Haystacks

Gatesgarth Farm, at the head of Buttermere, has the car park most walkers use for Haystacks, and the Honister Rambler bus (77) runs past it in season. Cross the valley floor by Peggy's Bridge and climb the path to Scarth Gap, the pass between Haystacks and High Crag. From the pass a zigzag path goes up the rocky end of the fell, with a few short sections where you need your hands. None of it is difficult.

The usual way back is east past Innominate Tarn and Blackbeck Tarn, then down into Warnscale on loose scree and gravel, crossing the beck on stepping stones. A shorter approach starts at the top of Honister Pass: take the old quarry track to the Drum House and on past Dubs Quarry, which saves a lot of climbing. From Ennerdale, Scarth Gap is close to Black Sail youth hostel.

The top

This is not a smooth summit. The top is a short rocky spine lying across the line of the ridge, with a cairn at each end and a small tarn between them. The northern cairn is the accepted highest point. Around it are knolls, heather, crags and pools, and you can easily spend an hour wandering among them. You look across to Gable Crag, down Ennerdale to its lake, and along Buttermere to Crummock Water.

Alfred Wainwright's ashes were scattered at Innominate Tarn, just east of the summit, as he had asked. The crag on the north face above Gatesgarth has no name on Ordnance Survey maps, but it is known as Big Stack.