Circuit of Derwentwater, 10.35 miles

10 April 2018

Ray eager for the off

Did this walk with Ray on one of the days of our family holiday in the Lake District back in early April. Although the route says to start from Keswick, we thought the car park by the Keswick Launch might be a bit crowded so drove south down the eastern shore of the lake and parked at the car park just off the B5289 on the road that leads to Ashness Bridge.

The first part of the walk followed a path through woodland towards Lodore Falls, which we paused to have a look at, though I’ve visited it a good many times before. Due to lots of building work going on, the footbridge and path round the back of the hotel were closed so we had to partially retrace our steps back down to the road.

Me in front of Lodore Falls

Further along the road, turned off onto the path leading down to the River Derwent, across the foot of the lake. Ray had a bit of a distance vision fail just here: from the road, he had exclaimed at apparently seeing a person in the middle of the marshy area, but I pointed out that it was a sheep just in time to avoid him gallantly plunging to their aid. My distance vision is thus far still good, though I now have trouble making out detail that’s a foot from my face.

Crossed over the footbridge and followed the board walk to the far side of the lake.

Passed the Teddy in the Window.

Walked through the woods at Brandelhow, stopping for a snack at a convenient picnic table. Passed lots of people heading up onto Cat Bells.

Passed Lingholm. Stopped at the café at Nichol End Marine – unpretentious but pleasant, and featuring some record-breakingly enormous cakes. Walked on via Portinscale into Keswick, and then out the other side past the Keswick Launch landing stages.

Called in at Friar's Crag, which is evidently a famous viewpoint. Walked through an odd little woodland apparently known as The Ings, then around Calfclose Bay and back down the road to the car park.

View from Friar's Crag

The Ings

Passed a couple of sculptures en route: 'Entrust', near Low Brandelhow on the western shore, and the Hundred Year Stone, so called as it was put in place to mark 100 years of the National Trust.

'Entrust'

The Hundred Year Stone

Lovely walk and Derwentwater is a beautiful lake, though we weren’t particularly lucky with the weather – it was an overcast day and drizzled intermittently most of our way round. Our weather apps cheerfully indicated a 99% chance of rain for much of the route.

Our route shown in red on the map: