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" Rebecca's World Tour of the Lakes "

Date & start time: Saturday 18th February 2012.

Location of Start : The red phone box, Loweswater , Cumbria, Uk ( NY 143 211 )

Places visited : A circular tour seeing as many valleys as possible

Walk details : Local walks only, from the car as we go round.

Highest point : The scenery (and perhaps the cream tea !)

Walked with : Rebecca, Ann and the dogs, Harry and Bethan.

Weather : Changeable with sunshine and blustery conditions, cloudy but mild.

 

 " Rebecca's World Tour of the Lakes " at EveryTrail

[ Alter the settings to zoom or change the Map, use Everytrail to download the Gps route ]

 

We have a visitor for the weekend, daughter of friends we made in Oz and met again in New Zealand.

Bec is working in London for a while and would like to explore more of the UK, particularly the Lake District.

We try and help her achieve that aim . . . I feel a world tour coming on !

Meet Rebecca . . . albeit wrapped up against the cold !

To start at the beginning . . .

It was raining, low cloud and generally grotty when Bec arrived by train yesterday.

On the journey to our home from Penrith she and Ann hardly saw a thing, so it was with some relief that Saturday dawned a little finer.

There was also sun forecast for midday . . . fingers crossed.

First, an introduction to one of our locals, breakfast in the garden for the red squirrels

[ Don't panic . . . the wire is to keep the crows out, not the squirrels in ]

We put some suitable clothing and boots in the car in the car and set off for a drive around the Lakes

. . . starting with some welcome sunshine as we pass Loweswater.

Round the hill and a little further away . . . we enter the Ennerdale Valley.

The nearest fell is Great Borne with Bowness Knott below.

Pillar on the other side is in cloud at present.

As it happened the view was also enjoyed by some Ennerdale Locals.

This Highland Cow, like the Galloways in "Wild Ennerdale" do well even when eating a less rich, upland diet.

We park at the end of the lake for a first short walk.
A photo shoot with Ennerdale Lake in the background.

The weir at Ennerdale raises the lake just a metre and this allows for the extraction of drinking water . . . Ennerdale Champagne.

At the head of the lake are the fells we see normally from the Buttermere Valley.

There's snow still holding on Starling Dodd, Red Pike, High Stile and High Crag.

Zooming in on High Stile . . . it looks cold up there.

Turning round, the sun is shining again as we make our way back to the car.

Next stop is Gosforth, where we take the opportunity to show Bec a little bit of history.

The cross is thought to date from around 940 AD and contains both Pagan and Christian engravings, depicting the triumph of Christianity over the pagan beliefs. Find out more at Gosforth - St Mary's Church

Inside St Mary's.

There's an unusual display at the front of the church

This year is the 100th anniversary of the loss of the Titanic and the village is obviously remembering it.

The Chairman of the White Star Line, Bruce Ismay, was born in Maryport, Cumbria.

The Maryport people are holding a Titanic Season at their Maritime Museum

One of the beautiful stained glass windows
The Chinese Bell (circa 1839)

Two ancient grave stone discovered when the church was renovated.

Out in the Graveyard, the mild weather has encouraged Spring flowers to grow.

There were lovely displays of snowdrops and these colourful crocuses.

From Gosforth we headed into the next valley . . . Wasdale.

Across Wast Water is Illgill Head and the Wasdale Screes.

A quick shower has brought with it a layer of cloud.

This is the view from the shelter on the Nether Wasdale road.

The famous view up the lake . . . to Yewbarrow, Great Gable and Lingmell.

The snow line is about 2000 ft and extends up into the clouds on the slopes of Scafell Pike to the right.

Zooming in on Great Gable.

Bec and Ann enjoying the cool windy weather !

That sunshine has done it again . . . as soon as we left the lake the sun burst through once more.

Still it's time for lunch . . . so a double bonus . . . sunshine and something nice to eat !

A new lunch stop for us . . . the Santon Bridge Inn . . .

. . . where they served us a delightful lunch

helped down with something slightly bitter from the Cockermouth Jennings Brewery.

The Santon Bridge Inn has a signed copy of the famous Jos Naylor picture hanging in their reception area.

On again to another valley.

This is the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway at the Eskdale Green station.

The train company run an all year round service though we didn't see one of the trains today.

We did, however, stop off at the terminus station at Dalegarth to show Bec the railway in slightly more detail.

No thanks . . . we've already eaten.

The station clock shows 3pm as we enjoy a little retail therapy in their new station shop.

Time to hit the high ground again as we make our way up the valley to Brotherilkeld.

We leave the River Esk valley where it turns and make its way up alongside Bowfell and Crinkle Crags . . .

We continue east and start up Hardknott Pass.

On the shoulder above the valley the Romans built a substantial stone fort, the foundations of which remain to this day.

Leaving the car on the roadside, we walk up past the remains of the Roman Bath House.

The fort is square with rounded corners, 114 metres long externally, or 105 metres internally, the rampart wall being about 1.7 metres thick

with ditches adding to the total width of the rampart.    Being so remote a lot of the cut stone was not plundered for local housing,

so there is much evidence of ancient walls. The outer one has four gates, one at the centre of each side, and lookout towers at each corner.

Within the walls are the remaining outlines of three buildings: a granary, a garrison headquarter building and a house for the garrison commander.

In addition to these stone buildings, timber structures would have housed barracks for the mounted auxilia.

What remained of the fort were " restored " some years ago, a slate course shows the height of the walls before their rebuilding.

Looking down on the foundations of the central buildings.

The sun is trying to come out but the overall temperature is fighting a losing battle in the strong breeze.

Hat, gloves and a down jacket for Bec but the dogs are keeping warm by just playing about.

Looking west down Eskdale where the cloud has hidden the sun again.

A few minutes later and the strong afternoon sun has finally arrived.

This is the view out of the northern gate, across to the Scafells, the highest fells in England.

Snow covered Scafell Pike with Little Narrow Cove and Ill Crag to the right.

Showing above Slightside, the snow covered summit of Scafell.

I must stop talking when I have my picture taken.

Sunshine encourages us to explore further.

Bec looks across to the crags near Harter Fell . . .
. . . as the sunshine extends up and over the pass.

A panorama of the high fells, from Hard Knott, round to Crowhow End and Deeming Crag . . . wonderful names.

During WW2 the War Office used the area for tank training which completely destroyed the ancient track. After the war a decision was made to repair the damage and rebuild the road with a tarmac surface to give a direct motor route between Ambleside and Eskdale for the first time. However, the Roman route and the modern road do not generally coincide, the Roman route lying generally to the north of the modern road west of the summit, and to the south on the other side.

Making our way up to the eastern gatehouse area.

The crags of Border End lead onward and upward to Hard Knott itself.

Our highest point of the walk, the level playing-field sized area, believed to be the Roman Parade Ground.

Back in the car and up and over the pass . . . here we are looking down the steeper eastern side of Hardknott at the Duddon Valley

more affectionately known as Wrynose Bottom.

Wrynose Pass, the second of the two passes on this road

brings the grand total of valleys to six . . . as we are now in Little Langdale.

The Langdale Pikes as seen from Bleamoss Beck.

[ Rebecca Dale was quite pleased at having so many Becks and Dales named after her ! ]

Another chance to stretch our legs as we walk down to Blea Tarn.

Harrison Stickle, one of the two Langdale Pikes, as seen over the water of Blea Tarn.

I return for the car and drive round to the other end of the track to collect the girls . . . the timing was perfect.

The sun has set now as we drive over the cattle grid below Side Pike

but there's still enough brightness to enjoy some of the delights of Langdale itself.

One of those delights has got to be Stickle Barn.

Bec had been looking forward to a "Cream Tea" . . . so who were we to disappoint her ?

That's our scones and cream, waiting on the bar for the kettle to boil for the three mugs of tea.

As the light fades we return to the car and make our way home via Red Bank and Dunmail Raise.

A great day out . . . and the weather forecast for tomorrow is even better.

Here's hoping we have a fine day ahead of us.

- - - o o o - - -

 

Technical note: Pictures taken with either Ann's Fuji Finepix Compact or my Canon G10/1100D camera.

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

This site best viewed with . . . a large road map of the Lakes.

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Previous walk - 15th February 2012 Birds, Horses and Cold Fell

A previous time up here - 3rd May 2006 Helmut's Tour of the Lakes + Coniston

Next walk - 19th February 2012 Bec's Second Day in the Lakes