Once again the weather on this walk was cold, cloudy and windy, and I chose to look on that as ideal walking weather so it is a pity about the lack of a view. In the morning I set off from the Coniston Coppermines Youth Hostel down the road towards Coniston but soon I turned off to the left near a row of cottages and headed up the hillside. I don't know where I made a mistake but somehow I must have strayed onto an old miners' track to a disused quarry below Sweeten Crag; I eventually realised I wasn't on the right road when the path petered out soon after the quarry! I went around the edge of a marsh near Kitty Crag and headed north-east towards the ridge I was supposed to have been walking on, crossing over the clear path through Hole Rake on the way. I headed up the side of the ridge but I didn't find a clear path until I finally reached the top of the ridge. Maybe I had taken an unorthodox route, but I eventually reached my destination, so why complain?
Wetherlam was my first big hill in the Lake District, climbed on a warm July afternoon three years before this walk with clear, stunning views across the surrounding countryside. I distinctly remember it having very good views, but then again I had nothing to compare it with at the time, but on this walk the views were non-existent, Wetherlam was completely covered in cloud. The summit seemed much smaller and rather inconsequential when seen under cloud cover, though I suppose I’ve seen a lot in the intervening three years. Heading west I bypassed Black Sails and climbed up Prison Band returning to the fell that I had been at the top of the day before, Swirl How. Continuing west I bypassed Great Carrs and descended the grassy plain of Fairfield before ascending to the top of Grey Friars, a fell that I'd never been to before. The weather was still rather hostile and a strong easterly wind now blew at me as I stood at the top of Grey Friars. Returning to the top of Great Carrs I paused by the wartime aircraft wreck before beginning my descent over Little Carrs and Hell Gill Pike onto Wet Side Edge.
At a marker cairn I turned off the ridge and descended to the Three Shires Stone immediately beginning the ascent beyond it up to Red Tarn. The weather now appeared to be clearing slightly to reveal a patch of blue sky above Pike O'Blisco, but the Coniston Fells behind me remained shrouded in clouds. I was no keen on doing the Cringle Crags, so I headed up to the Pike of Blisco and then crossed Wrynose Fell descending the steep, staircase-like path beside Redacre Gill down to the road. After going around the small prominence of Side Pike I climbed up to the top of the ridge and followed a fence across the spine of Lingmoor Fell. Despite limited visibility I was finding this walk highly enjoyable, and was even skipping across the top of the hills; there really is nothing like hill walking, I love it. Beyond the summit of Lingmoor Fell at Brown How I passed a few disused quarries and dropped down the hillside to a byway that led me from Dale End farm into Elterwater.
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