Oak Cottage - Loweswater

Retreat to the quiet of the Western Lakes

The Cottage, and  the view up the Buttermere Valley
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Date : Wednesday 27th July 2005

Location :A Gasgale Gill Round from Whiteside to Hopegill Head, Grasmoor, Wandope and Whiteless. The Buttermere valley, Cumbria, Uk.

Occasion : A walk with Angie and her dog Bailey, Ann and our dogs, Harry and Bethan.

Walk details : Six hours including lunch, 7.5 miles and 3,500 ft of ascent.

Weather : Overcast and a bit murky at times

A low level panorama starts today's walk.

The view from the start of the climb up Whiteside included Melbreak (left) and the Loweswater Fells with Scale Hill, more correctly called Brackenthwaite Hows, the green hill in the foreground. Across the front of us the Liza Beck was running slowly out of Gasgale Gill. In the winter storms its raging torrent demolished the retaining dam of the pool on the right and now only dry gravel beds remain where the locals paddled last summer.

   

Path maintenance work on the way up Whin Ben.

Summer colour in the form of mountain heather.

Onward and upward !

The steep climb continues after we passed beyond Whin Ben, the outlier of Whiteside.

No problem for these three who were waiting on the top for their photo.

Behind is the rocky summit of Hopegill Head.

The summit reached the route now continues along one of the finest high level ridges of the Lakes, east from Whiteside to Hopegill. To our right the top of the impressive Gasgill Crags often showed as barren rocky slabs.

Lady side - by side - by side

A hazy view back down Coledale Valley and over to Keswick.

Rather than take the popular route from Coledale Hause towards Wandope, we kept right along the edge of the slope and skirted round the top of Dove Crags towards Grasmoor itself. The route was a delight and even has traces of a path at times.

Grasmoor summit shelter and the hazy view north west.

The top was not crowded, only three other people, one of whom left a trekking pole behind. We decided to take it with us in order to catch up with its owner. The question was which one of the three did it belong to ?

Angie on Thirdgill Head Man overlooking Crummock and Melbreak.

Like us the stick-less gentleman diverted onto Wandope before heading down to Buttermere. He had just discovered his loss and was most grateful for the return of his pole.

Rannerdale Knotts with the summer bracken growing tall on its slopes.

In the foreground one of the sharp zigzags as the path drops steeply down from Whiteless Pike.

   
Mill Beck gorge and a swim for the dogs.
The Bridge Inn and scone crumbs for the Sparrows

The end of an enjoyable walk. Our starting place was three miles away from our final destination so

all that remained was a slight car shuffle, as the last bus down the valley had left an hour ago.

 

Technical note: Pictures taken with a Canon IXUS 400 Digital camera.

Resized in Photoshop, and built up on a Dreamweaver web builder.

This site best viewed . . . after a fresh scone tea at the Bridge.

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