Ambleside to Grasmere

Tuesday 22nd December 2015

This day started with rain and so much flooding in the area it was being reported in the National media. The Lake District had seen a lot of flooding over the previous weeks and this was just a repeat of the same heart wrenching scenes that everyone had already seen on their televisions. I was staying at the Ambleside Youth Hostel beside the shore of Windermere and water was pouring over the road to the right and to the left of the hostel leaving the hostel as an island in the middle. As I walked around the northern end of Windermere I saw many instances of flooding and decided that a walk onto the fells in this sort of weather would be out of the question, so I contented myself looking at the floods. At Rothay Bridge I saw a dramatic example of this with a spectacular sight of the water pouring along the River Rothay flooding the riverbanks and covering the road on the far side of the bridge.

After crossing Rothay Bridge I turned off the flooded main road onto a minor road that follows the River Rothay upstream, but it wasn’t long before I found that this was also flooded with waters that came up to my knees when I waded through them. This inevitably resulted in my getting wet feet and it wasn’t long before I was wading through floodwaters of a similar depth for a second time. I wasn’t hopeful of my chances of being able to venture any farther along this road that closely follows the flooded river, but nevertheless I continued along the road, and after passing Rothay Park found that the road then climbs above the valley floor and safely away from any potential floods. I have never walked along this road before and I actually found it an enjoyable and pleasant experience. By ten o’clock the rain had begun to ease so I was able to walk around Loughrigg without getting any wetter.

When I reached Pelter Bridge I continued on the western bank of the river following a track that soon became a fast moving stream with water pouring down the path. Beyond the top of the stream I came out near the lake of Rydal Water where I took a path heading further uphill to the Loughrigg Quarries and Rydal Cave. It briefly started raining again at this point so I took shelter in the partially flooded cave before venturing back out into the rain to follow the path around the side of Loughrigg and onto a terrace path that overlooks Rydal Water. The rain had soon stopped and I was able to take in the stunning views across the lake towards Nab Scar and Heron Pike little realising that I would be soon be on those fells. Continuing along the path I walked along Loughrigg Terrace, which according to Wainwright is more popular than any other path in the district and one that all visitors know. The views from the terrace across Grasmere are well-known as they extend towards Helm Crag and Dunmail Raise where the rain has severely eroded the road between Grasmere and Keswick.

As I began to descend towards Grasmere I reflected that with the improving weather and the rain looking like it was not going to return it would be a shame not to try and go up one of the nearby fells. My eyes turned across Grasmere towards Heron Pike which I had never before ascended. After passing through Grasmere and past Wordsworth’s Dove Cottage I turned uphill onto an excellent path marked on maps as a right-of-way that after passing a rhododendron grove zigzags cunningly up the hillside. I was really enthralled by this ingeniously designed path that works with the contours rather than bulldozing through the landscape as modern paths often do. This path must have been created to serve Alcock Tarn and is a credit to the engineer who designed it, unlike Alcock Tarn itself which Wainwright dismisses as being a dreary sheet of water, and I can’t say that I disagree with him.

I walked up to Alcock Tarn in 2012 from the Swan Hotel, and on that occasion I had continued climbing up to the top of Nab Scar on a path that starts from the southern end of the tarn. Once again I took that path, now in actually better weather, across the fellside until I reached the ridge just below Lord Crag, and on this occasion I turned left towards Heren Pike. This top is usually climbed as part of the Fairfield Horseshoe and the only time that I have been at the summit before was when I descended from Fairfield on my first ever holiday in the Lake District in 2002. The weather now was very poor and I had a hard battle trying to make my way up the ridge through strong winds and rain until eventually, and thankfully, I reached the bare summit outcrop of Heron Pike. The battles continued when I turned around and headed down the ridge into the wind, and only eased once I had reached the cairn at the top of Nab Scar.

With Windermere ahead of me on the far side of Ambleside, I steeply descended Nab Scar on the heavily constructed path that is a consequence of the huge popularity of the Fairfield Horseshoe walk. The difference between this path and the one that I had taken up to Alcock Tarn was significant, partly due to the huge difference in the popularity of these two paths. This latter path took me down to Rydal where an easy walk through Rydal Park brought me back into Grasmere. The walk on this day was much better than I thought it was going to be when I started. I never thought I would reach the top of a two thousand foot fell, and along the way I walked along some glorious paths, and that includes the road between Ambleside and Pelter Bridge. Thanks to the rain holding off for most of the day, and despite the flooding, I had a good, enjoyable walk on great paths, and that is what makes the Lake District so special. It isn’t the lakes or the hills as many other places have them. The Lake District is full of glorious, ingeniously designed paths that are a pleasure to walk along, and many of them built by miners to serve the many quarries that once littered the Lake District. That is why the Lake District is such a walker’s paradise, and why I keep on returning.