The Mosedale Horseshoe is a celebrated mountain walk around Mosedale in the
English Lake District
The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or ''fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...
: starting at
Wasdale Head
Wasdale Head is a scattered agricultural hamlet in the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. Wasdale Head claims to be home of the highest mountain (Scafell Pike), deepest lake (Wastwater), smallest church and biggest liar in E ...
, it includes
Kirk Fell
Kirk Fell is a fell in the Western part of the English Lake District. It is situated between Great Gable and Pillar on the long ring of fells surrounding the valley of Ennerdale, and also stands over Wasdale to the south. However, it is sepa ...
,
Yewbarrow
Yewbarrow is a fell, in the English Lake District, which lies immediately north of the head of Wast Water. It is 628 metres (2,060 feet) high and in shape resembles the upturned hull of a boat or a barrow. Yewbarrow is on the left in the ...
,
Red Pike,
Scoat Fell
Scoat Fell is a fell in the western part of the English Lake District. It stands at the head of the Mosedale Horseshoe with its back to Ennerdale. Paths lead to Scoat Fell from Ennerdale over Steeple, from Wasdale over Red Pike, and along ...
, and
Pillar
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression (physical), compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column i ...
. It is a circular walk of with a total ascent of .
Shorter versions can be made by omitting Yewbarrow and Kirk Fell, at start and finish, and (perhaps) the summit of Scoat Fell.
Wainwright's warning
Alfred Wainwright
Alfred Wainwright MBE (17 January 1907 – 20 January 1991), who preferred to be known as A. Wainwright or A.W., was a British fellwalker, guidebook author and illustrator. His seven-volume ''Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells'', published ...
placed the round among his dozen best lakeland ridge walks; but also warned that the full version was "an exhilarating mountain marathon for experienced fellwalkers only".
[A Wainwright, ''Wainwright in the Valleys of Lakeland'' (London 1996) p. 127]
See also
*
Black Crag
*
Coledale horseshoe
The Coledale horseshoe, or Coledale Round, is a semi-circle of fells surrounding Coledale in the Lake District, England.
It provides excellent ridge-walking over the fells. Due to the topography, there are multiple variants of the horseshoe with ...
*
Fairfield horseshoe
Fairfield Horseshoe is a classic circular hillwalking ridge walk route starting from Rydal or Ambleside in the English Lake District that takes in all the fells that surround the valley of the Rydal Beck.
The round
The walk is extremely popular ...
*
Mosedale Beck (Wast Water)
Mosedale Beck is a stream in Cumbria which runs into Wast Water, which is the deepest lake in England.
Mosedale Beck rises in Little Scoat Fell, it then flows south west until it reaches Ritson's Force waterfall. It then turns to the south and ...
References
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Walking in the United Kingdom
Geography of Cumbria
Tourist attractions in Cumbria