Ard Crags

From most of the Newlands valley Ard Crags is easy to miss beneath Causey Pike and Crag Hill, but from Rigg Beck it sharpens into a neat pyramid. It sits on a lower ridge running parallel to the main Coledale skyline, and nearly everyone climbs it with Knott Rigg, its partner on the same crest.

The easy way starts high. There is informal parking at Newlands Hause, the top of the Buttermere road at 333m. A short signpost on the far corner from the Moss Force path marks the start, and a steep grassy bank takes you up to Knott Rigg. From there the ridge path wanders over grass and then heather, crosses the small bump of Ill Crag and makes a last climb to Ard Crags. Out and back is about 5.6km with under 400m of ascent.

The other start is at Rigg Beck in Newlands, going straight up the east ridge past Aikin Knott, the rocky nose that sometimes lends the whole fell its name. Above the knott the ridge narrows. Neither route needs hands, but the sides of the ridge are steep and the upper path runs through deep heather.

The top is a narrow heathery crest with a small cairn. The higher ridge to the north blocks much of the view that way, and what you do see is the drop straight into Newlands. Scafell Pike shows through a gap to the south, about 13km away, and Causey Pike stands up well across Rigg Beck.

Rigg Beck was home to the purple house, a brightly painted building that burned down in June 2008.