Helm Crag, Gibson Knott, Calf Crag and Steel Fell

Looking to explore the Central Fells around Grasmere? This Greenburn Round walk includes 4 Wainwright summits of Helm Crag, Gibson Knott, Calf Crag and Steel Fell and at 7 miles is a great day out on the hills.

Helm Crag is a fell to the north of Grasmere at 405m above sea level. Alfred Wainwright wrote “The virtues of Helm Crag have not been lauded enough. It gives an exhilarating little climb, a brief essay in real mountaineering, and, in a region where all is beautiful, it makes a notable contribution to the natural charms and attractions of Grasmere.” Its most famous features are the two prominent rocks at the summit, the Lion and the Lamb, the north-western one of which is the true summit. Sometimes known as the Howitzer, this cannon shaped rocky outcrop requires actual climbing up – Wainwright himself never climbed up onto it, and neither did we as it was very windy and it’s a long way down!

Gibson Knott is one of the summits visited en route to Calf Crag from Helm Crag and stands 422m above sea level. There is some debate about it’s exact summit location but there is a cairn so we used that.

Calf Crag is the next summit of the Greenburn Round at 537m and is marked by a stone cairn. There are views over to Sargeant Man and High Raise from here.

Steel Fell is the high point of the walk at 553m and is a triangular shaped, plateau topped fell with many small tarns and pools. The summit is known as Dead Pike and has a stone cairn as a summit marker.

Our walk starts from a lay-by on the Pass of Dunmail Raise. We crossed the road and headed down through a farmyard, passing a cottage with the date 1688 on the front. The lane winds down to the river and over the bridge, and then at Ghyll Foot we started climbing up the hill, passing more cottages along the way. The lane finishes at a wooden gate leading to the Green Burn valley, complete with beautiful waterfall and picturesque bridge.

The path heads up the flank of Helm Crag via a series of switchbacks up through Bracken Hause before reaching the ridge path between Helm Crag and Gibson Knott. We turned left to climb up to the summit of Helm Crag, touched the Howitzer and then enjoyed our lunch watching the fighter jets flying through the valley following the Dunmail Raise Pass.

Lunch eaten, we set off back down to the ridge path and carried on towards Gibson Knott. Don’t forget to look back and see Helm Crag – the Lion and the Lamb can be seen from here. The OS map shows the path running at a higher level than what is shown on the ground – we took the path on the ground and it led to the summit! The summit is a rocky outcrop marked by a small cairn.

From Gibson Knott we continued over Moment Brow, along the undulating path to Calf Crag. The ground is quite boggy in places here.

The cairn summit of Calf Crag — The cairn summit of Gibson Knott

From Calf Crag it’s along to Dead Pike, the summit of Steel Fell, passing various small tarns and pools along the way. The summit is marked by a reddy pink stone cairn.

We had a little detour to check out the view near an old fence post – this is actually a path down to Dunmail Raise – and then set off down Cotra Breast, which is steep in places. The path passes through a wooden gate and then runs back to the gate near the waterfall we passed earlier, and then we headed back down the hill and out onto the roadside to head back to the car.

This was a lovely walk on paths which don’t seem to get a lot of use. Helm Crag was relatively busy, but the rest of the route was lovely and peaceful with barely anyone else out. My kind of hillwalking!

Greenburn Round Walk Details: