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Helvellyn is 950 metres above sea level and the third highest mountain in England after Scafell Pike and Scafell. It is also the most walked mountain in the Lake District — more people reach its summit each year than any other, primarily because the approach via Striding Edge from Patterdale is one of the finest ridge walks in England and because Helvellyn is within range of Windermere or Keswick for a long day visit.
This is not a guide to walking to the summit. It is a guide to what Helvellyn contributes to the Lake District landscape — visible from many of our tours, significant in the literary history of the Lakes, and part of the horizon of several of the finest views in the National Park.
Helvellyn runs roughly north to south for about five miles, forming the eastern wall of the Thirlmere valley and the western wall of the Ullswater catchment. Its eastern face — the face seen from the A592 road between Windermere and Ullswater — is dramatically shaped by the two ridges of Striding Edge and Swirral Edge, which frame the corrie (a glacially hollowed bowl) containing Red Tarn at approximately 718 metres. The shape of Helvellyn's eastern face — the two arms of the ridges, the tarn cupped between them — is one of the most distinctive glacial landforms visible from a road in the Lake District.
Striding Edge is the narrow rock arête that connects the main body of Helvellyn to the eastern outlier of High Spying How. It is approximately 400 metres long and, at its narrowest, perhaps a metre wide with drops of several hundred metres on both sides. It is one of the most celebrated scrambles in England — technically not difficult in good conditions, genuinely serious in ice or strong wind.
The first recorded traverse of Striding Edge in bad conditions was by Charles Gough in 1805, who fell and was killed on the descent. His body was found three months later, guarded by his dog Foxie. The incident attracted national attention; both Scott and Wordsworth wrote poems about the faithful dog.
On our 10 Lakes Full-day Tour and 8 Lakes tours, the descent from the Kirkstone Pass towards Brothers Water offers a view of Helvellyn's long southern ridge — the broad, whale-backed profile that rises above the Grisedale valley to the north-east. The ridge is visible above the valley on clear days and on late afternoon visits in autumn the last light catches the fell top in the way that Turner was painting when he came to the Lakes in the 1790s and 1800s.
Your expert storyteller will point Helvellyn out and explain what you are looking at — the scale, the Striding Edge story and the Gough tragedy — as you pass.
Helvellyn is a serious mountain requiring appropriate preparation — boots, waterproofs, map and compass at minimum, and the ability to navigate in cloud. The Striding Edge route from Patterdale is the classic approach (approximately 4 hours return); the Swirral Edge alternative gives a circular route. Neither is suitable for casual walkers or those without hill experience.
Our tours do not include the Helvellyn summit, but a bespoke day in the Ullswater area can be based around the mountain's eastern face — the tarn, the ridges from below, the Patterdale valley — as a full landscape experience.
Helvellyn's ridge is visible on the The 10 Lakes Full-day Tour with Ullswater Cruise and the 8 Lakes Morning Tour.