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 : Sunday 23rd October 2005. 3.30pm start.

Location : Bakestall via Whitewater Dash.

Occasion : A walk with Gareth, Ann and the dogs.

Walk details : 4.75 miles, 1600ft of ascent. 2.5 hrs.

Weather : Grey with a low cloud base, but not raining. Good swirling cloud effects at times as we climbed.

Despite being a rather grey day we decided to climb at least one summit to exercise the dogs and ourselves. Gareth was intrigued by a name he saw on the map - one used recently as a backdrop for Denis Norden's TV programme about on-screen mistakes "It'll be alright on the night" So it was off to find the wonderfully named hill "Cockup".

Ullock Pike, one of the outlier ridges of Skiddaw was topped in cloud as we started our climb.

We parked adjacent to the road by Peter Hall Farm on the road behind Bassenthwaite Village, and started up the tarmac road towards Dash Falls. The road eventually becomes an unmade track and leads on to Skiddaw House and Threlkeld, but we were only going to walk the first part of it.

Behind us the weather to the north of the Lakes was looking a little clearer.

This view is of the northern end of Bassenthwaite Lake and Watch Hill near Cockermouth.

Binsey from the road to Dash Falls.

Everywhere we walked was damp after recent heavy rain.

Dead Crags on the right - what a gruesome name !

 

Brockle Crag and Brocklecrag Farm opposite.

The crag had an interesting streak of white quartz running through it, but the sheep didn't seen to be too impressed by this local geological phenomena.

Dash Fall,

or to give it its more correct name, Whitewater Dash.

The tarmac road by now had given way to the gravel road and this climbed up by the side of the falls.

Debris from recent heavy rain had caused a blockage under the bridge and the floodwater had flooded down the track, causing several nasty ruts over a foot deep to appear.

Someone locally had already cleared the culvert and started to repair the track, but I wouldn't try walking or cycling it at night yet, as grey ruts in a grey track would be difficult to see !!

 

 

The view back down the valley

as we leave the road and start our climb towards Bakestall.

Climbing up the fence line

makes navigation very easy.

Dampness under foot and the steep slope makes the walking less so.

 

The strange colours on the fell side opposite are due to selective burning of the old heather to encourage new growth on the Grouse Moor.

 

 

To our left as we climb were the cloud covered fells of Blencathra.

Longscale Fell is the shapely summit to the right, and the area in the foreground claims the delightful name of Candleseaves Bog.

A pile of stones and a change in fence direction mark the summit of Bakestall.

Otherwise there is not a lot to see today. This became the highest point of today's walk.

We now started to descend northern slopes towards our second objective, the wonderfully names Cockup Fell.

The visibility improved as we walked down out of the mist.

The upper reaches of Dead Beck which showed signs of a much higher water level recently.

This was the beck that caused the problems of track erosion found earlier in our walk.

The rather flatter summit of Cockup

with the fells of last week's walk in the background.

Brae Fell , the Little and Great Sca, and Knott Fell almost clear now as the cloud was lifting.

The view from Cockup Fell looking down on Bassenthwaite and the north Cumbrian lowlands.

From here we took the steep descent to the out-take wall, skirted right to the Dash Falls track, and back to the car.

A fine two and a half hour round trip.

 

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 . . . like blended whiskey, with a "Dash" of water.

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