Wansfell (Baystones)

The fell has two tops. Wansfell Pike is the one with the rocky summit and the view down the length of Windermere. Baystones, about a kilometre north-east along the ridge, is a few metres higher and is the summit that counts for the Wainwright. It's grassy, with a cairn. Plenty of walkers treat the Pike as the real summit because its view is so much better.

Ambleside is the usual start. There's plenty of pay and display parking in the town, including the main car park on the A591 and Miller Field for longer stays, and the 555 bus stops there. The classic route leaves the town centre up Stockghyll Lane, passes Stockghyll Force waterfall, and climbs the bracken slopes on a stone-pitched path that zigzags steeply in places. The path was so badly eroded that in the late 1990s it was rebuilt in stone blocks, which is why it now feels like an uneven staircase. From Wansfell Pike you follow the wall north-east to Baystones. There and back from Ambleside, including both tops, is about 7.6 km with 490 m of climbing.

From Troutbeck the climb is gentler, up Nanny Lane, a walled farm track, onto the open fell. A third path comes up from the south through Skelghyll Wood by Kelsick Scar, and a popular circuit goes up from Ambleside, down to Troutbeck and back through the wood.

It is mostly good path to the Pike, then grass and some bog along the ridge. There is no scrambling or exposure.

From the Pike you can see Windermere, the Coniston fells and the Langdale Pikes, and round to the Fairfield horseshoe and Red Screes.