastic and windy walk in the Lake District, ticking off three Wainwrights with the option to add another three should you wish to make a long day of it.

Have you completed these mountains? What did you think?

Amie x