Dovedale Round

Joe Jackson

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The Dovedale Round is a truly excellent walk offering outstanding views throughout. Starting off at the car park by the north end of Brothers Water, the route follows a path up a long and undulating ridge with its high point named Hartsop above How. The summit has a tiny cairn and is a little rocky, but offers great views down the ridge to the eastern fells and up to Hart Crag and St Sunday Crag. The route continues to follow the ridge with an optional east scramble up to the highest point on the walk: Hart Crag. From this lofty position the views extend over to the Coniston Fells, Lake Windermere, Morecambe Bay and the far eastern fells. The path linking this summit with the next is simple and easy to follow, with great views east and west.

The rocky top of the next mountain is Dove Crag and offers equally lovely views all round. Descent from Dove Crag follows a well-defined path to the lower summit of Little Hart Crag and offers the best view south down Scandale. It's a simple ridge walk on grass to get to the next peak, which is High Hartsop Dodd and the entire return journey can be seen from this point. At the bottom of the fell are the remains of an ancient Romano-British settlement, with lots of lumps and bumps clearly visible from the path. There are also several standing stones within the settlement, making some people believe that it may at one point have been a henge. From here it's a simple stroll back to the parking area.

England - North England - Cumbria - Lake District - North East

Features

Ancient Monument, Birds, Great Views, Hills or Fells, Lake/Loch, Mountains, National Trust, Public Transport, Wildlife, Woodland

7/15/2018 - Stuart Berry

This is a fantastic walk which we did 15/07/18 on a warm and sunny day. As usual at the top of Fairfield the wind is very strong and layers of clothing are needed even when the sun is strong in the sky. The stile at Waymark 4 is broken and the fence has barbed wire on the top of it so it is difficult to get over. We found some of the grid reference slightly differed from our GPS

8/8/2014 - Robert Hughes

I did this walk in just under four and a half hours so checked the distance. I made it more like 7.5 miles rather than 8.7. Perhaps this is worth checking.

8/8/2014 - Robert Hughes

This is an outstanding walk with great views from start to finish. The ascent is generally gradual apart from the final section up to the summit of Hart Crag. The descents are steep in places especially the final drop to the valley. The directions were easy to follow though these few additions may help. WM6-7: I couldn't detect where the path divides but what appeared to be the main route involved a short sharp ascent up loose rocks and boulders just before the summit. WM9-10: The fence line you follow takes a 60 degree right half way along this section and then, close to WM10 turn slightly left off the main path to the clear summit ahead. WM11-12: You cross a wall where it has fallen down before reaching the stile at WM12.