Approaching the head of Ullswater the traveller cannot help but notice Arnison Crag, its rugged little ridge climbing directly from the village of Patterdale to an eye-catching rock pulpit. Tenuously connected to St Sunday Crag, it is intimately rooted in the Patterdale fraternity of fells and has two contrasting aspects: juniper-clothed crags and coarse scree fall directly eastward, while to the west lies Glemara Park, its beautiful oak wood carpeted by bracken and, in season, bluebells.
Dwarfed by surrounding heights, yet possessing characteristics many a mightier fell would envy, this is a worthy, yet easily won fellwalking prize. The summit is a place to linger and consider the picturesque qualities of Patterdale, the head of Ullswater and the Hartsop vale: green valleys bound by high fells.
In most cases this ascent is but the first stage on the greater climb to St Sunday Crag across Trough Head. For all the simplicity of the ridge there are several subtle variations to the ascent, with a choice of two distinctly different circular walks. Both begin with the north ridge and provide attractive return options through Glemara Park (4) or lower Deepdale (5 or 6).
Arnison Crag from below Boredale Hause
Ascent from Patterdale 24
Three routes lead up from the village – two pathless and beset by bracken in summer and one fit for all seasons.
Direct →1.3km/¾ mile ↑290m/950ft
1 Either walk round to the right of the Patterdale Hotel or follow a signed footpath off the main road further south, just past the village shop, leading up a track. At a stone building this path branches left, passing the birch wood environs of Mill Moss to reach a kissing-gate onto the open fell where these two options converge. Three lines of ascent can be considered from here.
The least-walked way aims for a subsidiary knot on the eastern scarp, crowned with the best cairn on the fell. Bear left beside the fence skirting the marshy ground and join a sheep trod crossing to a wall. Go right and, as the wall curves left, continue up the slope trending left. Climb to the stony gully leading to a notch to find the cairn up to the left, a superb, little visited viewpoint above the Goldrill vale. Continue ascending the steep bank to join a ridge path, itself little better than a sheep trod, and thereby progress up to the summit.
2 Alternatively start with Route 1 and then head straight up the pathless bracken slope to crest Oxford Crag, turning left at the wall to join the main path. 3 The only way when the bracken is king is to follow the footpath to the deer-park wall kissing-gate. Here turn left to ascend the popular path, keeping the park wall close right. High up the wall bends as the gradient eases. Beyond this point you have a choice. Either continue to the broad ridge-top hollow, and slant left up a path to swing round onto the summit from the south. Or, alternatively, bear left onto a sheep trod then smartly right, continuing up the rocky ridge to the skyline notch between the twin summit outcrops and climbing right to the main top (not shown on map).
Via Glemara Park →2.8km/1¾ miles ↑315m/1050ft
The north-facing valley of Glemara Park offers a surreptitious approach.
4 Follow Route 1 to the deer-park wall kissing-gate. Go through the gate, holding to the footpath which fords Hag Beck. After some 70m bear off left with a tractor track which winds up the bank. As this fades contour left to ford Hag Beck and accompany its east bank up to a metal ladder-stile, crossing the deer-park wall at the dale head. Turn left ascending close to the wall, and at its high point bear right onto the ridge, climbing to the summit from the broad depression in company with Route 3.
The crag from the higher ridge-top knoll to the southwest
Ascent from Deepdale Bridge 23
Via Deepdale →4.7km/3 miles ↑335m/1100ft
Southern approaches may also begin from Patterdale if you follow the roadside footway north, branching onto the bridle-track at the cattle grid and joining these routes at Lane Head.
Follow the walled lane to Lane Head. Here go left on the gated track bound for Wall End, passing to the right of Deepdale Hall Farm.
Here either 5 follow the steep shepherds’ path, best in winter when the bracken is low, heading north from the Hall, west towards the gill and then due north to the cross-paths in the depression just west of the summit, or 6 continue down the track to where the telephone wires slant across the path and go right, keeping beneath their line on a ramped green track. Continue to the right of the wall corner into a confined groove. As you gain height a path materialises, drifting up from the walled enclosures. This fords a gill below a confluence. Continue within the grooved path until bracken intervenes. Now bear up right (north), pathless, towards the ridge-top, gradually gaining a sheep track that passes a ruined fold to reach the Trough Head cross-paths. Turn northeast (half right) along the undulating ridge path.
Summit looking to Ullswater
The summit
For all the surrounding rock there are precious few loose pieces so the summit is marked by a small cairn resting on the ledge visible from the youth hostel. This is undeniably the summit, even though the undulating grassy ridge continuing to Trough Head swells over one higher, unnamed and far less distinguished, grassy knoll.
Safe descents
The fell-top is marshalled by crags, so in mist leave the summit SW to follow the path down to the broad depression. Join the path that leads N (3), accompanying the old deer-park wall down to the Patterdale footpath.
Ridge route
Birks →2km/1¼ miles ↓80m/260ft ↑230m/750ft
Leave the summit SW to follow the path down to the broad depression. Here turn right and soon left to follow the ridge path SSW. As it crosses the highest point, bear off right to accompany the deer-park wall down to the dale head. Do not cross the metal ladder-stile, but instead turn left beside Hag Beck (as to Trough Head) and immediately branch steeply right beside the broken wall mounting west onto the top of Birks.
2
Birkhouse Moor 718m/2356ft
| Start | |
| Climb it from | Glenridding 25 or Patterdale 24 |
| Character | Conclusive eastern end to the Striding Edge ridge commanding Glenridding |
| Fell-friendly route | 3 |
| Summit grid ref | NY 363 160 |
| Link it with | Helvellyn |
Two striking ridges run down from the summit of Helvellyn on either side of Red Tarn – to the north Swirral Edge culminates in an abrupt flourish on Catstycam while Striding Edge to the south forges east over High Spying How to connect with the stately mass of Birkhouse Moor. From its summit the ridge falls in stepped stages towards Ullswater.
The rocky knob of Keldas, the loveliest asset of Birkhouse Moor, adorned with pines and flanked with bluebells, forms the eastern extremity of