Difficulty: Moderate
Wainwright Guide: Book Seven – The Western Fells
Fells: Blake Fell, Burnbank Fell, Gavel Fell and Hen Comb
The Blake Fell Horseshoe is one of the smaller Lake District horseshoes you can find. Traditionally only encompassing Blake Fell, Burnbank Fell and Gavel Fell, the experienced walker can add on Hen Comb and even Mellbreak to make it a longer hike. The views over Loweswater are absolutely phenomenal and there is a perfectly situated bench overlooking the best view of all.
Jonny and I took Emi to meet up with family and family friends for this hike. They joined us for the first two fells and then we completed the walk and met back up at the Kirkstile Inn. Part of the beauty of this walk is that you can head back down at any point. It is easy to tailor to your fitness! As always make sure to check the weather forecast before heading out and take enough kit for all eventualities.
Where to Start?
We started out from the Kirkstile Inn itself. If you are planning to eat or drink in there afterwards it’s not a problem to leave the car for a short time.
Our route includes Hen Comb. If you want to skip this one then reverse the route and descend off of Gavel Fell. Jonny, the family and I set out from the pub and headed onto the lane behind it that goes past the beer garden and towards the Blake Fell Horseshoe.
The lane does eventually become a gravel track that winds towards the fells. Mellbreak is the principle fell in view at this point when looking straight ahead.
The track brings you to a stone wall and a fork in the path. Heading straight ahead will take you steeply through a small bunch of trees towards Mellbreak. For the Blake Fell Horseshoe you need to follow the wall and head to the right.
Hen Comb
As previously stated we include Hen Comb in this hike. It’s our starting fell in the circle. Keeping the wall to your right you come to a small gate with a path off the main track leading down to a beck. This is the direction you need to go. Following the main track takes you to further ascents of Mellbreak, or skips round it heading towards Scale Force Waterfall.
As you go through the gate the beck is directly ahead of you. We made the mistake of doing this hike in the wetter weather meaning the stepping stones that cross the beck were submerged. Try and do this hike in the warmer weather!
So how did we cross without stepping stones? We took off our shoes of course. I have no issue doing this with smaller becks but some of the larger, deeper water courses I would try to find another route. This one however, perfectly fine for this kind of adventure!
Once across the beck you have two route options. You can either take the gentler path to the left and gradually incline up the side of the fell, or head straight up until you get to the spine of the fell where you turn left. We decided to tackle the steeper incline first. Just follow the path keeping the stone wall to your right. Looking backwards offers great views of Grasmoor and Whiteside in the distance.
Part way up the path will deviate to the left, still inclining. It is a grassy, easy enough path to follow, but better to be done in good visibility.
At this point the summit and the route to it starts to come into view.
The path will reach a small stile crossing a fence near the spine of the fell. Cross this and continue left to head towards the summit.
The path is direct and easy enough to follow. There are a couple of nice plateaus and some gentle inclines, as well as another fenceline to traverse. Overall a simple route across the grass.
The summit itself is marked by a small cairn with the best view out towards Buttermere and the fells surrounding it creating stunning imagery. The valley perfectly frames my favourite fell at the end of the lake, Fleetwith Pike, so naturally it’s one of my top rated summit views.
Gavel Fell
Getting from Hen Comb to Gavel Fell requires the greatest descent-ascent of the Blake Fell Horseshoe. It also contains some of the boggiest ground so make sure you’re wearing appropriate footwear, or you attempt the hike in the summer.
Continue following the path until you reach a wired fence. We took the path to the right of the fence. It is an obvious and well walked path, however the wet and boggy ground at the bottom of the dip between the fells would be impassable during winter!
Continue to follow the fence, keeping it on your left as you ascend onto the back of Gavel Fell. The path begins to snake towards the right whilst still gently ascending.
You will soon come parallel to another fence on your left, and get a glimpse of the summit not far in the distance. Keep following the path until there is an opportunity to cross the fence.
The summit itself is marked by a large, obvious cairn. You will need to have the fence on your right hand side though to still be facing the right direction for the horseshoe. The best view is looking backwards towards the Buttermere valley again. The summit views are definitely superior from Hen Comb.
Blake Fell
From here you can look towards Loweswater and head down the spine of the fell to finsih your hike. This is what the rest of our group did. Jonny and I with Emi in tow continued on to bag the other two fells in the Blake Fell Horseshoe. The principle fell is next on the list.
We kept the fence to our right and followed the path alongside it. Blake Fell is an obvious target on the horizon.
The path takes a small descent before starting to incline again. It does reach a junction in the fence. Here there is a gate where you can cross over, still keeping the fence to your right.
From here just follow the path to the obviously marked summit, where you will find a large wind break/cairn.
Annoyingly the cloud came in at this point and we didn’t get the classic view down towards Cogra Moss Reservoir until we had started heading towards the final summit of the horseshoe, Burnbank Fell.
Burnbank Fell
From the summit of Blake Fell we turned back towards the fence and followed the path adjacent to it.
The grassy path sticks to the left of the fence the entire way to the summit of Burnbank Fell.
The summit is marked by a small cairn. The views are arguably better looking away from the fells but there isn’t much in it to be honest! The best views have already been seen on the previous summits.
Descent
The route back down is hands down my all time favourite descent from a hike. From the summit of Burnbank Fell there is a small stile in the fence to your right. Cross this and follow a very obvious well walked path away from the fence, pretty much at 90 degrees to it.
As the grassy track begins to get closer towards Loweswater you start to get incredible views over the water and the valley towards the Grasmoor Range.
The path coming off the fell joins onto a main track. You need to turn right here and go through the gate or climb over the stile.
Then you need to take the path to the left and follow along Loweswater Terrace.
Along this track you come to the best viewpoint of the entire walk. A small bench that overlooks Loweswater, Crummock and Grasmoor. There are simply no words.
If you can tear yourself away the track will eventually come to the point where you can separate off to the left and descend through the woods to the lake shore. This is the route we decided to take.
Keeping Loweswater to the left follow the obvious path back towards the road.
At the end of the lane coming away from the lake you need to turn right heading towards Loweswater village. You then need to take the very next right, signposted to the Kirkstile Inn and you’ll have made it back to the start!
Overall I would say that this is a fantastic walk. The summit views may not be the most amazing but the views on the descent definitely make up for it. It’s a walk to undertake in the summer for multiple reasons but it needs to go onto your bucket list!
Have you completed the Blake Fell Horseshoe yet? How did you find it?
