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For this group of Hewitts in the Derwent Fells south of Keswick I had the luxury of choosing an end-to end walk so I chose to use the Borrowdale Gales Hotel as a starting point. The footpath rises gently to begin with, heading right at Swanesty How to rise more steeply through the fern and heading southwest before ascending sharply to meet the ridge footpath coming up from Cat Bells. The walking now becomes much easier up to the top of the first summit of the day, High Spy. The grand curve around to Hindscarth becomes clearly visible but there is a significant descent to tackle first down to Dalehead Tarn, followed by a 250 metre climb up to the top of Dale Head.
Most of the morning’s climbing is now done and the path to Hindscarth becomes a really nice ridge walk gently rising to the cairn before tracking across on a minor tread westwards to reach Robinson. It was getting hot by now so the last uphill section was quite tough, rising 150 metres up to the top of the mountain.
The views across to Grasmoor and the full range of hills to the south of the Whinlatter Pass are worth admiring from Robinson and there is a nice opportunity to attempt to name all of the surrounding hills. The descent now heads northeast and shortly includes some rocky descents where you simply need to watch your balance. There is a beautiful spot to tarry a while at the point where the decision is made either to drop into the valley or to continue on the Blea Crag ridge. I chose the former, and within 20 minutes on broad grassy paths I reached the minor road at Low High Snab. It is a further mile from here to the car park near Chapel Bridge. This would also make a good starting point for a circular using the path which climbs east upwards to meet the path coming across from Cat Bells.
