Summit looking to Ullswater
The summit
For all the surrounding rock there are precious few loose pieces so the summit is marked by a small cairn resting on the ledge visible from the youth hostel. This is undeniably the summit, even though the undulating grassy ridge continuing to Trough Head swells over one higher, unnamed and far less distinguished, grassy knoll.
Safe descents
The fell-top is marshalled by crags, so in mist leave the summit SW to follow the path down to the broad depression. Join the path that leads N (3), accompanying the old deer-park wall down to the Patterdale footpath.
Ridge route
Birks →2km/1¼ miles ↓80m/260ft ↑230m/750ft
Leave the summit SW to follow the path down to the broad depression. Here turn right and soon left to follow the ridge path SSW. As it crosses the highest point, bear off right to accompany the deer-park wall down to the dale head. Do not cross the metal ladder-stile, but instead turn left beside Hag Beck (as to Trough Head) and immediately branch steeply right beside the broken wall mounting west onto the top of Birks.
2
Birkhouse Moor 718m/2356ft
| Start | |
| Climb it from | Glenridding 25 or Patterdale 24 |
| Character | Conclusive eastern end to the Striding Edge ridge commanding Glenridding |
| Fell-friendly route | 3 |
| Summit grid ref | NY 363 160 |
| Link it with | Helvellyn |
Two striking ridges run down from the summit of Helvellyn on either side of Red Tarn – to the north Swirral Edge culminates in an abrupt flourish on Catstycam while Striding Edge to the south forges east over High Spying How to connect with the stately mass of Birkhouse Moor. From its summit the ridge falls in stepped stages towards Ullswater.
The rocky knob of Keldas, the loveliest asset of Birkhouse Moor, adorned with pines and flanked with bluebells, forms the eastern extremity of this ridge. It offers the most exquisite view of the lake’s upper reach, especially when canoes, yachts and the steamer bring colour and life to the scene.
Birkhouse Moor has inevitably become a means to an end – a staging post to greater things – and seldom an end in itself. Nevertheless, the fell has two exclusive ascents off the main tracks to Helvellyn. Two ridges rise to the subsidiary summit, north of the ridge wall. The north ridge (6), climbing directly above the environs of the Greenside Mine, is least defined while the northeast ridge (5), rising to the Nab and peering into Blea Cove, tackles an inviting succession of rocky steps and is the best approach to the fell.
Birkhouse Moor from Heron Pike
Ascent from Glenridding 25
A succession of lovely paths seek out the ultimate height from Glenridding. Take the fell by the scruff of the neck, climbing one or other of the two ridges soaring out of Glenridding either side of Blea Cove (5–6), or climb by steps and stages via the low eastern end of the ridge (1–4).
Via (Keldas and) Lanty’s Tarn →3.5km/2¼ miles ↑600m/1960ft
The pine-dappled top of Keldas is the ideal place to get your bearings.
1 Leave the car park and turn right on the main street to cross Glenridding Beck and turn right again along the lane (signed to ‘Gillside Farm, no vehicles’). This leads by Glenridding Public Hall through Eagle Farm. At the fork keep left with the main track to Westside Cottages. The path splits as it passes the cottages but then merges again. The well-waymarked and hand-gated path winds up, part-pitched, to a kissing-gate. Continue the zig-zagging ascent across what, in May, is a beautiful bluebell bank. On reaching a second kissing-gate, do not go through but switch left, signed ‘Striding Edge, Grisedale’.
Just before a third kissing-gate, you have the option of detouring left to cross a stile on the left, beside a padlocked gate, and follow the one permitted path up to the summit of Keldas. Return via the same path.
Gazing over the beautiful upper reach of Ullswater from Keldas
Continuing on to Birkhouse Moor, another choice presents itself. One option is to go up the ridge with the plantation wall close left, passing a massive volcanic erratic, go through a small hand-gate and then a ladder-stile and ascend the ridge (pathlessly) to meet the popular Mires Beck path above the circular sheepfold and follow Route 3 to the summit.
The other is to go through the kissing-gate ahead to visit the conifer-screened reservoir of Lanty’s Tarn. As the track breaks to open pasture on the right, you can cut back right (west) to the route up the ridge or sweep down to the enclosure corner, meeting up with Route 7 at a hand-gate.
Waves of bluebells line the path on the descent from Lanty’s Tarn
Via Mires Beck →3.5km/2¼ miles ↑600m/1960ft
2 Follow Route 1 as far as the fork in the track and bear right here to stay with the beck and arrive at Rattlebeck Bridge and the Gillside camping site. Ascend the track from Rattlebeck Bridge, signed ‘Helvellyn via Mires Beck’, passing through a stile/gate up to a fork below ‘Miresbeck’ cottage. With Birkhouse Moor to the fore, go right on the stony path to the ladder-stile/gate in the intake wall.
Four routes embark from the far side of the stile. 3 From the ladder-stile, bend left (southwest) on the Mires Beck path to ford the beck and continue up on a sturdy path which follows it up on the left. From the top of the beck the path climbs, initially close to the ridge wall, drifting away right to gain the broad top of the fell and then coming close to the wall again at the ragged cairn on the true summit.
4 The steadiest route of all begins with the Mires Beck path (3) but bears left. Watch for waymarks after the ford on a path that runs above the intake wall to curve up onto the ridge at a gate/stile. From here, follow the ridge wall (the pathless option on Route 1) to meet up with Route 3 again above the circular sheepfold. Alternatively continue on your ascent path over the ridge, through Brownend Plantation, via a kissing-gate. Here turn right to join the throng bound for the Hole-in-the-Wall on Route 8.
Via the northeast ridge →3.6km/2¼ miles ↑570m/1865ft
Direct
