Raise

Raise has no valley of its own. It sits on the main Helvellyn ridge between White Side and Sticks Pass, and every route starts with a long pull up from Glenridding in the east or from Legburthwaite, near Thirlmere, in the west.

From Glenridding, park in the National Park pay and display car park in the village, or come on the 508 bus from Penrith. Walk up Greenside Road past the Travellers Rest and follow the rough track to the old Greenside Mine buildings and the Helvellyn youth hostel. From there you can climb the Stang ridge direct, zigzag up the old path beside Keppel Cove, or follow Sticks Gill up to Sticks Pass and turn south along the ridge. The pass, at around 745m, is the highest in the district crossed by a regular bridleway. From Legburthwaite the Sticks Pass path climbs the other side.

Underfoot you get mine tracks, loose stony zigzags and, higher up, open grass. The Glenridding side passes old shafts, spoil and dam remains, so keep to the paths.

The top and the mine

The summit is unusual for this grassy end of the ridge: an outcrop of rough grey andesite with a beehive-shaped cairn. You look along the ridge to Helvellyn and Catstye Cam, north over the Dodds, and out to Skiddaw. Walk a few metres west and Thirlmere comes into view.

Greenside produced over a million tons of lead ore, and in 1891 it commissioned a hydroelectric system said to be the first of its kind in the country. In October 1927 the dam at Keppel Cove burst in a storm and flooded Glenridding. The gap in the dam wall is still there.