Confusingly there is more than one Lake District walking circuit known as the "Greenburn Horseshoe" but this is the only one to involve Weatherlam. I started at Fell Foot in Little Langdale just where the road to Langdale branches off from the Wrynose PAss road and a sign warned motorists of the impending terrors of the latter. There was enough space by the verge that I guessed I could tuck in my car into a bit of it without compromising the ability of other vehicles to get past one another. I followed a path which goes off right over Fell Foot Bridge and up to a house by another bridge. Here to go my way the path compelled me to do a slightly annoying zigzag detour along the track eastward and then doubling back on the patgh towards the old Greenburn Mine. The OS map shows a right of way just after a gate in a wall a bit before the mine heading off uphill towards Birk Fell Hawse. Right of way perhaps but I could see no path here just an inviting ocean of ferns. Wainwrights diagram suggests a path heading left a bit further on, near the old mine, then zigzagging up to the hause. THis wasn't very evident either and I ended up following not so myuch a path as a bit of a gap in the ferns. It got steeper and stonier and generally very unpleasant as I nearer the first of the piles of rubble marking where the old levels were. Soon after this the route bacame cairned and levelled off and before too long I was heading up Weatherlam Edge. This is a long scrambly ascent. For much of it a cairned path is followed round to the right of the crest of the ridge. Finally I reached the top. Weatherlam from Little Langdale is definitely a tough customer and I had come nup what Wainwright asserts to be the easier of the two routes he offered.
From here to my second Nuttall of the day was, by contrast, a very easy matter, a short stroll bringing me to BLack Sails. Then there is a rather longer descent down to Swirl Hawse and the foot of the Prison Band. This has a reultation for being the scrambiest bit of the standard Conistonh Fells circuit from Coniston but coming after Weatherlam Edge it seemed pretty tame if very pleasant. On top of Swirl How the weather was getting a bit grey and frelty like it might be turning. It was though I would be spared till I was safely back in my hotel. My way home lay over Great Carrs but Grey Friar looked so close it seemed a crime not to go off and bag in. BAg it I did and was rewarded with wonderful views over Harter Fell towards Morecambe Bay. AFter that it was an east enough stroll home, over Great Carrs and down the long gently descending ridge towards Fell Foot.
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