Crinkle Crags (Long Top)

Start in Great Langdale, at the National Trust car park by the Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel at the end of the valley road. The 516 bus from Ambleside ends there too. The top of Wrynose Pass gives the shortest way onto the ridge, but most people walk the crinkles as a horseshoe round the head of Oxendale.

The classic round goes past Stool End Farm into Oxendale and up the stone path beside Browney Gill to the col at Red Tarn. Turn west past Great Knott onto the first crinkle, cross all five north to Three Tarns, and either come down The Band or carry on over Bowfell.

The Bad Step

Long Top, the highest point, is the second crinkle. Just before it the ridge is blocked by a short, steep gully with two chockstones jammed in it. You can climb straight up on good holds, but most walkers take the easier bypass that zigzags up on the left. The Bad Step catches out more people going north to south, when they arrive at the top of it by surprise.

The rest of the ridge is rocky and rough, with scree on the steep bits and short clambers over boulders all the way. There is rarely one clear path, just several boot-worn lines, and in places crags drop away close by. In mist the twists of the ridge make it hard to be sure which crinkle you are on, so keep your map and compass handy.

From Long Top you look down into Great Langdale, Eskdale and Dunnerdale, out to the estuaries on the coast, and across to Scafell Pike about four kilometres to the north west.