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.