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.