Tour de Helvellyn

The route

This route mirrors the established Tour de Helvellyn ultra event, which starts and finishes near Askham on the quiet eastern edge of the Lake District and circles the entire Helvellyn massif rather than climbing straight over the top. From the start, the route works its way through the valleys and lower fells around Martindale, Boredale and Dockray before swinging past Ullswater and Matterdale on the return leg.

Circling, not summiting

With a maximum elevation of 748m against Helvellyn's actual 950m summit, this is deliberately a tour rather than a direct ascent - you get Helvellyn as a constant presence on the skyline, viewed from Loadpot Hill, Wether Hill and the other rolling tops of the eastern fells, rather than crammed onto Striding Edge with everyone else. It's a genuinely different way to experience one of the Lake District's most famous mountains.

Why it works

At 58.6km with 2,129m of ascent, this is squarely ultra-distance territory, and the appeal is completeness rather than technicality - long valley running, quiet fellside traverses, and a real sense of covering serious ground over a full day. That matches the established Tour de Helvellyn race, which covers around 38 miles with roughly 2,000m of ascent.

Getting there

This is a long way from anywhere with reliable public transport, so plan your own transport to Askham or the Dockray/Aira Force area, and be self-sufficient with food, water and navigation for the whole distance. Treat this as an event-distance effort rather than a casual long run - pacing, fuelling and layering decisions all matter more here than on any of the shorter routes on this site, and it's worth practising your nutrition plan on smaller Lake District days before committing to the full circuit.