Yewbarrow

Right above the head of Wast Water, Yewbarrow is a long ridge with crags at either end. Start from the small car park by Overbeck Bridge (NY 167 068). Walk Lakes' circuit from there is 6.7 km with about 590 m of ascent.

A stone-pitched path climbs through gorse and gates onto the south ridge and heads for Dropping Crag and Bell Rib. Pitched zigzags avoid a loose, eroded scree gully and keep to the foot of the crags, reaching a steep gully between Dropping Crag and Bell Rib. Climb the gully, or the rock tongue to its left if the gully feels too loose. An informal path through the crags avoids the scramble altogether. At the top is Great Door, a cleft in the ridge with a sudden view down to Wast Water. Take care here, as the ridge is narrower than you expect.

Above Great Door the ridge is grass with a few rocky steps and some wet patches, and the summit cairn stands on grass. You look straight across to Lingmell and the Scafells, with Great Gable, Kirk Fell and Pillar round the head of the valley and the Screes of Illgill Head and Whin Rigg across the lake.

Stirrup Crag

At the north end, Stirrup Crag drops steeply to Dore Head, and the direct way down it involves some scrambling. Walk Lakes avoids it by a narrow trod on the left just before the crag, which traverses below the crags and goes down a shallow, loose gully, then heads back towards the lake on faint, boggy paths through thick bracken. From Dore Head the ridge continues to Red Pike, and Yewbarrow often starts the Mosedale Horseshoe. Galloway cattle graze the lower slopes in summer.