It was a windy and overcast day with heavy showers as we parked our car in the car park next to The Fish pub Buttermere before walking along the shore of beautiful Lake Buttermere in The Lake District.
As you approach the end of the lake you will see a path that leads up at 45 degrees and then it’s a fairly steep slog up over fairly rough terrain and boulders. Carry on following the path and you will eventually walk through Scarth Gap. Haystacks involves some scrambling up rocks. Going up is fairly easy but coming down these bits can be slippery underfoot especially when it’s been raining.
The walk took longer than we anticipated because there were heavy showers and we didn’t set a scorching pace! There are several ways you can climb Haystacks. We walked from Buttermere village but you can also park in the car park near Gatesgarth Farm, and you save about 1 mile each way along the lake if you start here. It’s also possible to start the walk at the car park at the Honister Slate Mine and the round trip from Honister is about 5 miles.
Here are some photos I took of our walk including some crazy mountain bikers carrying their bikes up Haystacks.
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