Favourite Fell Days: Fleetwith Pike, Haystacks, Brandreth and Grey Knotts
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fabulous on HAYSTACKS summit
On a beautiful June day three years ago on Bro's birthday, we decided to tackle Fleetwith Pike, but then extended the walk to take in Haystacks, Brandreth and Grey Knotts to make a fantastic circular walk.
Parking in Keswick, we took the Honister Rambler up to Honister Slate Mine which is a great little bus ride with the added benefits of being able to enjoy the scenery and take the dog. The weather was as perfect as it could be; sharp, crystal clear light, a soft breeze but not too hot and being mid week, not that many people around either.
After a fortifying coffee and the best ever Rice Krispie cake from the mine's café, we set off up the track towards Bell Crags, then took our own slightly off piste route up and popped out above the old Hopper Quarry. A simple, undulating walk brought us to Fleetwith's summit and breathtaking it was too; surely one of the best views we'd seen so far on our walks. We stopped for a while just to drink it all in and took lots of photos, one of which ended up in Trail, The Great Outdoors, Trek & Mountain and Lakeland Walker magazines!
From Fleetwith, it was a fairly straightforward, though steep, descent down towards Dubs Quarry, across Warnscale Beck and then a good, rocky path on up to Haystacks. We had a lunch stop at Blackbeck Tarn, then took another slightly off piste round round Green Crag to avoid the sharp drops which weren’t appealing with a dog straining at the lead. From there it was a good, solid route up to Innominate Tarn where we paid our respects to Wainwright, then hot footed it up to the summit. And hot it certainly was, but there was lovely breeze on the top and the views were just amazing - right down the length of Buttermere and Crummock one way, then swinging round to Great and Green Gable behind with the Ennerdale Valley to the west.
Just beautiful
Fleetwith’s STUNNING summit views
After relaxing in the sun and something to eat and drink, we skirted Innominate Tarn and set off for Brandreth. At a stile in a fence, the path splits, high and low and of course we took the lower route which led away from Brandreth's summit. In our defence, we were distracted talking to a German chap who was walking the entire National Park from west to east and wasn’t too sure of his route.
When we realised we were slightly too far along the lower path, we checked the map and found we were in between Brandreth and Grey Knotts, so we took a direct route straight up and came out on the saddle between the two summits, looking from one to the other like demented tennis watchers.
Having been in this position several times before and ALWAYS making the wrong decision, experience has taught us to backtrack, so back we went to Brandreth, reasoning it would be a lot more effort to come all this way again and knowing that once you're actually on the path, it never seems that far and it wasn’t; really only about 15 minutes to reach the summit plateau, so we were quite pleased with our decision. We lingered a while, before setting off along the ridge back to the summit of Grey Knotts which was very simple and straightforward with fabulous views all around. It was then just a case of nipping back down the nose of Grey Knotts to the mine again.
innominate tarn on haystacks
wonderful views from haystacks on the way to brandreth
brandreth’s summit
A fabulous walk in perfect conditions with some of the best views yet. A great day.