High Doat

We followed the footpath to Peat Howe from Rosthwaite and this went near to the back of some houses that I never realised were there...Rosthwaite is a bit bigger than I imagined. After we crossed the bridge over the River Derwent we headed towards the Youth Hostel. I had a meandering few minutes as I tried to locate the required footpath. The gate entrance was secreted at the back of the campsite with no fingerpost which didn't help. The footpath countoured around the base of High Doat and then went upwards a little to Scaleclose Gill. The gill turned out to be quite deep and had a small waterfall. We gradually climbed around to the west of High Doat and reached an obvious track leading up to its summit. We completed an out-and-back on this track. The summit offered great all-round views of Borrowdale and was well worth the effort to climb up. The sun even came out and illuminated Castle Crag to the north in a golden glow. That was where we were heading next and we started the descent from High Doat's summit. It had been a good start to the walk.

Grange

A pleasant track led us northwards towards Castle Crag. It followed the contour of the hillside and so was easy walking. A farmer on an ATV was rounding up some sheep on the fell above us. I had thought about doing an out-and-back to climb Castle Crag on this walk, but I'd done it quite a few times recently, and so I decided to give it a miss today. Just beyond it we met an elderly man walking his Poodle and we started chatting. The dog was a wonderful apricot colour and was only 15 months old. The guy must have been local since when I told him about our intended route up to Grange Crag, he gave me a status report on the footpaths, which was quite useful. When we departed, the Poodle seemed undecided as to who to follow, his owner or us. In the end, he opted for the owner, which was a bit of a shame.

At Grange we sat on a bench and had a coffee. Grange Crag and King's How loomed large above us. I just hoped that there wasn't as much undergrowth as the last time I tried this footpath. Stimulated by the caffeine we set off with determination to conquer these two Explorer hills.

Grange Crag And King's How

The route up to Grange Crag was transformed from my last visit. Gone were the chest high ferns and consequently route finding was much easier. The track to us a large boulder that must have been quite a spectacle when it fell down from King's How above us. We headed north, hopped over a stile and within 10 minutes we were at the top of Grange Crag with a wonderful view northwards to Derwent Water and snowy Skiddaw beyond. In fact, the views across the valley to High Spy and Cat Bell's were equally as good. It was hard to drag ourselves away from the craggy top. Especially, as the next section of the walk is where I went astray in September 2022. 

We headed back to the large boulder and then followed a track downwards towards the beck. The route was familiar to me from last time and seemed straight forward enough as it climbed into woodland below the crags of King's How. After a few minutes following the path, I thought I detected a track going off uphill to the right. It didn't look a significant track, but I wondered if this might have been the point where I should have turned off last time. Previously, I'd continued along the track that followed the beck upwards. I decided to give this vague track to the right a go and within 20 yards we reached the stone staircase up to King's How. Wahoo! The next 15 minutes involved a plod up the steep and slippery stone staircase. It was100% better than my off-piste route near to the beck. Eventually it levelled out and wound upwards to the final summit crag. As with Grange Crag, there were incredible views over to Derwent Water and the fells across the valley. We found a sheltered spot and ate lunch whilst watching a yacht tack lazily across Derwent Water.

Return

We descended from the craggy top of King's How and started making our way southwards across boggy fell.  I've walked this path a few times now and so am now familiar at the point you turn off eastwards towards Brund Fell (aka Grange Fell). Its summit is a collection of hillocks and large boulders. There are plenty of tracks going in different directions and this could be confusing in mist. There was no problem today though and we were soon standing on the top of Brund Fell's summit. Two women and their two dogs were seated just below us. They set off towards the charmingly named Puddingstone Bank, which is at the top of the pass between Rosthwaite and Watendlath. That was the way we were heading too and we followed them down. We held back as they struggled to get one dog over a high stile. At the top of the pass we joined other walkers who were making their way down to Rosthwaite on the well worn path. We hadn't seen the sun since lunchtime and it didn't look like it was going to join us on this last stretch of the walk either. At least we'd got the sun when it mattered, on the top of Grange Crag and King's How. 

Three Explorer hills ticked today. That's not a bad tally. Why Wainwright had not included King's How in his infamous list of Lakeland peaks is a bit of a mystery to me. I'm certainly including it in my Wainwright's Missed Gems list. I was glad to have finally found that secret stone staircase up to its summit. It had turned out to be another Lakeland classic day's walking from Rosthwaite.