free to be able to rate and comment on reports (as well as access 1:25000 mapping).
For this quite lengthy end-to-end ridge walk I parked on a beautiful march day in the layby at High Broadrayne on the A591, just half a mile north of the Grasmere turn-off. The route starts 200 yards down the road at Mill Bridge, heading northeast along a minor access road which soon becomes a track. The trick at this point is to focus line of sight on the rising ridge of Seat Sandal. There is a barn to the left of the track where I crossed into the field and then followed the grassy path which first curves towards the stone wall ahead, follows it up to stiles crossing further walls before settling on a direct line up the ridge of the first peak of the day. Just keep to the rising ground all the way up to the top of Seat Sandal. It’s a fast ascent which should see you on the top in about an hour enjoying stunning views to the hills now revealed to the east and north.
There is a quick descent now heading north down to meet the paths as they curve around Grisedale Tarn, then briefly on a higher path above the northern edge of the tarn to meet the zig-zag route rising clearly towards Dollywagon Pike. This is quite a tough climb because the elevation drop-off from Seat Sandal is 200 metres, so it’s a steep ascent to the top of the Pike at 858 metres. From this point the ridge across to Helvellyn via the lesser peaks of High Crag and Nethermost Pike provides views down to Patterdale to the east and to Striding Edge and High Spying How below Helvellyn.
It's a simple case now of staying with the high ground in a northerly direction swinging round to Lower Man before heading down and then briefly upward to Whiteside, across to Raise just a kilometer to the northeast and then switching north again across green hills now towards Stybarrow Dodd and then a climb up to Great Dodd via the lesser peak of Watson’s Dodd. There is a nice sense of progress at this point as Keswick comes into view with the final climb on the ridge ascending from Calfhow Pike up to Clough Head.
The descent down Red Screes and the quarry land lying above Threlkeld requires a little care in picking the right path down the steep escarpment. There is no problem in clear conditions but in cloudy conditions I would expect that it would require some confident work with the compass to follow the path sharply left off the top of Clough Head and then angling down to the right to descend rapidly towards the valley and quarries. The cycle route on the Old Coach Road is then picked up for a very short section to complete the journey down to the B5322 at Wanthwaite.
My intention now was to pick up the bus from Keswick across to Ambleside from Dale Bottom, so I carried on across the B road past Wanthwaite Mill, taking the minor road which ends up at the Youth Centre and church before turning in to a track which skirts the hillside. I reckoned it was a further 20 minutes from this point down to the main road so sat awhile in the early spring sunshine enjoying the views westwards before continuing on the minor road to arrive at the campsite at Dale Bottom just ten minutes before the bus was due.
This has got to be a classic Lake District walk, with lots of changing aspects, which makes the end-to-end route worthwhile. The final two miles on minor roads and tracks could be a bit of a slog in bad weather, but for me, it was a really good low-level finale to follow up on a long ridge walk.
