To finish describing my holiday at Easter in the Lake District I just need to detail the short walk that I took from Buttermere to Keswick where I was able to catch a bus to the railway station in Penrith. In my quest to find paths in the Lake District that I’d never taken before, the day before this walk I had thought about the path up Hassnesshow Beck. To get to the foot of this path I took the fabulous lake-side path beside Buttermere that runs by Pike Rigg. This is such a delightful path with much variety, even with a short tunnel section, that it could be described as the best low-level path in the Lake District. At the road a short walk took me to Kirk Close wood where a path appears between the wood and a stream, Hassnesshow Beck, which is a very steep, but exhilarating climb up the wooded hillside and onto the relatively dull grassy hilltop.
Once the gradient eased a steady climb up grassy slopes led me to the rock strewn summit of Robinson from where an entertaining descent took me north-east down to Blea Crags and onto High Snab Bank. I had originally thought that I’d never been down this ridge before but during the walk I remembered that I’d actually been down there on my very first visit to the Lake District in 2002 while walking to Keswick. Due to bad weather I had abandoned the walk I’d planned and immediately left the fells down the north-east ridge, but this time however the weather was stunning with superb views of the Newlands valley ahead of me and beyond to Keswick. A clear line of escarpments could be seen from the steep ridge as I descended with High Crags on Hindscarth, High Crags on Maiden Moor and the northern crags of Catbells all lined up with my ridge. It was quite a striking sight and really capped off the fabulous descent. 
Leaving the top of High Snab Bank I dropped steeply down the grassy hillside to the farmer's track in the valley floor, which I followed through Low High Snab and along the road all the way to the tiny village of Little Town (great name!). While walking across the Newlands Valley I was astonished to see footpaths still closed following the floods of November 2009. On New Year's Day 2010 I had tried to cross the Newlands Valley only to find every single road and footpath closed due to the floods that had washed nearly every bridge away and forced me to take a wide diversion all the way up to Braithwaite. Fortunately Chapel Bridge was still standing and on this occasion I was able to cross the now sedate Newlands Beck into Little Town.
Leaving the top of High Snab Bank I dropped steeply down the grassy hillside to the farmer's track in the valley floor, which I followed through Low High Snab and along the road all the way to the tiny village of Little Town (great name!). While walking across the Newlands Valley I was astonished to see footpaths still closed following the floods of November 2009. On New Year's Day 2010 I had tried to cross the Newlands Valley only to find every single road and footpath closed due to the floods that had washed nearly every bridge away and forced me to take a wide diversion all the way up to Braithwaite. Fortunately Chapel Bridge was still standing and on this occasion I was able to cross the now sedate Newlands Beck into Little Town. After following a footpath along the windswept western foot of Catbells past Skelwith, I took the excellent path that runs from the northern tip of Catbells through Fawe Park to Keswick. This is another great low-level path and one that I’ve taken many times in the past and where I have many fond memories. Soon I was in Keswick and catching the bus to Penrith. The Lake District is a fabulous place to walk, but it wasn’t until this week’s walking that I realised how much I’d been missing it. Although I’ve been to the Lake District many times in recent years I’d mainly been sticking to outlying fells and therefore I had missed out on the great fells in the centre of the Lake District. After spending this week in the Lake District, all I could think was when was I going to do the same sort of walking and return to the Lake District.
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