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I think summer has finally arrived as Ann and I take a walk up the Garburn Road in the sunshine

and take the track out onto the three fells on the western side of the Kentmere Round.

A walk up to Yoke, Ill Bell, Froswick and back by the Roman Road should be a great outing for today.

Passing Town End Farm before we turned down to park near the church.

This is a 400 year old property now owned by the National Trust and open to the public.

Managed to park in one of the last places on the side road close to the church.



Setting off to climb to the Garburn Road.	The sign on the tree is getting more and more grown over.

Hold your cursor over the right hand picture to see the effect of seven years of growth.

This garden has been improved too with a few trees felled and the bushes starting to grow.

Hold your cursor over the picture this time to see the two year passage of time.

Out onto the open fell or at least out of the woodland.

We have a clear view ahead now as the track climbs up to meet the Garburn Road which is a classic "green road",

an unpaved track which provides high level crossings between the adjacent valleys of Troutbeck and Kentmere.

Click here or on the photo above for a larger Loweswatercam annotated panorama

With the linear township of Troutbeck on the other side, we look down on the modernised Limefitt Park.

What used to be a camping and caravan site with a few static caravans has now metamorphosised into a busy chalet park.

The "green road" is in fact "grey", especially as in many places the surface of the lane has been re-made recently.

Here we are walking up alongside the old Sour Howes Quarries.

At the top of the pass we are up on wide open ground enjoying the full glare of the sun.

A brief stop for the dogs to re-hydrate.

Re-hydration personified.

We leave the Garburn Road and take the "made path" towards our first summit of Yoke.

The path has been re-laid (with a large excavator in 2006 ... see picture below) and now forms a real blight on the landscape.

Okay it is easy to walk and the erosion is less but it has certainly not, and never will, blend in with the countryside !!

[ If the local farmer or council applied to build a road this big they would never have got planning permission. ]

The ladder style that existed in 2006 has now been changed to a gate which is a worthwhile change

Out to sea and across Morecambe Bay to the square buildings of the power station at Heysham.

and then over the back to the Langdale Fells and finally the shapely summit of the Scafells and Great Gable.

but it is quite peaty and the lower parts of Harry and Bethan change colour accordingly.

That water is clean but too far away to be of use . . . Kentmere Reservoir in the valley, some 1450 feet below us.

with the broad main summit and the shapely peak of Catstycam standing out above the surrounding fells.

A view out to the north east over the Nant Bield Pass to the Pennines and Cross Fell will be fine.

After a relaxing lunch it was time to head for the third summit of the day.

More track but thankfully some natural paths, complemented by occasional pitching on the steeper sections.

Froswick ahead with the tall cairn of Thornthwaite Beacon on the distant summit.

From Froswick we get the briefest of glimpses of the blue waters of Ullswater.

We'll leave the Kentmere Round 'path' at the next hause and strike off left for those green tracks down the fellside.

with Trout Beck to the right and Hagg Gill to the left of the central higher ground.

Signs of more modern life as we pass this old sheep feeder close to the fell wall.

Ann opens the gate onto the farm and quarry track that will take us down the rest of the valley.

It passes an isolated barn that presumably belongs to Long Green Head farm a little further down the valley on this side.

The farmer has been up and distributed some silage as the grass is not yet growing as fast as it could.

Getting close to the end of the walk now as we reach the conurbation that is Limefitt Park.

No wilderness here either . . . to be fair, the park looked really clean and well looked after and very well appointed

Ann walks on past . . . heading the last few hundred yards out onto the main road and back to the car.


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