High Pike [Scandale]

High Pike rises only about five metres above the ridge behind it, so it is really a shoulder of Dove Crag. Its cairn stands right on the edge of the crags that drop into Scandale.

It sits on the eastern arm of the Fairfield Horseshoe, and walkers going clockwise from Ambleside reach it second, after Low Pike. From the Rydal Road car park in Ambleside, go up Smithy Brow and follow Nook Lane out of town to Nook End Farm. Cross the farmyard and bear left down to Low Sweden Bridge over Scandale Beck. From there a tall drystone wall climbs the spine of the ridge, and you follow it the whole way, over Low Pike, down to a dip at about 480 metres, then up to the flat, grassy top of High Pike.

The going is fell path and grass beside the wall. There are rocky bits on the way over Low Pike, but you can walk round all of them.

Dove Crag and Fairfield block the view to the north and west. Across Scandale Pass you see the Far Eastern Fells, and to the south you look down on Ambleside and the head of Windermere.

For a shorter day, come back down the ridge and turn off to High Sweden Bridge, an old stone packhorse bridge, then follow Scandale Beck back into Ambleside. Otherwise carry on over Dove Crag, Hart Crag and Fairfield and come down the western arm over Heron Pike and Nab Scar.