Fleetwith Pike

Fleetwith Edge rises almost from the shore at Gatesgarth, at the head of Buttermere, and looks intimidating from the valley. Park at Gatesgarth Farm for a small fee. Just past the last house on the Honister road, a path heads for Low Raven Crag, which looks impassable, then sneaks round its left side and zigzags up behind it. Above the crag the ridge path climbs a string of rocky steps that need your hands in places. None of it is hard, and there is usually a way round to either side if you don't stray far. A false summit at about 450 metres shows the last, steeper stretch.

The other start is the top of Honister Pass, where the slate mine has car parks and the seasonal 77 Honister Rambler bus stops. From there a route goes through the quarry workings and over Black Star, the 630 metre top of Honister Crag, and then across easy ground to the summit.

The white cross

Low Raven Crag carries a white cross, clear from the valley. Friends of Fanny Mercer put it up after she was killed in a fall on the ridge in 1887.

The summit cairn sits among grass and heather a few yards back from the top of the Edge. The view back down the valley takes in Buttermere, Crummock Water and Loweswater, with Pillar and Great Gable close at hand.

The Honister face of the fell has been quarried for green slate since the 1750s. Work stopped in 1986 and started again in 1997. A good way down passes Dubs Hut, a quarry bothy now looked after by the Mountain Bothies Association, then drops by Warnscale Beck to Warnscale Bottom and back to Gatesgarth.