Birks

Walkers bound for Saint Sunday Crag cross Birks on the way up its long north-east ridge, often without stopping. On its own, or with Arnison Crag, it makes a half day from Patterdale.

Every sensible approach starts in Patterdale. The pay car park at the Patterdale Hotel (NY 395 159) fills fast at weekends. From the village a lane leads towards Grisedale, then a path climbs through the woods of Glenamara Park beside Hag Beck and follows a ruined wall up to the top. The upper path is stone pitched through the bracken, steep in places but with no scrambling. A rougher alternative goes up by Thornhow End and threads through Black Crag.

The summit is a plain grassy ridge with a small cairn. Its north and west flanks fall away in crags to Grisedale, and the south side is steep grass down to Deepdale. The best of the view is the lower reach of Ullswater, and across Grisedale you look at Birkhouse Moor and into Nethermost Cove.

Saint Sunday Crag is about 240 m higher and a short walk on, with a few ups and downs along the ridge. If you are heading back to the village, a faint path runs east along the ridge to Trough Head, which joins it to Arnison Crag. That ground is boggy. The loop over both tops and back to the hotel is about 8 km. Glenamara Park carries National Trust cattle, grazed there to control bracken.