The High Stile Ridge

I had had breakfast and was out of the youth hostel by 8.30 am walking in the cool morning air down the empty road to Buttermere Village. Passing the Fish Hotel I followed the track between hedges across the level fields towards the lake. From here in this light, High Stile appeared of alpine proportions, its soaring crags towering skywards from the grassy meadows I was crossing. Buttermere Lake too provided a stunning view over its mirror calm water to the head of the valley appearing like a Norwegian fiord below the vast mountain wall to the South.
The path crossed the outflow from Buttermere by a footbridge and entered the forest on its far side. Here the cascade of Sour Milk Gill descends from the forested slopes above but my path climbed steeply through the trees well to its left. It was warm climbing through the woods in the still air and I had to keep stopping to cool off every 10 minutes. Above the trees and the view opened out of Buttermere - now a long way below - with Grasmoor and Robinson hanging in the clear air across the valley while the path became even steeper turning into stone steps going straight up the slope. As the slope eased off and the path tracked back to the right across the slope, it became cooler and the view now included Crummock Water down the valley.

The route now follows an easier section passing above the Top of the rocky ravine containing Sour Milk Gill to reach Bleaberry Tarn in its hollow below High Stile and Red Pike. The Tarn is is invisible until you reach it and I was surprised to find someone fly fishing here at this early hour. He reckoned that there were trout in there so I wished him good luck and carried on up more stone steps leading up to Red Pike. The steps are a bit of a grind but the last part has some excitement turning into an easy scramble up the steep summit of Red Pike always with stunning views and a sense of height behind.

I now put my coat on as the wind was no longer warm as I admired the view from Red Pike. The forests of Ennerdale surrounded Ennerdale Water over the far side while the West Cumbria plain stretched away to the Solway Firth with Scotland's Galloway Hills beyond. The rugged Pillar with Great Gable and the Scafells beyond were topped by grey cloud though we remained clear here.

In contrast to the steep ascent, gentle mainly grassy slopes led towards High Stile and only the last part of the ascent to its summit became rough again but this was what the rest of the route would be like. These mountains are composed of hard volcanic rock and their slopes are typified by acres of sharp shifting stones and the rocky escarpment falling away - often vertically - in gullies and butresses on the Buttermere side. It's a fantastic ridge walk but there's no way off for the walker without a paraglider between Red Pike and High Crag!

The cloud scraped the top of High Stile and the wind was chilly registering 9C on my rucksack thermometer as I ate my lunch before continuing on a rough up and down ridge towards High Crag at its eastern end. The highest point of High Stile by the way appears to be the first cairn you reach - there being another a 5 minute walk beyond it on a level plateau.

The weather improved with the cloud lifting and the Sun emerging as I reached High Crag - the most impressive of the 3 summits if the lowest. The wilds of Ennerdale lay below with Pillar opposite while the end of the ridge fell away in spectacular fashion with the rocky towers of Haystacks below. There's a track leading along Ennerdale to Black Sail Youth Hostel - 7 milles or so from the road - that would make a good bike ride by the looks of it. I'll give it a try and let you know.

The path from High Crag now descends the feature known as Gamlin End - a steep eroded slope of sliding stones and holdless gravel. There was in fact only one place where bottom and ground made contact but the 2000 foot drop to the Buttermere Valley isn't quite so pretty when one is sliding downhill towards it! It wasn't as bad as it sounds though - the slope went into a bank of stones that would prevent anyone falling down the slope and soon I was descending the tight zig zags of a stone pathway.

A short while later I was resting on a much more comfortable rocky shelf overlooking the last descent to Scarth Gap - the pass linking Buttermere and Ennerdale. People milled below on their way to the popular Haystacks and I opted to climb it on a quieter day. The weather was perfect - warm but not hot and blue sky now framed the fells at the head of Ennerdale having replaced their grey cloud caps. I set off down to the pass where I was greeted by a mountain biker carrying his machine over the rocky ground. In my view a route ceases to be bikable if you can't ride your bike over it. I'm loath to push a bike up a hill let alone carry it!

Lower down I met 2 more cyclists who said their guide book had recommended this as a route. I don't know which book they were using but I told them Ennerdale would be good but not not perhaps by this path and asked if the guy up ahead was with them.

"oh Yeah" they replied, "but he's extreme!"

Turning left at the bottom of Scarth Gap brought me onto the Buttermere lakeside track which was definitely more suited to bikes. This track follows the south shore of Buttermere opposite the one I'd been on yesterday and is even easier being passable to pushchairs and toddlers for all of its length. In fact it seemed that most of the visitors to Buttermere had decided to walk or push their prams along here today.

Through the pleasant coolness of Birtness Wood and back again to the Fish Hotel which I resisted a second time though - failing to also resist the Bridge Hotel - popped in for a pint as they had Black Sheep on tap - a particularly good beer!

Summits >>> Red Pike 755m/2477ft >>> High Stile 807m/2648ft >>> High Crag 744m/2441ft

Essentials >>> 7.5 miles or 12km of walking >>> 2600 feet or 800m of ascent >>> Start and finish at Buttermere Village >>>

Pete Buckley September 2009