Our drawing of the route — the shape of the walk, not a navigation aid. Carry OS Explorer on the hill.
The old packhorse route out of Wasdale, five miles there and back from the National Trust car park at Wasdale Head, past Burnthwaite farm and up the Lingmell Beck valley to the pass at Sty Head and the tarn just beyond it. It is a stone-pitched path most of the way and steady rather than steep, with Great Gable on the left, the Napes crags overhead and the Scafells across the beck. Sty Head Tarn is shallow and gravelly at its outflow, so a dog can swim while you sit by the mountain rescue stretcher box. This is grazed fell all the way and the National Trust asks for a short lead throughout Wasdale.
The bed and breakfast annexe of the Wasdale Head Inn, standing at the road end below Kirk Fell with Great Gable straight ahead and the Scafell Pike path leaving from the same yard. The inn's own page for Lingmell House states plainly that dogs are welcome here, which it does not say of the main hotel bedrooms or of Ritson's Bar. Rooms are simple walkers' accommodation rather than hotel rooms, which suits a wet dog after Mosedale. Ritson's Bar and Abrahams Restaurant are a few steps away but publish no dog policy, so check at the desk before taking a dog inside.
The National Trust campsite at the head of Wasdale, under Great Gable and about a mile from the Scafell Pike path, open all year and the only legal place in the valley to leave a campervan overnight. Up to two dogs come free of charge, but only on camping pitches, in the tipi or in the basic pods; the other pods are not dog friendly and the site will not accept dogs on those bookings at all. Dogs must be on a lead everywhere on site, exercised away from other campers and are not allowed inside the facilities blocks. Tell them you are bringing a dog when you book, not when you arrive.
The holiday cottage on a working Herdwick farm at the head of Wast Water, with the farm's own access to the lake shore and the Scafell paths starting from the yard. Two well-behaved dogs are allowed by prior arrangement at twenty pounds each for the stay, and prior arrangement means exactly that on a farm that lambs its own Herdwicks. The farm also has three shepherd's huts, for which no dog policy is published, so the cottage is the confirmed option. Sheep are on the land around the buildings all year, so a lead from the door.
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