Coniston to Ulverston

Saturday 2nd April 2016

The day before this walk I had gone from Eskdale to Coniston with rain falling on my head almost all day. Despite the rain I actually quite enjoyed the walk and maybe part of the reason was because I was walking through the fabulous landscape of the Lake District. The next day it rained all day again, but this time I was walking out of Lakeland into scenery that is softer, less interesting to walk through and more unpleasant to walk upon. Apart from Thursday, the weather during my holiday in the Lakes was not very good. I endured everything during the week with gale force winds over the Easter weekend, snow on the high fells and even at times all the way down to the valley floor, and now persistent rain. That rain had started the previous morning and was still falling when I left the Coniston Coppermines Youth Hostel and made my way down the track all the way into the village of Coniston. The one advantage with the rain was that the rivers and becks were swollen impressively so that Church Beck was a tremendous sight roaring mightily down the valley.

It occurred to me that all the times that I had been to the Coppermines Youth Hostel I had never walked up to the hostel from Coniston or down to the village from the hostel. I had always walked down to the hostel from the fells and left the hostel heading back onto the fells. Now I was in the village of Coniston and joining the Cumbria Way to follow this long distance trail south all the way out of the Lake District. A good path took me through Coniston Hall Park until I reached the shore of Coniston Water where an interesting, rugged path follows the edge of the lake under the trees of Torver Common Wood. This was an entertaining walk with many ups and downs around trees and over rocks. It was thoroughly Lakeland as the Swallows and Amazons-inspired lake of Coniston Water slowly passed me by. Later the trees were replaced by the gorse and bracken of Torver Back Common and eventually I veered away from Coniston Water and headed into the Blawith Fells. I had been looking forward to exploring these outlying fells where I’d never been before, but my visit was marred by the poor weather and a need to press on towards Ulverston.

In order to make the most of my visit to the Blawith Fells, I came off the route of the Coniston Way and took a thin path through the bracken climbing up a rocky gully to the craggy summit of Beacon Fell. Wainwright ranks this amongst the most delectable of the lesser heights of Lakeland, but with rain and low cloud spoiling the view I was unable to fully appreciate it. Coming back down the hill I reached Beacon Tarn and rejoined the Coniston Way at the southern end of the lake soon coming off the fells at a delightful stream where I had my lunch sheltered under some trees. Later in the year I’m sure this point is covered in wildflowers, but unfortunately I was too early in the year, and it was chucking it down with rain. The walk really deteriorated after this point as the Lakes were left behind and I passed into a more agricultural landscape that was correspondingly muddier. It is astonishing that I kept going along the Cumbria Way as long as I did.

I eventually had enough when I passed through a particularly muddy field just outside the hamlet of Broughton Beck, so when I reached the road over Eller Riggs Brow I left the Cumbria Way and stayed on the road following it south towards Ulverston. The Cumbria Way goes on footpaths that pass through fields that parallel this road, so it made sense to take the easier option after all the muddy fields that I’d already endured. When I came up with this plan to walk from Coniston all the way out of the Lake District to the railway station at Ulverston, I thought it would be a good way to end the holiday, and if it hadn’t been raining all day, and all winter, it would have been a soothing way to finish. But not through fields that were as wet and muddy as these were. It wasn’t long before the houses of Ulverston appeared in the distance, but by then I had noticed a good route on the map that heads into the town beside a stream and there I found a glorious route.

A small, muddy field brought me to The Gill, which was a delight after my travails of the previous couple of hours. Daffodils and celandines were in flower, but the valley was teaming with wild plants all poised to unleash their colourful delights in the coming weeks. The valley floor was bathed with wild garlic that would put on a fantastic display that I was disappointed to not be seeing. I still had a grand entry into Ulverston and for the end of my holiday. The weather may not have been great on this holiday, but I still had some fabulous walks over some great fells, even if they weren’t the walks that I had originally planned.