Place Fell

Place Fell is the craggy hill you look straight at from Glenridding and Patterdale, on the far side of the head of Ullswater. Nearly everyone climbs it from Patterdale. There is a pay and display car park opposite the Patterdale Hotel, but parking in the valley is tight and fills early at weekends, when Helvellyn walkers are after the same spaces. The 508 bus from Penrith reaches Patterdale all year.

The usual route crosses the valley floor to Side Farm, then climbs steeply to Boredale Hause, a grassy crossroads at about 400m where paths from Patterdale, Boredale, Bannerdale and Hartsop meet. From the hause a wide path goes up the south ridge and finishes with a short rocky step onto the top. A steeper, more direct line goes up the western face between Bleaberry Knott and The Knight, weaving through the crags on rakes and gullies. Neither needs any real scrambling, although the rock is greasy in the wet.

On top and the way back

The summit is a rocky knoll with a tall trig pillar, and a cairn a few metres away that some reckon is just as high. The best thing about it is the view across to the Helvellyn range, with the eastern coves and ridges laid out side on. You also look up every valley from Glencoyne round to Kirkstone. The rest of the top is rolling moorland, boggy in places, with small tarns along the Hart Crag ridge to the north east.

The best circuit carries on north east over High Dodd, drops to Sandwick and comes back along the lakeshore path to Patterdale. Wainwright rated this lakeside stretch the loveliest walk in Lakeland. It is rough and wet in places, and the whole round is about 13km.