Pete's Walks - Barrow, Outerside, Scar Crags and Causey Pike
My friend Martin and I did this walk on 11th May 2007. As usual we were staying in a rented flat in Keswick, and this was the last day of our week's holiday. It wasn't a great day weather-wise, so we decided to do a relatively short walk and not go too high - We'd walked the Coledale Round (highly recommended!) some years before, so we chose to walk over the lower fells at the end of Coledale and on to Causey Pike.
We parked in the small car park just beyond Braithwaite and walked back through the village. There was then a climb of about 1000ft at an almost constant steady gradient to the top of Barrow.
View from the top of Barrow - our route continued over the small fell of Stile End, just out of shot to the right, then over Outerdoor (the small peak to the right) and then on to Scar Crags and the knobbly summit of Causey Pike (left).
From the top of Barrow, looking east towards the Ullock Pike ridge, with Skiddaw somewhere in the clouds!
From the top of Barrow, looking across the end of the Newlands valley towards Derwent Water, with Keswick to the left
From Barrow we continued onwards, descending a little then rising over the minor summit of Stile End and on to Outerside.
From the top of Outerside, looking back over Stile End and Barrow towards Derwent Water
We now descended slightly, then took a steadily rising path up to a col between Scar Crags and Sail (which we'd crossed on the Coledale Round a couple of years earlier). We turned left up the short climb to the top of Scar Crags, and followed the path along the long top of that fell, now in the clouds. We emerged from the clouds shortly before reaching Causey Pike, whose summit has several large bumps, always giving this attractive fell a distinctive outline when seen from a distance.
Looking back to Scar Crags from just before reaching Causey Pike
From the same spot, looking back along the valley of Sail beck, with Ard Crag to the left, Scar Crags on the right
From the same spot looking towards Coledale Hause. Whiteside is just visible over the col, with Sand Hill to the right.
Outerside and Stile End (far right) from Causey Pike
From Causey Pike, looking along the ridge to Rowling End towards Keswick and Derwent Water
From Causey Pike, looking across the Newlands Valley to Scope End with High Spy, Dale Head and Hindscarth beyond
It was initially a bit of a scramble from the summit of Causey Pike. We didn't follow the ridge to Rowling End, as we'd come up that way when we walked the Coledale Round, instead we took a path slanting left down the fell side. After a short lane walk we headed left and briefly rejoined our outward route at the foot of Barrow, before taking a different route through Braithwaite back to the car.