Grizedale Forest and Hawkshead

Friday 22nd December 2023

My final day in the Lake District was again affected by bad weather with nonstop rain forecast and the same strong winds that had plagued me all week still present, however, by the time I left the youth hostel in Coniston the rain had stopped. After getting something for my lunch from the village I headed beside the road around the northern tip of Coniston Water and up the hill into Grisedale Forest, which I assumed would provide me with a good alternative to the fells that were out of my reach again because of the strong winds and rain. An excellent track brought me up the side of the hill with views to my right across the lake, towards the village of Coniston and the impressive fells beyond until eventually I plunged into the conifer plantation where a selection of walking trails are marked by colour-coded rings on wooden posts. Green ringed posts marked the Silurian Way, which at ten miles is the longest walking trail and seemed the best for me, so I immediately started to follow these posts that at this point also had red rings marking the Carron Crag Trail. Ignoring the turning up to Carron Crag which I had visited a year ago, I followed a gloriously rocky path as it slowly descended into the valley of Grizedale, however, at one point a small tree that had fallen over blocked my way, but was easily circumvented. When I reached the bottom I thought I’d have a look around the visitor centre as I’d never been there before, but at the information point I was advised me not to do any of the trails because of the danger of falling trees.

This was very frustrating as it meant there was nothing for me to do anywhere. Obstinately I ignored their instruction and continued along the trail but soon after entering Priest Wood I came across another fallen tree and this one was so large I was unable to go around it. Rather than be thwarted I climbed the hillside above through the undergrowth and after a lot of effort I somehow managed to reach the trail again, but all too soon I found my way blocked by another fallen tree. By this point I was beginning to think that maybe it wasn’t possible to walk along the trails in Grizedale Forest, so while making my way up a delightful little valley through Braithwaite Plantation I started to plan my exit. When I reached a junction of forestry tracks, marked on Ordnance Survey maps with a spot height of 203 metres, I took a bridleway that headed north initially with extensive, but misty views and soon it started to rain heavily. I was now finding the landscape so monotonous, while passing a never-ending line of conifers, that I may not have done the whole of the Silurian Way even without the danger of falling trees, so that I was glad to be coming out of Grizedale Forest and eventually as the rain eased I came into the village of Hawkshead. Despite being very popular with tourists, Hawkshead has felt to me as being off the beaten track as there are no fells near it, so this was my first time in the village.

I found a warren of narrow lanes in Hawkshead that was interesting to wander around but all too soon I was at the large car park on the edge of the village where I had my lunch. It had always been my intention to end my walk in Hawkshead, but I was now several hours ahead of schedule so instead of catching a bus to the railway station I walked along a cyclepath that took me from Hawkshead, past the little-known Blelham Tarn and all the way into Ambleside. This was very well signposted and a pleasure as the weather improved on good surfaces that enabled me to maintain a brisk pace through farmland and later beside a road. The highlight was when Blelham Tarn came into view with Wansfell as a backdrop and the bulk of Red Screes in the distance with the flat top of Caudale Moor between the two, which brought to mind my last day in the Lake District last summer. Unfortunately very little of the walking on this day could be described as mountain or fell walking, with the rocky path coming down the eastern slopes of Carron Crag as the only exception. Despite the strong winds all week, I enjoyed my time in the Lake District which provided me with exactly what I had been looking forward to all autumn.

Blea Tarn, Little Langdale Tarn and Tarn Hows

Thursday 21st December 2023

With gale force winds in the Lake District this was not the day for walking over the tops of the fells, but I still needed to get from Ambleside to Coniston, which is a journey that I have done several times before, including Christmas 2022. So, to peak my interest with an original route and to stay low as much as possible to avoid the wind I decided to catch a bus to Dungeon Ghyll through the stunning scenery of the valley of Great Langdale. Despite the rain and strong winds when I got out of the bus, the view all around me was amazing with a surround of awesome mountains and it was a pleasure to walk from the Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel across the valley, along the road to Blea Tarn, before diverting through the deserted National Trust campsite and onto the excellent path that zigzags up the hillside while the excellent views continued to attract my eye, particularly behind me towards the Langdale Pikes. Once I reached the top of the pass it was the winds that now occupied my attention even though this is a very low pass so that I had difficulty just closing the gate beside the cattle grid. From there I joined an excellent path called the Blea Tarn trail which runs below Rakerigg and afforded me with views of my first mountain lake on this walk: Blea Tarn. A small woodland beside the tarn provided me with some welcome shelter from the wind and I was glad to get a good look at the small lake, which I had hardly ever visited before.

When the Blea Tarn trail turned east across the southern shore of the tarn I continued heading south beside the slopes that rose to my right up to Blea Rigg and ultimately all the way up to Pike O’Blisco. I had never taken this tremendous path before and I was astonished that it was so well-maintained and provided me with a good walk through great scenery, beside Bleamoss Beck and around the large bog of Blea Moss. Sheltered from the wind and with no rain at this point, it was a delight to walk upon this path that provided me with views across Blea Moss into Little Langdale and towards the low hills that have come down from the high Coniston Fells. Eventually I emerged onto the road over Wrynose Pass and followed that down into Little Langdale, past Fell Foot Farm and over the valley to the track from Greenburn that took me through the valley past my second mountain lake of the walk: Little Langdale Tarn. This is a little more familiar to me than Blea Tarn as I passed this lake just a year earlier while walking from Coniston to Ambleside, but it is still not as well-known to me as other tarns. It was very windy in this valley as it was exposed to the westerlies coming over the pass so as it was approaching midday I decided that I would nip into Cathedral Cave for a respite from the wind and have my lunch.

I had visited this old quarry the year before and I was happy to return and shelter from the wind and rain for a time before finally leaving the echoing cave and continuing along the track along the southern edge of Little Langdale. When I reached High Park I turned off my route of a year earlier to continue along the track as it turns south east to pass between Tongue Intake Plantation and the low hills of Great How and Oxen Fell. I enjoyed the look of the landscape to my right that extends south towards Holme Fell with an undulating line of hills that looked appealing to me and I wished that it wasn’t so windy that an ascent would have been foolhardy. In fact, I had ascended that way in 2017 but the weather on that occasion had been so poor I didn’t have a view so I wasn’t able to appreciate it. I must return sometime soon. When I reached the A593 road I used a path that runs alongside until I reached Oxen Fell High Cross where I turned onto a track that took me to my third mountain lake: Tarn Hows. This was originally three tarns, High, Middle and Low Tarn which were collectively known as ‘The Tarns’ before a dam was constructed to combine them into the larger tarn seen now, which most people call Tarn Hows that is actually the name of the area, though the Ordnance Survey still calls the lake, the Tarns. Coincidentally this is another tarn that I haven’t visited very often with the most recent occasion being at the end of 2012.

Slowly, I made my way around the eastern shore of the tarn on an excellent path that eventually brought me to the car park where I blindly took a path that starts alongside without checking my map to ensure I was going the right way. It was fun to wander along that path and see where it went as it took me through gorgeous woodland and beside a rapidly flowing stream. Eventually signposts revealed that I was heading towards Coniston and on emerging from the wood I came alongside a road, a couple of miles away from the village and with a good path beside the road to take me there. I still had a bit of daylight left when I reached Coniston so I bought something for my dinner before slowly making my way towards the youth hostel. The rain was not as prolonged on this walk as the day before with long periods without rain that provided me with pleasant walking when sheltered from the wind. There were moments when I wished I could have climbed to the tops of the fells, but the strong winds soon convinced me otherwise and I felt as if I had made the most of the conditions on this day with an interesting walk on paths that I wasn’t as familiar with and past three tarns that I had not previously visited very often.

Skelwith Force and Windermere lakeside

Wednesday 20th December 2023

The weather for the rest of my holiday in the Lake District was not great with persistent rain and strong winds that put all of the fells out of my reach or, shall we say, impractical. Instead I came up with some low-level walks, which do have some appeal in bad weather as often it is only in these circumstances that I visit these paths. After getting something for my lunch, on a whim I branched into Rothay Park, over the bridge and up the path that climbs steeply over the southern shoulder of Loughrigg Fell. I had wrapped myself up in loads of waterproofs, but soon after starting to climb I was so hot I had to take my heavy waterproof coat off. It is tricky when walking in wet weather to be able to stay dry both from the rain and from your own sweat, so you need to learn how to regulate your temperature correctly while outdoors to ensure that you are not so hot that you sweat and also not too cold. The goal is to stay warm and dry, but not so hot that you get wet from the inside. Eventually the gradient eased and I cooled off, staying on the bridleway over the top and down the other side, not bothering to ascend Loughrigg as I had done that just four months ago. When I reached the bottom I was faced with a choice of whether to walk to Skelwith Bridge on the busy main road or to take the safer, wiser option of climbing up the quiet lane to the side of Little Loughrigg and then descend to Skelwith Bridge, and in the end I took the quickest route on the main road and fortunately I was soon at Skelwith Bridge.

A path beside the river brought me to Skelwith Force, where I tried to get a closer view of the falls, taking infinite care on the wet rocks, but soon realised that this was foolhardy and resumed my walk to a nearby bridge over the River Brathay and, once again on a whim, I crossed over into the woodland opposite. I was motivated to cross the bridge by the fact that just beyond that point the valley opens out to grassy fields, and instead I took an excellent path that climbs above the falls through woodland, but soon realised that I needed to stop wandering aimlessly and make a decision about where I was going, and eventually I decided to resurrect my plan for this day and head to the shore of Windermere. I was directed by my map along quiet roads and tracks to a good path that took me through Pull Woods and beside a road. This was very well signposted and promised to get me all the way to ‘Bowness via Ferry’, but I went the wrong way and ended up at Wray Castle, a National Trust property that I had never visited before. The Castle was closed for the winter so I couldn’t go inside and instead dropped down to the shore of Windermere to head south beside the lake. The views were terrible with thick mist preventing me from being able to see across Windermere and with so many trees lining the lake it was difficult to get a good picture, so I just continued along the path. I wasn’t there to take pictures anyway, I was in the Lake District to have a relaxing walk and that I did beside the lake.

It had briefly, almost stopped raining while I was at Wray Castle, but it soon started again and increasingly heavy as I made my way along the path, which prompted me to put my waterproof coat back on. Previously I had come north along this path in 2015 and originally my plan for this walk had been to copy that day but in reverse, though that idea hadn’t lasted very long. I had a relaxing walk while beside the lake but eventually the path began to climb up the side of the hill away from the shore and when it came back down I had reached a caravan park, so soon after that I branched right through the trees up the side of the hill, but the path was marred by being so wet and by nearby forestry operations. Eventually I came off this path onto a neat little path that I have taken before and descends steeply through woodland, weaving through the landscape on a delightful course that took me all the way down to Claife Viewing Station. I had deliberately diverted off the lakeside route to take this wonderful path through Station Scar Wood that I remember fondly taking previously and brought me to the viewing station, which was built to frame the picturesque views up Windermere that unfortunately were not good on this day. After taking a couple of pictures I descended to the shore and reached the ferry with seconds to spare before it left to take me across the lake to Bowness.

On the other side I followed the path around Cockshott Point and through the normally tourist-filled town of Bowness-on-Windermere where I had considered catching a bus back to Ambleside but since I had so much time left I walked all the way back along the road. I found this walk back curiously relaxing as there is a wide pavement beside the road and passes plenty of trees, so even though it’s beside a busy main road I was able to disengage my brain, listen to music and enjoy the walk. I find any walking a pleasure even it’s through a suburban street and it had stopped raining by the time I reached Bowness, which helped with the walk back. This whole walk was really nothing special and didn’t take me to anywhere of interest, but the Lake District is such a special place to walk that it doesn’t matter where you go or what the weather is, so long as you adapt the walk to suit the weather then you will always have an enjoyable walk and there is nothing I like more.

Lord's Seat and Graystones

Tuesday 19th December 2023

The weather forecast for my week in the Lake District was not good, but this day promised to be the best, so I was determined to make the most of it and go up some fells that I’d not done in a long while. The ones I had in mind were in the far north west corner of the Lake District and ideally I would have been staying at the Keswick Youth Hostel, but there were no shared dormitory beds available there so instead I had to catch two buses taking advantage of the price cap. One bus brought me to Keswick and another brought me to Swan House just outside Thornthwaite where the precipitous slopes of Barf loomed before me and a steep path climbs the craggy ground on an ascent that Wainwright described as “for people overflowing with animal strength and vigour”, which doesn’t describe me anymore. Besides, I took that route up in 2007 so, for something different, I thought I’d take the path that climbs beside Beckstones Gill and I had come down in 2006, remembering it as being a good route. It is still a steep climb and since most of the trees beside the stream were recently cleared I had good views down the hill and across the marshes at the southern end of Bassenthwaite Lake, and since I was sheltered from the sun and wind, I had an enjoyable ascent, working up a sweat, as I toiled up the often wet path.

At one point a small rock face provided me with a satisfying, though wet, scramble up into the continuation of the path through trees to a clear forest road. A short distance from there a stile took me over the fence and out of the conifer plantation onto the open fell not far from the top of Barf. Once away from the trees I was out in the sun and exposed to bitterly cold westerly winds, so even though this was the best weather of the week the strong winds forecast for later in the week were already making themselves felt. The views were fabulous across Bassenthwaite Lake towards Skiddaw and in the other direction, into the wind towards Lord’s Seat, my next target, so wrapping myself up tight I set off along the path, which was initially muddy but was later gravel covered and lovely to walk upon. A steady climb brought me to the windy top of Lord’s Seat where I had great views along the ridge west over Broom Fell to Graystones as well as in other directions except for south, towards the heart of the Lake District, which was misty and hazy. Eagerly, I made my way along the broad ridge towards Broom Fell, but soon clouds began to cover the sky so that, while the strong winds continued to blow, the picturesque views were soon obliterated. 

 

 

When I reached the summit of Broom Fell a tall cairn greeted me, but when I looked at my Ordnance Survey map I discovered that according to them this fantastic structure does not sit at the summit, so I retraced my steps to the grassy mound that they claim is the summit, though I think there must surely be hardly be any difference between this point and the cairn that marks the long recognised summit. Returning to the cairn I continued along the path down to the edge of a conifer plantation, though the trees no longer come anywhere near to the fence and broken wall that marks the edge. After crossing the fence I climbed up to the top of Graystones whose recognised summit sits on a small crag, but once again the Ordnance Survey shake their finger at this and claim that the highest point is further east, so I made my way across the grassy, undulating top and on this occasion I think they may have a point. There are two spot heights given, the one east of the recognised top is 454 metres above sea level and another further south is 456 metres high and definitely feels like the highest point on the fell and has been adorned with a good cairn. Now I considered my onward course having so far retraced my steps of December 2006 including over Broom Fell and Graystones which I had not been visited since that walk. On that occasion I had crossed Wythop Moss from Ling Fell to reach Graystones but given the saturated state of the ground that did not appeal to me.

I had considered descending Graystones to the valley of Aiken Beck before climbing Whinlatter opposite, but the steep slopes meant that option also did not appeal especially as it would put me back into the strong winds that I was now getting fed up with, so I looked for an alternative route north to Ling Fell and found it in Wainwright’s guide. It shows a route of ascent up to Graystones from Embleton Church that bypasses the marsh, so after lunch I set off north down the hill following a faint path not far from a fence, but became increasingly wet and I began to regret my decision. Eventually all trace of the path disappeared so I rechecked Wainwright, which indicated that I should veer to my left towards a stream, but when I reached a barbed wire fence I realised I shouldn’t have crossed it. Back across the stream was a gate which I traversed, continuing to head north and despite the latest edition of Wainwright’s guide recommending that I now cross the stream I didn’t and continued beside it until I reached a junction of streams and a good bridge. Before me now was Ling Fell which I immediately tackled climbing the steep slopes on the tracks of a quadbike that led me all the way up to western half of the fell where a relaxing stroll across the top brought me to the trig point that marks the summit. With the neighbour Sale Fell before me I headed straight down the steep slopes, though with hindsight it would have been less painful if I had used the gentler northern slopes. At the road I crossed the bottom of the valley and headed straight up the hill soon veering right to climb the gentler slopes that eventually brought me to the summit of Sale Fell. 

 

 

During the afternoon the sun had made occasional attempts to break through the clouds but was always brief and unsuccessful, though now as the sun began to set the clouds finally broke to provide me with good views across Bassenthwaite Lake as I slowly descended the eastern ridge. The peculiar valley of Wythop Beck that falls precipitously from grassy fields through Wythop Woods to the lake drew my eye so after extending my walk over the fell to Lothwaite at the eastern end I turned back on myself to take the bridleway that crosses the grassy fields at the head of the valley before plunging down through the woods to the road. I had deliberately started this walk on Barf so I would have options from Graystones and this ultimately led to me roughly reversing the round I did in 2006, although on that occasion I had started from the village of Embleton. The day would have been better if it hadn’t been so windy though clouding over was not really a problem except that it ruined any pictures that I took. I was glad to return to fells that I had not done in seventeen years with a walk that was an enjoyable stretch after a long autumn.