Fairfield Horseshoe
A long, arduous but enjoyable walk, clockwise around the Fairfield Horseshoe.
This is a tough walk, especially the descent. We started from the carpark just over Pelter Bridge, however you can park in Ambleside and walk from there if you wish. We headed to Rydal Hall and began our ascent straight away up Nab Scar. It's pretty steep however the path is very clear and the views are fabulous especially on a clear day.
The path on the clockwise ascent is very clear all the way up to Fairfield and you get to bag Heron Pike and Great Rigg on the way. The descent however is a little more tricky.
The descent involves a few ascents as well up to Hart Crag and Dove Crag and the paths to these two are pretty clear, however after this point the path becomes a bit hit and miss so keep to the wall. There are various crossing points in the wall so when you see one cross over so the wall is on your left rather than your right and you can follow this down to Low Pike.
Just after Low Pike (maybe five minutes walk), you cross the wall again and descend on a clear path down through farm land. At Low Sweden Bridge we took the permissable path across the farm on the right rather than go on the path back to Ambleside. We followed the path through Rydal Park back to Rydal Hall and back to the car park.
The route can get quote boggy in places especially on the decent so watch out for that. All in all we had a great day in the mountains even if my knee gave out half way down!.