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Denise and I are hoping to complete the Wainwrights together but she is 22 behind me so we need to close that gap, looking at my Wainwright map there are several combinations where we can do just that and also include some of the ones I need to do, this was one of those routes I'd pondered over for a while and, starting from the Grasmere side, was a logical choice although it was quite a long day out.
Stone Arthur is one of those lumps on the landscape that I can see why Wainwright would treat it as a viewpoint worth getting to, I'd never heard of it before until I'd started to take an interest in the mountains of the Lake District and, until we decided to get to the top of them all, I wouldn't have given it a second thought. But it's there to do so, knowing Denise had a couple or so to catch up in the area I concocted this route.
Starting from the lay by at NY335096 on the A591 we set off on the easy walk down the road to the start of the path leading to Stone Arthur.
Steel Fell from the roadThis only took 15 minutes or so and it saved a bit of time and distance at the end of the day. The weather was pretty good so we were looking forward to a good day out.
The start of the walk beside the plantation is steep and it certainly gets the heart pumping, if you look at the map there's a small path marked at around NY346087 heading in the right direction, I'd put this into the GPS and, when we got to the point it leaves the main path, we started up it, it's non existent on the ground higher up so we were soon battling our way up a steep slope through thick ferns, not at all pleasant, don't get tempted like I did, use the green path marked on the map, it's much more friendly as we discovered higher up.
Out of the ferns at last.
Looking down to Grasmere, the Coniston Fells in the distance.
Towards Ullscarth 
Grasmere Pano When we got to the "summit" the views are worth the effort and I guess that's why Mr Wainwright included it in his guide book.
On Stone Arthur. We could see the Coniston fells, the Langdales, Helm Crag, Steel Fell and Ullscarth it's a nice spot to be.
Looking up hill we could see the way ahead.
Grasmere village and Grasmere 
Coniston Fells 
Onwards to Great Rigg Setting off for Great Rigg the walk becomes a steady plod on a well defined path, there's no fear of losing it on the way and just before you get to Great Rigg it joins the Fairfield horseshoe path. The clouds were swirling around the tops of Hart Crag and Dove Crag, Fairfield was clear.
Seat Sandal 
Fairfield and Hart Crag 
Summit, Great Rigg. 
Hart Crag
The Helvellyn range. The path up to Fairfield is excellent and once on the summit most of the mountains around us were clear of cloud apart from Helvellyn and Skiddaw away in the distance.
St Sunday Crag. 
On Fairfield summit.
Deepdale and the Eastern FellsWe had a good break on the top looking at the views then set off for Cofa Pike and the path to St Sunday Crag.
Cofa Pike and St Sunday Crag.
Dollywaggon Pike, Nethermost Pike and Helvellyn. It's 40 years since I was on Cofa Pike and St Sunday Crag, I can remember having a winter weekend in Ruthwaite Lodge and climbing Fairfield and St Sunday Crag in full winter conditions, today was a complete contrast, on the way over to St Sunday I wondered why I'd left it for such a long time for a re-visit.
Cofa Pike scrambly bit. 
St Sunday Crag. 
Cofa Pike.On the top of St Sunday Denise was on catch up number one, we could see our next objective, Birks which was catch up number two, it looked a long way off and we had a lot of descent to get to it so after a bit of re-fuelling we were on our way.
St Sunday Crag summit, Helvellyn in the cloud. 
Cloudy Helvellyn
Hart Crag, Fairfield and Seat Sandal.
Red Screes, Dove Crag and Hart Crag. 
Highstreet and the Eastern Fells. 
Striding Edge. 
Looking North
Place Fell It is a long drop down to the col between the hills, all the way down we were thinking about the return trip, retracing our way back up St Sunday Crag, on the way over to Birks we kept looking back and wondering if we were doing the right thing.
It didn't take too long to get to Birks, the walk to the top is easy going and it takes a bit of the sting out of the return trip. On the top we had a break then set off back to St Sunday Crag
On Birks, Helvellyn range behind. 
Striding Edge Pano 
Looking back to Fairfield. 
We have to go back up there. 
Nethermost Cove 
Towards Hart Crag To be honest the climb up was easier than we thought it would be, a nice steady plod did the trick and we were soon on the summit for the second time today.
Ullswater 
Ullswater. 
Ullswater and surrounding fells.
Catstye Cam From here we had one more big ascent so we set off to make our way to catch up number three, Seat Sandal.
In Deepdale Hause there's the start of a feint path that traverses around the mountainside above the one that brings you from Grisedale Tarn, it's a bit testing on the ankles but it eventually takes you to the remains of a hut at around NY350117 then it's a case of descending slightly to Grisedale Hause and the start of the last ascent of the day to the top of Seat Sandal.
We went about 100m along the path to the right of the Hause then headed straight up hill heading slightly left as we went meeting the wall at around NY348116 then followed a fairly well established path to the summit.
Grisedale Tarn, St Sunday Crag and the path up Fairfield 
Grisedale Tarn. This way up looks and is steep but it's soon done with and we were at the summit of our last hill of the day after what seemed a lot less effort than first thought.
Seat Sandel summit with St Sunday Crag and Fairfield behind 
St Sunday Crag and Fairfield. On the top we had a well earned break spending half a hour or so looking around at the views, the weather was superb, we really wished we were up for the weekend so we could stay longer but we had a drive back to W. Yorkshire to come so, reluctantly, we set off down.
We descended the SSW then S ridge heading for the track around NY337096 and back to the road. This is a quick descent and there's a good path all the way down, it's not marked on the map but is well established and grassy for most of the way.
Looking towards Hause Gap. 
Grasmere from the descent off Seat Sandel. Back at the car after spending eight hours on some fantastic hills in fantastic weather.
Six Wainwrights (or was it seven)? one new one for both of us and three catch ups for Denise, excellent!
