Silver How

From the centre of the Village of Grasmere, take the narrow lane signposted to Allen Bank, next to the Miller How Cafe. If you have trouble locating it, find Easedale Road which has a street name and signposted "Easedale" in big letters, then walking towards the church it is the next turning on your right. Follow this lane, over the cattle grid (bypass through gate on left for dogs). Through the short avenue of trees and then before reaching the gates, bear right onto the tarmacked driveway signed simply "Path". Follow this round the wooded knoll and continue climbing gently to the farm entrance. Turn left signposted "Silver How".

Go through the gate into the field and bear left to follow the wall. Climb to where the field boundaries narrow and enter the narrow defile. It feels like you are clambering through a river here with bracken towering over you. After about 100m (110 yards) you can climb out of the river onto the bank and continue on up to another gateway. Go through onto the open fellside and bear left.

The path, now on grass, continues to climb with a deep gill coming in on your right. Here there is a large stand of juniper bushes, they look a bit like gorse. Crush a berry if you can find one to release the aroma of gin!

Above the juniper the path veers left away from the gill. After 200m or thereabouts you discover the top of the so far unseen Wray Gill. Bear left on a narrow path to drop down into it and ford the river. In exceptionally wet conditions this might be tricky without wet feet.

Continue up the other side and follow the wide path across the plateau to the obvious hill ahead. The last section is quite steep with cairns marking the way. Bear left to the summit cairn.

From the summit, retrace your steps about half-way down the steep section to the cairn. Take the narrow path on the right headed towards another sizable cairn this marks the top of the gully marked in Wainwright's book as "Scree Gully".

Now though after a short rough section most of the way down is by engineered steps. Although tedious it makes the drop quite easy. At the bottom of the gully, by the wall corner, turn sharp left to follow the path alongside the wall.

This section can be pretty wet and feels more akin to a river than a path. Passing some large erratics continue following the wall as it drops to a gate. Go through and continue to the next gate. Again go through into the field and cross by the well worn path. Another gate leads to a lane which drops down to the road opposite the Faeryland Tearoom - handy for refreshements. Turn left and walk along the road back into the village.