Burnbank Fell

Burnbank Fell sits right on the north west edge of the National Park, the most westerly of the Loweswater Fells, with the Marron valley and the coastal towns beyond. Its steep slopes above Holme Wood look impressive from the lake for a hill of 475 metres.

The layby by the telephone box at Waterend, at the northern end of Loweswater, has room for about a dozen cars. A footpath crosses Dub Beck to Hudson Place farm, where cattle graze the fields in spring as well as summer, and enters the National Trust's Holme Wood. A rough track climbs past Holme Force, a pair of waterfalls side by side, to a terraced track along the fellside with a bench and wide views over Loweswater to the Grasmoor fells. From a gate on the terrace a faint path climbs steep grass above an old mine level to a pair of cairns, then crosses boggy ground to the summit. Maggie's Bridge car park is the other start, and Blake Fell is an easy walk south along the broad ridge. From Lamplugh on the west the obvious line is up Owsen Fell, but access there is uncertain.

The fell is almost all grass. There is no scrambling, though the faint paths on the steep upper slope are not ideal in poor visibility.

The top is a rounded grassy dome with an old fence post and a small cairn. Blake Fell blocks much of Lakeland, Loweswater is hidden by the slope, and Crummock Water appears a few paces north east. The view the other way is wide open: the coast, the Solway Firth, Criffel and the Isle of Man.

Below the fell, outside the park, Mockerkin Tarn has water lilies and a local legend of a town drowned beneath it.