Words & Photos Andy Stothert

April 01 2010

I don’t think it’s illegal but I’ve developed a taste for something unusual recently and can’t keep off it. ‘It’ is Seat Sandal, that awkward formless-looking character which sits unloved on the edge of the Helvellyn range.

I think I’d forgotten just how good the view is from Seat Sandal because it hadn’t fallen in front of the camera lens for so long, and all because Seat Sandal really is a bit forlorn and lonely. That detachment brings with it the stigma of not really fitting in with any obvious round either, so this rather sad unattractive hill has few visitors.

However, one gloriously atmospheric day a couple of years ago we (me and the two premature pensioners I stagger about with) found ourselves with an inexplicable surfeit of energy coming off Helvellyn and en route back to Thirlmere, so we went for a look at Seat Sandal. What a view, and the resulting photos of the desirable panorama made me a couple of 
weeks’ wages too. I subsequently got the bit between my teeth for sensuous Seat Sandal.

But it still doesn’t deserve a whole day to itself, and all the ways up I’d previously considered are a touch tedious. Then it came to me, on the bus back to Keswick one day, that Seat Sandal is actually joined at the hip not only to Helvellyn but Fairfield too, and that I’d been avoiding Fairfield for far too long because of its population problems. I picked a wondrous looking late winter day with hardly a soul about to revisit Fairfield (and its ugly mate – Seat Sandal) and kicked off with that lung-busting ascent of Nab Scar.

The best bit of the far-too-famous Fairfield Horseshoe, for me, is that romping ridge from Nab Scar to the summit of the fell, and it was a 
truly stunning morning. From the summit of Fairfield, where there were a couple of ravens bickering about something of nothing (but which was oddly empty of the human animal) you just plunge straight down to Grisedale Hause, then just as straight and steeply up to Seat Sandal. Here you wander about composing poems, talking to the Scenic Gods, or in my case cursing, because that wondrous looking day had disappeared into a cold, grey visionless mess.

The very best way to return to Rydal is by going back to Grisedale Hause, then traversing the rough steep pathless slopes of Great Rigg to Stone Arthur and taking in the shining gem of Alcock Tarn. But as the clag had descended, and I’m weak-willed, I’m afraid I went straight down to the meet the main path and plodded the hard noisy smelly miles back to Dove Cottage, from where the lane, then path, leads back to Rydal Mount.

Distance: 11 miles/18km Ascent: 3805ft/1160m Time: 6-8 hours Start/finish: contribution for parking on roadside outside Rydal Church (GR: NY 365063) Maps: Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer sheets OL5 (The English Lakes, North-eastern area) & OL7 (The English Lakes, South-eastern area); OS 1:50,000 Landranger sheet 90 (Penrith & Keswick); Harvey 1:25,000 Superwalker, Lakeland Central; BMC/Harveys 1:40,000 British Mountain Map, Lake District Information: Ambleside TIC, 01539 432582 Travel: Stagecoach Lakeslink bus number 555 passes through Rydal

Technical Spec
N up lane, ascend NW to Nab Scar on path, N over Heron Pike and Great Rigg to Fairfield. Descend W to Grisedale Hause and climb SW to Seat Sandal. Descend S ridge (on path) for half a mile then SE (pathless) down to well-used track and S to Mill Bridge. A591 south to Town End then lane on left and path E back to Rydal.