This ridge goes over some attractive but seldom-visited places with many fine views. The start is Grasmere and any of the central car parks will be suitable from which to begin the walk. The conventional start is to walk up Easedale Road found leading from the centre of the village opposite Sam Read's bookshop and next to W. Heaton Cooper’s studio, but there is a more interesting variation. For this, go north-west up the metalled lane opposite the Red Lion Hotel that leads past the house of Allan Bank and curves round to some cottages beyond them. A finger-post to the right of the last of these then signs the footpath down a field to the north-east to cross Easedale Beck on stepping-stones and reach Goody Bridge Farm. You now have to turn left onto the road, the normal route, up Easedale for a very short way until it swings right, with a gate just beyond, when you should leave it again. The footpath is now signed (for Easedale Tarn to the north-east, crossing the Easedale Beck by a footbridge and leading across level meadows towards the white waterfalls of Sourmilk Gill which you can see ahead. Looking beyond and just left of the falls, you should be able to pick out a small grey crag and immediately behind it, on the far side of Easedale Tarn, is Tarn Crag, the first objective.

Accompany the band of pilgrims (there is normally a steady stream of them coming up here) on the pitched path beside the gill to where it takes an obvious left turn (south-west) at the head of the falls. This is where you leave it to cross the beck on large stones and follow a convenient trod to gain the base of the long broad ridge, with Tarn Crag ahead, dividing Easedale from Upper Easedale. The slope is well clothed in bracken lower down, turning toast-brown in autumn. As you gain height, the ridge sharpens, passing an outcrop where a jutting slab of rock forms a little cave. Above this, although the path is vague in places, the natural way to go is clearly along the top edges of a series of low crags, then several undulations over rocky ground lead to a grassy col, just before and to the left of the sharp profile of Deer Bield Crag, a rock-climbers’ playground overlooking Far Easedale. To its left and higher up you will see the rocky face of Tarn Crag, the actual peak being an elegant sharp-pointed rock to the right of the face. It looks as though it will be a tough struggle to get up there through a jumble of boulders but, in fact, an easy zigzag path leads through it, curving round the summit on its left, to reach a little rocky platform, no more than twelve paces by six, with a few stones and a cairn.

Apart from the fine view back down Easedale towards Grasmere, you should just be able to see Codale Tarn, backed by Pavey Ark and Harrison Stickle. Walk over to another cairn, about 200 yards due south, for a superb bird’s-eye view of Easedale Tarn down below.

The broad and ill-defined ridge now leads west towards Codale Head and Sergeant Man, and there is a vague path with an occasional cairn but it soon fades and you have to find your own way along an indefinite edge high above Codale Tarn. Beyond that, the best way looks to be a climb up a grassy groove cut through the surrounding bilberries and rocky ground alongside a little stream - easier but wetter. You will begin to wonder why you ever bothered but, as the angle eases, a couple of tiny tarns are reached, then a few rusting iron posts marking the line of the old fence boundary between Cumberland and Westmorland. At last, here is a reasonable path and you can turn left along it, south-west, to where it leads round an outcrop. The conical rocky top seen ahead, beyond a very overgrown little tarn, is Sergeant Man.

Take a path down the slope to the east of the cairn. It almost immediately crosses a little stream flowing from one of the high tarns, then turns south-east and downhill towards Blea Rigg. Some way down the slope is a fine inclined slab of rock, from where Stickle Tarn and Pavey Ark can be seen. A little lower

down the slope flattens to a depression, and both sides of the ridge are now visible. Another cairned path leads down from here towards Codale Tarn and Easedale Tarn, but stick -with the main path -which continues south-east along the ridge, equally well-marked by cairns.

A gentle descent, then the crossing of an area of peat-hags follows, the path keeping just to the left of a series of slightly higher rocky outcrops, one of which overtops the others and has a cairn on its summit. This is Blea Rigg, an attractive little top, although almost nobody ever visits it, perhaps because much more dramatic views are gained looking out over Easedale from the rim of Blea Crag, a hundred yards or so to the north. From here, a glance back to Sergeant Man shows it as a tiny rock pimple beyond the dark broken rocks of Eagle Crag.

The main path now winds down between two little tarns and passes a third. Look back from here and you will see that Blea Rigg is really quite a noticeable uplift on the ridge. You will pass the rocky edge of Great Castle How, then the path winds down to a boggy depression on the ridge, Swinescar Hause, and then up again over Swinescar Pike, rounding a curve and bringing the tarns below the outcrop of Lang How into view. The largest of these, known locally as Youdell Tarn, is colonised by black-headed gulls whose raucous screeching is intended to ensure that you move along very quickly. The path skirts these on their left - there are three of them, and the third is full of isolated grass tussocks - then the main path turns north-east for Easedale. You need to leave it here, on a fainter trod to the ESE towards Silver How which you should now see as the next high point on the ridge.

There are several rounded grassy eminences on top of Silver How, but the cairn marking the summit will be found easily enough (except in mist, when it can be very confusing) with steep ground descending to a depression and scree gully on the north-east side towards Grasmere. Most ascents and descents use this way, and if it is desired to cut the walk short, this would be the best way to go now, turning left on an obvious path at the foot of the scree gully, when Grasmere is only about a mile away. To complete the planned walk, which from here takes a noticeable change of direction, turn south along the continuation of the ridge, on the top edge of the lovely wooded slopes overlooking Grasmere and Rydal Water. The path shortly leads past a substantial cairn, whose white top is clearly used as a bird loo, then descends quite sharply down a wide but short gully to a junction of paths.

A sharp turn left here would lead back below Silver How to Grasmere; a right turn would lead down to Megs Gill and Chapel Stile; but the grassy path you need crosses the depression here, leads ESE and is marked by cairns. It steers just below the ridge continuing towards Loughrigg Fell, on the Grasmere side. An undulating walk follows along this broad ridge, over the flattened pyramid top of Dow Bank and then reaches little tarn on a shelf just above a wide grassy trough. On the far side are the conifers of Hammerscar Plantation and, just a little lower down, to the right, you should see where the tarmac road crosses over Red Bank, between Grasmere and Elterwater. You will reach the road easily by descending a steep slanting path from the tarn and then veering south-east (right) across boggy land. Turn left along the road but slant off it almost immediately down the drive leading to the grounds of High Close Youth Hostel (National Trust sign: ‘High Close open to the public’). Follow the drive which becomes a good track, leading beneath superb trees and through rhododendrons, round several bends and eventually heading north-east so that Loughrigg Fell comes into sight ahead just before the track reaches the Grasmere-Skelwith Bridge road at a gate. Turn left here but only for twenty paces or so before turning right off the road to go steeply uphill on a little path. This curves to the right outside a plantation wall and then leads over a stile; a pleasant grass trod through bracken now leads uphill with a wall on the right, climbing a shoulder of Loughrigg Fell. When the wall turns away across the fell, the path continues uphill and joins the major path rising from the Grasmere end of Loughrigg Terrace. A right turn here leads up almost immediately to the finely situated trig point, on the highest of this delightful and complex fell’s three summits. Its fame as a viewpoint is surely well-known. Leave the summit of Loughrigg by reversing the last bit of the ascent and then following the obvious main path downhill. You will soon reach a huge collapsed cairn, the ‘Grasmere Cairn’, from where there is a splendid view over the lake. A steeper and rougher descent follows down some stretches of pitched path to the very end of the level walk of Loughrigg Terrace. Turn left here to a kissing-gate beyond which the paths fork. The left one returns to the road at the top of Red Bank, but the right-hand one sweeps in graceful curves through the delightful Deerbolts Wood, with glimpses over Grasmere, to reach the Red Bank road lower down at a cottage and ‘National Trust Deerbolts Wood’ sign. Turn down the road and trundle back to Grasmere village. What a surprisingly varied and, in parts, beautiful ridge walk.