Latterbarrow and Claife Heights

Wednesday 23rd December 2015

The weather for this walk was much better than the rain and strong winds that I had been subjected to during the first two days of my short holiday in the Lake District before Christmas. It was a welcome change to see the sun come out revealing blue skies and stunning views across the fells even though the strong winds hadn’t completely gone away with a harsh, cold wind reminding me that it was December. I could have tried to battle against the cold wind and gone up to the top of some of the high fells, but in the end I decided I would walk over a couple of low, outlying fells that I had actually already visited. Three years ago, at the start of a New Year’s holiday in the Lake District, I walked from the Windermere ferry through the woodland on the western shore of the lake visiting the highest points in the wooded upland that lies between Windermere and Esthwaite Water. On that occasion the weather had been poor with low cloud even on these pathetically low hills and that had spoilt the view making navigation tricky, so ever since I have wanted to return in order to discover where I should have gone on that occasion.

I set off first thing in the morning and soon suspected that the water level of Windermere was even higher than it had been the day before, however the River Rothay, which had been a raging torrent and burst its banks the day before, had now returned to being a steady stream of water. I was now able to cross the river without getting my feet wet and followed the main road to Clappersgate where I took a side road over the River Brathay. The start of this walk involved a significant amount of road walking, however a cyclepath follows the road and afforded me with a pleasing walk through woodland off the road in increasingly sunny weather. Eventually, at Wray Church, the cyclepath turned off towards the lake and I was left to walk on the road up to the village of High Wray where a track took me off the road and up to the National Trust’s High Wray Basecamp, on the edge of the Claife Heights woodland.

A short walk through the wood brought me out and onto the bracken-covered slopes of Latterbarrow. This was where I had ended my walk three years ago, in diminishing light, but now the sun was shining brightly and I had stunning views of the Lakeland Fells to the north and the Coniston Fells to the west. The contrast was remarkable as then it had been wet, cloudy, windy and it had been getting dark, but now the sun was shining brightly under blue skies with the Lake District arrayed before me in glorious splendour. Eventually I tore myself away from the views and the magnificent obelisk that sits at the top of Latterbarrow, and after a moment of confusion I headed south down the hill to the edge of the woodland as I retraced my steps of my previous visit. On that occasion I had a lot of difficulty finding my way through the wood and was solely reliant on signposts that were intermittent.

Despite good weather, navigation can still be difficult in woodland as you are unable to navigate by landmarks due to the trees. This time I used my GPS to double-check my location so I could be sure I was following the right route, especially in the felled areas where the signposts were less frequent. At one point I came out at a unexpected viewpoint that looks past a transmitter towards Windermere and the town on the far side of the lake. I seemed to remember this point three years ago, even though there had been no view back then, which gave me hope that I had actually been quite successful in following the right path back then. Continuing along the path brought me to a tarn that also seemed to be familiar and confirmed that I had come this way. A path opposite the tarn took me past a large fallen tree and up to the trig point that sits on the crags at the highest point in Claife Heights.

I had not found this trig point three years ago, but I don’t seem to have missed much as although the immediate area around the column is clear of trees, there are tall conifers close by that tower over the summit and spoil any view. Coming back down the path I emerged into a felled area that I distinctly remembered as being where I had found, and photographed, some crags three years ago. At the top of High Pate Crag I gazed around at the views all around and reflected that this was a much more satisfying summit than where the trig point is as now I had clear views over the trees towards the heart of the Lake District and over Windermere. I could see the trees that screen the actual summit but not the trig point itself and I wished that those trees would be felled, just as the trees near to these crags have been, so that the actual summit could be enjoyed as it deserves. Three years ago I must have been painfully close to the trig point, but I had simply walked past it, however I think I had found the much more pleasing and satisfying summit crag.

Retracing my steps from my previous visit to the area I followed the path out of the wood to a small tarn that flooded the path, just as it had done three years ago. On that occasion I had waded through it, but now it occurred to me that a better idea was simply to walk around the small pond, which is the obvious thing to do. The path down to the ferry took me through woodland that was much more pleasurable to walk through than the conifer plantation on Claife Heights mainly because this was deciduous. The fallen leaves made the path slippery and difficult to trace but an ingenious path descended the steep hillside to reach the Claife Viewing Station, which has been partially restored since I was last there, and finally I reached the shore of Windermere. I had planned on taking a ferry across the lake to the town of Bowness, but since the weather was so good and it was still quite early in the day I decided to walk along the west shore path.

This wasn’t as great an idea as I’d thought as I was now sheltered from the sun by the hills of Claife Heights, but it must have been better than walking through the busy, built-up eastern shore of Windermere. The lake wasn’t so high that it had flooded the path so I was able to zoom up the side the lake until I was reached Wood Close Point where I found a path that was completed flooded. Soon after that point that I left the shore of Windermere and climbed up to Wray Church where I retraced my steps following the cyclepath that closely follows the road all the way back to Ambleside as the light began to fade. At one point I had feared that this walk would be a disappointing waste of the good weather, but as I rushed along the west shore path I decided that it had been a curiously satisfying walk with some stunning views of the Lakes that more than made up for the low height of the hills that I had climbed. I was pleased to discover that the walk that I had done three years ago was more successful than I’d previously thought.