Birkhouse Moor

Plenty of walkers treat Birkhouse Moor as a staging post, because the path from Glenridding to Striding Edge crosses it. Stop on the top, though, and you have Helvellyn and both its edges in full view.

Start in Glenridding, from the National Park pay and display car park in the village or the Ullswater Steamers car park (NY 386 169). One way climbs past the village hall to Lanty's Tarn, then up the long wall on the east ridge, with Ullswater behind you. The other follows the path beside Mires Beck. Both reach the ridge wall and follow it west to the Hole in the Wall, the gap on the ridge towards Striding Edge, now crossed by a tall ladder stile. You can also come up from the mouth of Grisedale. The paths are well made and rough in places. There is no scrambling on Birkhouse Moor itself.

The plateau is shaped like a bird's foot, with three short spurs: Keldas, The Nab and an unnamed north ridge. The true summit is a low pile of stones by the wall, on the side nearest Striding Edge. A second cairned top sits about 400 m north, above The Nab, with marshy ground and small pools between the two. From the main top you look straight at Helvellyn with Striding and Swirral Edges curling round Red Tarn.

Lanty's Tarn takes its name from Lancelot Dobson, who owned it in the 18th century. The Marshall family later enlarged it and cut ice from it, and their ice house still stands nearby. On the Glenridding side you can still trace leats and pipelines from Greenside Mine.