Priest's Hole Cave from Brothers Water

This is a 7 mile circular route taking in Priest's Hole Cave, under Dove Crag, near Patterdale.

We start from the car park at Cow Bridge, about 2 miles south of Patterdale. After walking along Brothers Water and into Dovedale (Lakeland, not Peak District!), we begin the main climb, steep in places, towards the cliff faces below the summit of Dove Crag. Here, we look for a tiny path on ledges across the foot of the cliff to arrive at Priest's Hole with stunning views north across the fells. This is a popular spot, and the cave has a visitor's book. Many people use this as an overnight stop - but not us on this occasion. It will be a great place for us to have lunch.

When we are ready, we retrace our steps out of the cave to the main path, and continue up to the saddle between Dove Crag and Hart Crag. We turn right to Hart Crag (although as it's only about 400m to Dove Crag summit to the left, Wainwright Baggers might want to add this in!). Hart Crag will offer superb views of crags between it and St Sunday Crag. We will have climbed about 700m by this point.

From Hart Crag we head downhill, along a ridge over Blake Brow, Buck Stones and Gale Crag until we meet the road at the north end of Low Wood. A short but beautiful woodland walk takes us back to the car park. Nearby Kirkstonefoot or Patterdale offer good refreshment stops when we are done.