Bowscale Fell

Mungrisdale sits right under Bowscale Fell, and the direct route leaves from the village. Park at the Recreation Rooms or by the telephone box, where there are honesty boxes. Go north past the church and up a lane beside an old quarry, then climb a steep grass path through gorse on Raven Crags. Once you reach the ridge it eases into a broad, sometimes boggy walk over two tops to the summit, which has a windshelter and cairns. Carry on over the col to Bannerdale Crags and come back down the Glenderamackin, crossing the footbridge that replaced the one lost in the Storm Desmond floods of 2015. The loop is about 8 km with 500 metres of climbing.

A gentler line follows the track up the Glenderamackin to the col at the head of Bannerdale. There is no scrambling on any of the usual routes, though the ground is rough and wet in places.

The summit ridge is grassy, with small pools. From the top you see Blencathra and Sharp Edge, and a gap at Glenderaterra opens up a view across to the North Western Fells.

The tarn

Bowscale Tarn lies well below the top, in a hollow scooped out of the northern face, dammed by a moraine and about 17 or 18 metres deep. The Victorians rode up to it on ponies, and their track still starts at the hamlet of Bowscale, where there is a small parking area. Local legend says the tarn holds two fish that never die, and in one version of the tale one of them can speak.