Helm Crag
This relatively short and steep, exhilarating, walk is perfect for a fine summer evening walk of a few hours. Or one of those less than perfect days when you need to 'blow the cobwebs away' ...
The rocks of the summit area have various names: the southeast pinnacles as seen from Grasmere are "The Lion and Lamb". At the other end of the ridge is "The Howitzer" or "The Old Lady Playing the Organ" and is regarded as the true summit.
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Helm Crag
This walk takes you to the top of the following hills: Butharlyp Howe and Helm Crag; and includes 1 Wainwright and 1 Birkett.
- Maps:
50K: 90
25K: OL5, OL7
- Start:
- NY337074 (get directions via Google Maps)
- Near to:
- Ambleside, Grasmere, Grasmere village
- Tags:
- Birketts, Wainwrights
- Distance:
- 6.4km (4.0 miles)
- Ascent:
- 341m
- Min. time:
- 1 hrs 51 mins
- View in 3-D:
-
- Terrain:
- 4 - hands on rock/steep/loose scree
- Bog Factor:
- 1 - none
- Tech Diff:
- 4 - pathless/high plateau/minor scrambling
- Dog issues:
- None
Purchases:
Buy walk in Adobe/PDF format to print or for your phone or tablet
Buy route for your GPS
Walk height profile
note that gradients are usually grossly exaggerated
Route Description
Opposite the Cunningham's Outdoor shop is Easedale Road, on the wall beside the turning is a large slate sign painted "Easedale Tarn" and an arrow. Follow this minor road past the Youth Hostel, houses and holiday cottages, and Goody Bridge over Easedale Beck. Continue as the road sweeps right, then left and across the pasture to the small hamlet at the foot of Helm Crag.
Between buildings, turn right into the rough lane signposted "Public Bridleway Far Easedale Helm Crag Footpath".
Helm Crag from Easedale Road
At the top of the lane go through the gate and turn left. In 50m (55 yards) turn right onto the track signposted "Helm Crag". Go through another gateway and bear first right, then left up on the zigzag path. Join the path alongside the wall which ascends a flight of engineered steps. The NT are working on this section to improve drainage and make it more walker friendly.
At the top of the steps it takes a long zigzag, and has a new section of path. Climb to the col and at the cairn turn left.
The path now gets a little scrambly at times, if it's wet and greasy try the bypasses over to the left. Continue to the summit area which is a rather shattered affair with large blocks strewn around.
Helm Crag, new path
Helm Crag, The Howitzer
Return by the route of ascent.
If you like this walk then why not try one of our other nearby walks:
Unless otherwise stated the text in this walk is the copyright of Hug Solutions Ltd trading as The Hug and the photographs are the copyright of Elizabeth Oldham. Hill data is derived from Database of British and Irish hills which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Maps contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2011 and paths © OpenStreetMap Contributors,CC-BY-SA, 2011