The Whinfell Beacon Ridge and Borrowdale Circular

Start: Park at Low Borrowdale (Grid Reference NY606014). There is room for 10 sensibly parked vehicles. At the time of writing, there is no charge.

(S/E) From the parking, walk to a metal gate and go through. Follow the single track road westwards with light woodland on your left. After about 900m, cross over a small bridge and continue along the road to a cattle grid, after which the road becomes a rough stone track. 150m after the cattle grid, look out for a track on the left which cuts backwards and heads up the fell.

(1) Turn left and start ascending; in places this track is a little soft underfoot, but the soft areas can be avoided. The track ascends towards a fence line and then veers away (do not follow the path shown on the OS map, which runs along the fence line). As you ascend, you will cross a small stream (Ford on map) after which the path becomes a little vague; at this point, head left to keep the fence line a few metres to your left and walk up to and go through a metal gate. Follow the obvious track to the old Repeater Station. Walk to the right of the fenced compound to arrive at a single-track road.

(2) Turn right and follow the road downhill. At this point, be really observant and look out for a faint path which looks like a sheep track, on the right, just over 100m along the road; if in doubt, use the GPS track to locate the path. Turn right off the road and onto the faint path. As you follow it, the path becomes more obvious, and it leads to a dry stone wall with a stile. Cross over and now follow a quad bike track which leads to an obvious gate in the corner of a field with Whinfell Beacon above.

(3) The corner where two stone walls meet has a metal gate and a ladder stile; a few metres beyond is a pair of wooden gates on the left. Go through the metal gate and then the smaller of the two wooden gates. Now ascend via quad bike tracks. At the first split in the track, take the right fork, and at the second split, take the left fork. This will lead you to the top of Whinfell Beacon. (Great views if it is not cloudy)

(4) From the summit walk to an obvious dry stone wall with a gap in it; pass through the gap and follow a grassy path, descending gently to a dry stone wall with a metal gate. Go through the gate and follow the path with a fence a few metres to your left. This grassy path ascends to a col between Old High and Castle Fell (You can walk over Castle Fell if you wish and then return to the col). Look ahead to Mabbin Crag, which is your next summit; the way up follows the wide gap between the trees. From the col, follow the path down to a ladder stile, which at the time of writing (May 26) has a couple of missing rungs and is loose in places. Take care using it. Cross over the stile and follow the path to a double wire fence with the forest beyond.

(5) This next section can be very boggy, so follow these directions if it is.
The double wire fence has been lowered, and one section has a plastic tube on the top wire to make it easier to step over. (see photo) The area beyond is very boggy, so as soon as you cross, turn left and follow the fence to where the boggy area is more of a small stream with a couple of large stones. Use these to step across and immediately enter the trees (You will have to move thin branches to do this). Beneath you is an animal track (we could see deer prints), and follow this between the trees to where it emerges just beyond the really boggy section. After this, the ground beneath your feet is still boggy in places, but you can avoid the worst bits by picking your route carefully, sometimes veering away from the path and then back to it. As you gently ascend, the ground underfoot becomes drier and rockier, and you will emerge from the trees in front of a ruined building.

(6) This is the hardest section of the walk in terms of navigation and avoiding bog.
Take a faint path uphill to the left of the ruined building; it is steep at first, but then the gradient eases to arrive at the cairn on Mabbin Crag.

(7) Now follow the obvious path on the right, which descends, passing a large area of felled trees to a churned-up forestry track. Look to the left on the far side for the continuation of the path, which leads to a gap in a collapsing dry stone wall. Go through the gap and follow the path up to a small rocky band.

(8) The path takes a short scramble via a narrow gully up through the rocks (you will need to use hands and feet), and then it leads westwards to the vague summit of Ashstead Fell and then down and up to a more obvious but lower viewpoint with a cairn.

(9) Follow the path down. The Fell side is rocky, so do not follow the track shown on open source mapping, as it is hard to follow on descent. Instead, follow the obvious path, which turns left and heads towards the fence line and then downhill. At the bottom, join a rough stone track.

(10) Go straight over the track and take the path between two fenced-off areas to a stile. Cross over to join a track, the Shap road is immediately up and to your left.

(11) Turn right and follow the track down to the Borrow Beck, turn right again and follow the track so that the beck is on your left.
Once you are beyond the noise of the road, there are lots of great places along the bank to sit and eat your sandwiches.
Walk along the track to pass through a large wooden gate and then 300m further, cross a bridge and go through another gate. There is another wooden gate to pass through, after which the track passes through pasture leading to the disused farm of High Borrowdale.

(12) Keep following the track to a metal gate, after which the path splits. Take the left-hand split (less obvious) to follow the track with a flat pasture below on your right. This track leads to Low Borrowdale. Here, the track splits again. Do not go left and up. Make sure you go right and through the farm to follow the road passing over a couple of cattle grids to eventually arrive at a second bridge.

(13) Cross the bridge (good bathing beneath) and follow the track back to the junction at (1). Now follow the track, then the road back to the parking. (S/E)

There are no shelters along this route, and once you are on the ridge, there will be a wind chill factor to consider, although not high; these are exposed fells, with the most sheltered section being the ascent of Mabbin Crag.

Check the forecast and dress appropriately. You will need boots even in a dry summer, as the wet section will seldom dry completely.

I like to do this walk in the way described, walking along the ridge and away from the masts in order to enjoy better views of the fells ahead of me. You can always walk along the valley first, ascend Ashstead Fell and walk to the Repeater Station. We did the walk on a day when it had rained and was clearing. We were in the clouds at first, but by the end of the ridge, it had cleared up. Had we walked along the valley first, we would have enjoyed good views from the ridge but would have had the masts in sight.

You can also park on the Shap road, in a lay-by just South of Huck's Bridge, accessing the route at (11) and following it in the direction you choose.

From the Repeater Station (2), you can also follow the road to the second mast and then follow a path up to Grayrigg 494 m. Returning the same way to pick up the route described here.