Grisedale Tarn, Fairfield, St Sunday Crag from Patterdale
Start Patterdale
Getting here Parking: Patterdale Hotel Car Park (Patterdale Hotel, paid), 0.0 km from the start (straight line). Bus: the 508 and 509 stop at Patterdale Hotel (opp), a 20 m walk from this start. Parking & buses ↓
Hardest part Severe steepness: Steepest sustained climb about 41% around the 8.1 km mark. Hands for a few steps: Cofa Pike (km 8.8–9.3).
Before you choose
Conditions on this route
We score every Lakeland Wainwright each morning on cloud, wind, rain and underfoot, and this route crosses 3 of them. The worst summit governs the verdict — a route is only as kind as its roughest top.
Modelled guidance — not a substitute for the mountain forecast or your own judgement. See how every fell ranks today →
Daylight & turnaround
Daylight is short from October to February — check today’s sunrise and sunset before you set off, and carry a head-torch and spare batteries. On short days, decide your turn-back time before you start.
See also walking in bad weather and today’s conditions.
Route map
1 Fairfield2 Cofa Pike3 St Sunday Crag4 Birks
Easy 65%Moderate 19%Hard 13%Severe 3%
Heights on this chart and its high point are read from the track itself (a terrain model sampled along the line, or a GPS recording), so a top can differ from its listed height, usually reading lower.
Free mapping: OpenTopoMap / OpenStreetMap, with SRTM elevation data (switch layers top-right).
The elevation profile is under the map; the stage notes follow.
The walk, stage by stage
- 1
Start → Fairfield (8.7 km, 754 m)
Climb of about 754 m over 8.7 km (around 9% average).
- 2
Fairfield → Cofa Pike (0.5 km, 20 m)
Descent of about 72 m over 0.5 km.
- 3
Cofa Pike → St Sunday Crag (1.8 km, 174 m)
Descent of about 143 m, then a climb of about 174 m, over 1.8 km.
- 4
St Sunday Crag → Birks (1.6 km, 25 m)
Descent of about 214 m over 1.6 km.
Birks → Finish (3.3 km, 10 m)
Descent of about 477 m over 3.3 km.
GPX track for your GPS or phone. Planned route · not yet walked
Summits bagged (4)
- 1Fairfield873 m
- 2Cofa Pike823 m
- 3St Sunday Crag841 m
- 4Birks624 m
In the order you walk them — the same numbers the elevation profile, the stage notes and the pacing table use.
Conditions and timing
Check live conditions in the “From the fells” panel, on MWIS (opens in new tab) and the Met Office mountain forecast (opens in new tab) before you set off.
Getting there and back
Parking
2 more places to park near the start
Positions are approximate.
Of the pay-and-display machine tickets sold at Glenridding from 17 August 2024 to 31 March 2026, 34% were bought before 10am (our count of FOI/2026.500 ticket data). Contains public sector information provided by the Lake District National Park Authority and licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Vehicles are left at their owner’s risk: we list places people park and cannot vouch for any of them. Take valuables with you and leave nothing on show.
If the parking is full
There is a fallback here, but it is a weak one. Some of the 2 below tend to fill for the same reasons at the same time. Treat the list as one-and-a-bit options rather than 2.
- KGV Playing Field Community Car Park, Patterdale — joins the loop at about km 0.6 of 15.9: a 160 m walk to the line, and you walk the round from there
- Patterdale Hotel Car Park (Patterdale Hotel, paid) — at the start
- By bus: buses stop at Patterdale Hotel (opp), a 20 m walk from the start. This walk starts and ends in Patterdale, so there is no bus to catch back to the start. For anyone staying elsewhere, the last bus out of Patterdale on a weekday: 19:46 towards Windermere (508), 15:09 towards Hartsop (509). A bus is not affected by a full car park, but check the timetable before you rely on it.
We never say whether anywhere has spaces today. Walks to the line are measured along mapped paths (OpenStreetMap), not in a straight line. How we choose these places.
No signal when you get there? RoutePark keeps this list on your phone: choose this walk’s GPX at home, keep it, and it opens offline.
Buses
The 508 and 509 stop at Patterdale Hotel (opp), a 20 m walk from this start. This walk starts and ends in Patterdale, so there is no bus to catch back to the start. For anyone staying elsewhere, the last bus out of Patterdale: the 508 towards Windermere at 19:46 every day; the 509 towards Hartsop at 15:09 every day. From Patterdale Hotel (opp); checked against the operator's timetable, 7 September 2026; that timetable runs to 1 November. Times here are a guide, not a promise — leave yourself more than the minute.
The 508 passes this route at 0.0 km (Patterdale Hotel (o/s), 10 m off the line).
Rural routes change seasonally — confirm on stagecoachbus.com (opens in new tab) or Traveline before travelling.
Getting there across the Lake District: Buses · Parking map · By train · By boat
Planning detail
How each grade on this page is set, and the timings stage by stage.
Difficulty profile
Severe overall — hardest: Steepness; terrain not assessed; exposure not assessed on the ground
Five independent axes, not one score. None of them was set on the ground: they are computed from the recorded track and the map, which measures the line rather than surveying the ground.
How we grade: each axis is Easy, Moderate, Hard or Severe, and a route between two bands takes the higher one. Length: under 8 km, 8–14 km, 14–20 km, over 20 km. Steepness, the steepest 500 m of the track: under 15%, 15–25%, 25–35%, over 35%. Terrain, navigation and exposure are judged rather than measured, and each note says why. How we grade.
Pacing
| Summit | Cumulative | Ascent | Time (fast–steady) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Fairfield | 8.7 km | 754 m | 2:59–3:59 |
| 2Cofa Pike | 9.2 km | 774 m | 3:08–4:10 |
| 3St Sunday Crag | 11.0 km | 948 m | 3:47–5:02 |
| 4Birks | 12.6 km | 973 m | 4:09–5:31 |
| Finish | 15.9 km | 983 m | 4:49–6:25 |
A fast–steady range from Naismith’s rule, deliberately on the slow side. Breaks, weather, rough ground and the slowest person in your party all add to it. How we time walks.
Access & barriers
Can a dog, a buggy or dodgy knees manage this route?
- Buggy: No mapped stiles, but the ground underfoot has not been assessed; not a buggy line on what we know.
- Knees: A long, steep ~39% drop over 250 m around the 9.2 km mark — hard on the knees.
With a dog
Hardest for a dog here: drops and exposed ground (estimated from the map). The steepest stretch is a sustained climb of about 41% around the 8.1 km mark.
- Drops and exposed ground: Not assessed on the ground; the map suggests Hard. From gradient only (~41% max) — mapped crag data unavailable; treat exposure as unverified.
- Rock and scrambling: Hands for a few steps: Cofa Pike (km 8.8–9.3). Ground underfoot: Not assessed.
- Stiles and gates: Only gates and kissing gates are mapped: no stile a dog can’t get through. That is the barriers alone; check the route’s steep or rocky ground before you bring a dog. (OpenStreetMap, mapped as of 2026-10-24)
- Ways off early: None recorded for this route.
- Livestock, shade and water: Not recorded for this route yet. We never call a stream safe for a dog to drink, so carry enough for both of you. The lead rules, and what to do around cattle, are on dogs on the fells.
On the line: 6 gates · 1 kissing gate
Barriers as mapped on OpenStreetMap, which can miss some. Spotted one? Tell us (opens in new tab). Barrier data as of 2026-10-24. Access data © OpenStreetMap contributors (via Overpass).
Walks from places nearby
- Walks from Patterdale — 0.1 km from this start
- Walks from Glenridding — 1.4 km from this start
Straight-line distance from this walk’s start. Those lists hold the routes we have mapped and every Wainwright and Outlying fell within about 5 km of the town, ranked nearest first.
