Sneaky bit of Lakeland walking

Returned on 19 March from joining Ray in the Lakes for a few days – which now, as at the time of writing, feels like a lifetime ago. That week turned out to be the last week anyone was allowed to go on holiday for what could be a while - our planned family break in Snowdonia at Easter has had to be postponed, and Ruth's and my break in north Norfolk in mid-May looks distinctly unlikely to happen. Although it was (obviously) before the current lockdown, the week was overshadowed to some extent by the Coronavirus business and following the developments, but it was still a pretty good escape.

We stayed at The Old Laundry at Croft Courtyard in Clappersgate, just outside Ambleside. The imposing yellowish-coloured mansion The Croft occupies a prominent position on the A593 going out of Ambleside towards Coniston. The house was built in the nineteenth century and has now been converted into apartments after apparently lying derelict for a while.

The Croft, Clappersgate

Partly because of the long drive up there, we made the decision once we were there not to use our cars but just to walk each day from where we were staying. This obviously placed some restrictions on where we went, but we didn't feel particularly restricted as Clappersgate proved to be an excellent base for a variety of walks.

Before I arrived Ray had been to the tourist information place and picked up a pack of useful ‘Lakeland Leisure Walks’, giving a selection of walks easily accessible from Ambleside. We worked our way through most of these over the course of the time I was there.

Entrance to Croft Courtyard

Walk 1: Vale of Rydal, 5.8 miles

Our first walk, on the afternoon of the day I arrived. We walked into Ambleside and through Rothay Park, crossing over Stock Ghyll. Crossed the bridge over the Rothay and joined a lane (Under Loughrigg). Passed what looked like long-disused gates to a Fox How, apparently once the home of the poet Matthew Arnold. Further along we passed the stylish-looking Riverside Terrace holiday homes.

Stock Ghyll in Rothay Park

Old gates to Fox How

We were amused by the stepping stones across the River Rothay signposted to the A591: certainly not usable when we passed, though the first few were visible under the water. Here’s a photo of them not underwater. According to this, the current stones are new ones built to replace the previous set which were washed away in the floods of 2015.

Stepping stone river crossing

We turned left for a bit past Pelter Bridge car park towards Rydal Water, then down to the river again and across the A591. Crossed the road and up the lane leading to Rydal Mount. Turned right to pass round the back of Rydal Hall. Not sure what Rydal Hall is currently used for; the site has rather the look of a youth hostel about it. We saw the Rydal Beck waterfalls and the little building called The Grot. Continued back through Rydal Park towards Ambleside, rejoining the A591 for the last bit.

Rydal Beck waterfalls

Our route in red below showing start and end point in Clappersgate. Rydal Water top left:

Walk 2: Loughrigg Fell, 7.5 miles

We took a footpath leading off the A593 not far down the road from where we were staying. It climbed quite steeply giving some great views of Windermere and a glimpse of our old holiday place Huyton Hill, now Pullwood Bay, among the trees. Also looked down onto the Holy Trinity Church at Brathay.

We came out onto a plateau and did some faffing about a bit trying to find the right route, including doing a bit of a detour we didn’t need to do. Eventually came to the pretty little Lily Tarn by an unnecessarily long route. Followed a path westwards for some while. Had elevenses sitting on a bench with a great view of Loughrigg Tarn.

Lily Tarn

Loughrigg Tarn

Followed a lane for a while and then via Deer Bolts Wood out on to Loughrigg Terrace, a popular viewpoint over Grasmere. From here until Rydal Water there were a fair few people. We followed the path down to the shores of Rydal Water where we stopped to eat our sandwiches. After that we followed the route past Pelter Bridge car park again, and the hopeful ice cream van, and along the lane back into Ambleside, where we had tea and cake at The Rattle Ghyll.

Grasmere from Loughrigg Terrace

Lunch by Rydal Water

River Rothay from Pelter Bridge

The Rattle Ghyll, Ambleside

Our walk skirted around Loughrigg Fell without going up onto the top, but there were plenty of people heading for the top. This National Trust page refers to Loughrigg as a ‘sprawling hump’, and as one of Wainwright’s ‘midget mountains’.

Ray told me about Scarf’s equivalence between distance and climb, which seems to be a way of approximating what you’ve actually walked if the gradient is taken into account. Meant for those walks where you can appear to have covered a disappointing number of overall miles despite having been hauling yourself up and down hills for what feels like a couple of hours. This happened to us at the earlier part of today’s walk, where we seemed to have slogged what felt like a fair way up onto Loughrigg Fell, only to have the tracker dispassionately announce that we’d covered one poxy mile.

It's based on the older Naismith's rule, which was aimed at calculating how long it would take to hike an intended route as a way of allowing for the impact of gradient on total mileage. It seems to involve an 8 to 1 rule whereby 8 units of distance are equivalent to 1 unit of climb. Applying this formula to today's walk gave the following:

i.e. the distance in km plus the overall ascent (1139 feet according to MapMyWalk, converted to 0.347 km) times 8. This gives a result of 14.9 km, which converts to 9.3 miles, as compared with the 7.5 that MapMyWalk tracked it as.

Route below. Starting point at our accommodation in green; finish point in Ambleside in red (I stopped the tracker when we went into the Spar for some dishwasher tablets, but obviously we did then have to walk back to Clappersgate).

Walk 3: Windermere and Jenkin Crag, 6 miles

We started out walking along the A591 out of Ambleside towards Windermere, then through the Low Fold car park and turned right onto Old Lake Road and then soon after left onto the tiny and steep Skelghyll Lane. Passed a surprising number of houses, all of which must have great views but must be buggers to get to in a car. The lane eventually becomes a stony track and passes through some pleasant woodland (Skelghyll Wood) before you get to Jenkin Crag – today a somewhat slippery rocky outcrop, but we did duly stand on it and admired the views of Windermere. We continued up the track to pass through the farmyard of High Skelghyll Farm.

Stencher Beck

Ray on Jenkin Crag

Soon after leaving the farmyard we turned right downhill across fields, eventually coming down to the back of the Low Wood Hotel, where Ray and I once went swimming on a long-ago Lakes trip in around 1994. We were staying a couple of nights at the Waterhead Hotel in Ambleside – then a Best Western, now looks rather posher – which had some sort of partnership arrangement whereby guests could use the health and leisure facilities at Low Wood. Low Wood looks as though it’s been significantly enhanced and extended since then and is now calling itself the Low Wood Bay Resort & Spa.

We skirted round the back of the hotel and had to join the A591 for a bit, heading back towards Ambleside but after half a mile were able to turn off through Jenkin’s Field and walk along the lakeshore path. We sat on the bench at Holme Crag to eat our sandwiches (albeit it was only about 11am). Looking across at both Huyton Hill-as was and at Wray Castle. We continued along the lakeshore to rejoin the pavement by the A591 just before Waterhead Marine. We walked along the little promenade for a bit and then into Borrans Park. We skipped visiting the Roman fort and walked back into Ambleside.

Windermere from Holme Crag

Continuing the theme of old gates, we passed several other intriguing old gates during today’s walk – these, which presumably once led to a house called ‘Skelgarth’ (although internet snooping failed to reveal any house of that name currently) and these gateposts and gate which were set on quite a steep hill, and seemed rather curiously located. A long-ago pedestrian route to church, perhaps?

Old gates to 'Skelgarth'

Curious gate into a field

Route of today's walk in red below:

As it was still early, and as we knew rain was forecast for the afternoon, we decided to take a bus ride to Hawkshead (the Stagecoach 505 service). I had been convinced that Hawkshead is on the shores of Coniston Water, but it isn’t. The closest lake is Esthwaite Water, so we set out from the village to have a look at this. We set out along the road leading south along Esthwaite’s western shore, and turned left onto a path signposted to the lakeshore. This led us past a water treatment works and then diverted us onto a field shortly before the track reached the Water Side B&B. The path became increasingly boggy such that we abandoned the attempt to reach Esthwaite’s shores and retraced our steps back into Hawkshead. So a bit of a non-event. We did have tea and crumpets at the Minstrels Gallery Tea Rooms and then browsed around the Hawkshead outdoor shop while we waited for the bus back.

The Minstrels Gallery Tea Rooms, Hawkshead

Walk 4: via Skelwith Bridge, Elterwater, Grasmere and Rydal, 10.9 miles

We set out down the B5286 and crossed the bridge over the River Brathay, then turned right onto the charmingly-named Bog Lane. We followed little roads until we reached Skelwith Bridge. The slate gallery and adjoining café used to be a favourite family place to visit in longer-ago Lake District trips; I suppose the last time I went there must have been some time in the 1990s. We spent some time scouting around trying to find out what was still there that we remembered. The slate workings had clearly closed; Kirkstone Quarries, which had its headquarters at Skelwith Bridge, was placed in administration in 2012, according to this piece in The Westmorland Gazette.

River Brathay near Clappersgate

The building that used to house the shop and café has been taken over by a company called Chesters. There is still a café there, quite posh, with an open-air terrace beside the river, where Ray and I stopped for coffee and a pastry each.

After this we set out to follow the river north towards Elter Water. We passed Skelwith Force, which had a goodly amount of water in it; Ray walked down to the little viewing platform but I didn’t fancy getting that close to the raging torrent, so contented myself with taking photos from higher up. Above Skelwith Force, the Brathay meanders through a green valley. The Cumbria Way footpath also passes along here and we followed it from Skelwith Bridge along the northern side of Elter Water as far as Elterwater village.

Ray by Skelwith Force

The Brathay above Skelwith Force

From Elterwater village, we walked up a little hill road before turning off it onto a footpath heading uphill past Huntingstile Crag. This got a bit boggy on the top. We paused near Red Bank Wood to eat our sandwiches then carried on down a footpath towards Grasmere, coming out onto a little road. We walked down to the lakeshore and then turned right along the shore, passing along the foot of the lake below Loughrigg Terrace. Then along the River Rothay for a while, crossed the A591 (after making use of an extremely useful set of public toilets) and along a harder-going than expected path that runs parallel with the road looking down onto Rydal Water. At Rydal Mount we returned to the main road and made our way back to Clappersgate via Under Loughrigg.

Herdwicks by the road

Grasmere

I was more than usually struck on this week’s trip by how many thumping great houses the Victorians built themselves in the Lakes. On Grasmere’s western shore (the one without the A591 running up it) there are several large houses standing around prominently and louchely in their own grounds. Took this photo, attempting to squeeze two such into one picture. The one on the right with the veranda thing appears to be called The Lea; the one higher up on the left of the picture is Hunting Stile.

Route of walk in red below. Grasmere and Rydal Water at the top; the top bit of Windermere bottom right.

Early evening we managed to stir ourselves again and walked into Ambleside (after Ray tried and failed to organise a taxi) and had dinner at an Italian restaurant called Misto.


Verdict: it was a lovely few days and was lovely to be back in the Ambleside area again. Looking forward to going back in due course.