Route: from the cottage taking the Boonbeck road to Scales and then west before turning south on an improving track. At High Swinside Farm briefly joining the road to diverge onto a path to ford Hope Beck and then following along the intake wall on a wet but clear path under the Dodd and Penn. Having crossed Wythe Gill heading diagonally uphill, pathless through bracken following whatever sheep tracks came to hand (not many!). Eventually heading back to the gill and climbing briefly alongside it and then up the higher dry valley on steep tussocky bilberries and mosses to reach the col above Penn and then on to the summit of Whiteside. Then by summit ridge to Hopegill Head, Sand Hill, down to Coledale Hause and then up the enclosed scramble onto Eel Crag to Crag Hill. To Wandope and the down via Whiteless Pike with an hour in the pub before the bus was due (although in fact it was more than half an hour late allowing for ample chat with fellow bus travellers).
Conditons: initially warm and sunny, then cloud with hot sun returning from time to time at the end of the walk.
Pub: the Bridge Hotel, Buttermere for Coniston Bluebird, Mowdy Pale Ale and a pint of grapefruit and soda (!).
