The last walk of our Lake District break before we were due to head off to Liverpool, for a couple of days sightseeing. The weather was still superb but we were still feeling the effects of two longer walks, earlier that week. We’d also got used to being a little lazy in the morning, so…
So the main reason we were away in late September, was a birthday for myself, one with an 0 in it (yes you are all correct I don’t look 40 do I? 😁). After two big walks around Coledale and Newlands, we were a bit knackered. Our legs knew what they should be doing but…
You wait all year for a horseshoe and two come along in consecutive days!! After completing the Coledale Horseshoe the day before, we headed out again on another glorious day to complete the Newlands version. We were taking advantage of the stunning weather, despite some stiff legs and we figured we could take our time…
After our drizzly walk over Ling Fell the previous day, we’d looked closely at the weather. Unbelievably it was forecast to clear, not just for one day but the rest of the week, bingo! Being in the northwest corner of the Lakes, gave us great access to the fells around Braithwaite and it was there…
So the first proper day of our holiday in the Lakes, done to celebrate a birthday with an 0 in it for myself. Unfortunately the drizzly weather had followed us to the Lakes, and as you saw, from the fields around our previous walk to Scout Scar, they’d had rain up here as well (that…
It had been 13 months since our last visit to the Lake District, when I completed my 214 Wainwright mission. This time we had the advantage of picking walks that we wanted to do, revisits to good places, seeing some summits that I’d had no views from previously and taking our time. The weather for…
I wanted to write something about my Lake District journey, sharing what I’ve enjoyed and some bits that I’d preferred to have missed. This might be a long post but then again I am cramming 14 years and 92 walks into one post. This would include my favourite walks and fells, some of the underrated…
So when you’ve completed a list of something, what do you do next. Well I suppose you look to do it all over again. I’m not one of those people that has to wait until list one is finished, before you can start counting list two summits. So I’ve already been up Helvellyn a couple…
So this was it, 14 years, 30 visits to the Lakes, around 24,000 miles driven and 91 walks. It all boiled down to this final walk, which would be number 92 and would take me to almost 540 miles of walking to bag all of them. Lots of people leave an easier fell to finish…
So having walked Blencathra and Mungrisdale Common the day before, we look to sort out a gentler walk from the house. My auntie, uncle and cousin were also coming up from St Helens to visit for the day, so we decided on a walk around one end of Derwent Water, straight from our doorstep. My…
So it was time to get on with the walks that would finally finish off my Wainwright 214 journey. For some reason I hadn’t done Blencathra, despite it being Wainwright’s most written about fell, and the one with the most ascent routes. It had certainly been one that I’d thought about the most, and when…
So here I am, potentially my last visit to the Lakes to bag new fells from the Wainwright 214 list. I needed just two walks to finish off the list, and join the ever expanding number of members, who have completed them all. Not that this is planned as my final ever visit, if all…
So this was our last walk on this visit to the Lakes, picking off 3 fells that I needed. The awkward Hartsop Above How, which I like that Wainwright included, as it makes you think about “how to get it”, then St Sunday Crag and Birks. The only way to to do these three together…
After a day around Ambleside we headed off to bag my last Southern fell, in Grey Friar. I’d looked at various routes up to Grey Friar and done a couple of walks of the Coniston Fells that could have taken it in, but in the end it was left as a solo fell, needing to…
Between the four walks we did on this visit to the Lakes, we had a look around and visited a few places that I’ve never been to before, and always thought it would be good to see. Considering we were near to Skelwith Bridge you’d have though that Skelwith Force would be on the agenda,…
So with ticking off Catstycam and Birkhouse Moor, I’d completed Wainwrights 204 and 205. Now for numbers 206 and 207. This started with a drive over Wrynose Pass, not so bad in drying weather and along the valley to Cockley Beck, before a left turn to Birks Bridge. The car park was fairly empty as…
Well this would be my penultimate drive to the Lakes, in order to bag the Wainwrights, on my way to the ultimate 214 total. Around 400 miles of driving before a step was taken. You’d think that sort of drive would put me off walking when I got there, errr no, it didn’t and doesn’t!…
So our last walk of this visit to the Lake District and our 5th one. Only one walk (the Scafell Pike one) had been a little disappointing. What would this one bring us? The weather was set, as it did on Scafell two days before, to clear as the day went on, hopefully clearing the…
For our week in the Lake District we had managed to secure a little terraced cottage in the grounds of Irton Hall, the important thing about this cottage was its location on the edge of Wasdale. When we weren’t enjoying the delights of walking the fells of Wasdale, we also had one day of heavy…
Having summited the highest Wainwright and mountain in England two days earlier, we figured that we would also summit the second highest. This was a walk made to shorten the number of walks I have left, by one at least, and as a result I conjured up the longest walk I’ve done on any of…
Day 3 in the Lakes and 3 walks already, after yesterday with a long walk of 12 miles but not too much steep walking, today was different. A short walk of only 6 miles but a never ending staircase trudge both up and down. The only break from the constant line of people heading up…
Day 2 and walk number two for us. This was the day of the Coronation and we expected the fells to be a little quieter. Not so, even on this side of the Lake District where seeing other people can be a novelty, the place was fairly busy. And not just with humans, first the…
Another visit to the Lakes and another long drive north setting off early (5am). The reason for the early start is to try and squeeze a walk in on arrival, thus starting our week away on the right foot, plus ticking off a Wainwright which I needed from my list. Last time we walked up…
Our last walk in the Lakes for this week and finally we hit a day were the rain had stopped. At least for our location anyway. There was plenty of blue skies between the clouds, and a strong breeze was making sure those clouds moved quickly across the sky. There were rain showers but luckily…
After a couple of walks where we had needed some serious ‘clothes drying by the fire’ at the end of the walk, you’d have thought we would avoid a weather forecast that said strong winds up to 60mph and heavy and persistent rain with cloud cover down on the high and medium fells. But when…
After two fell walks and a day in the pub we needed a lower walk (plus a lie in). I’ve been wanting to add on Rydal Water to my normal Grasmere loop and this was the day. We started out after lunch and after the rain had eased a little. The rain stopped as we…
Day 2 for us in the Lakes and a decision to be made, walk from the house or scoot around to the Gale Road car park and head up to Skiddaw Little Man. The former won the vote due to a late start and therefore no need to worry about parking anywhere, we were heading…
November and a week booked in the Lakes. Not normally a choice for many but the hardiest of walkers. I’ve been quite a few times now in the half term at the end of October, this time we chose the second week in November. I figured that the 2 weeks won’t make too much difference,…
Well this was certainly the hottest I’d experienced in the Lake District in the 14 years that I had been coming up. Temperatures touching 30-35 degrees were being seen around the area. Places to swim rather than fells to walk were the order of the day. We were staying 10 mins walk from Derwent Water…
So this was the first real walk in the Lakes on this holiday, it was the day after the wedding, so we weren’t really up and at it first thing. Still we left the house around 10am to head across the Whinlatter Pass to the parking which is roadside along the side of Loweswater. Booted…
Time for one last walk on the penultimate day, the weather all week had been getting better and better with lots of sunshine. With only one patch of rain/drizzle, which happened to be from midnight until about 8am on the Monday. It had been a good weather week and it had been too good not…
Post 4 from the Easter trip to the Lake District. With two posts of big walks, firstly Yewbarrow, Scoat Fell and Haycock, followed by Eagle Crag around to Ullscarf. This walk is a mix of days, the weather continued to stay kind, with lots of blue and some nice evening sunsets. The first batch of…
Not sure why I picked this walk straight after the last one. Looking at ascents up a fell, Yewbarrow and Eagle Crag are two of the most fearsome in the district. From my list I’m only missing Sharp Edge on Blencathra and I’d have had a hattrick on this holiday. Now here comes a warning,…
First of the big walks on the Easter visit to the Lakes this year. My Wainwright map has far too many dots in the south western side, particularly around Eskdale and Wasdale. Time for a visit out that way. Now some would say that heading to Wasdale on an Easter Sunday is asking for trouble,…
Grasmere is a walk I’ve done lots of times in the Lakes, alongside that of Aira Force probably, it might even get close to my favourite walk here in the South West (Cadover Bridge to Shaugh Bridge) with the number of visits. Considering its 400 miles away it’s a fair effort, but then considering I’ve…
The day after my mountain walk around Esk Hause, the weather was slowly taking a turn for the worse, I decided to make the most of the next day of maybe some drizzle but mainly low cloud. Aira Force is always a great outing for bad weather days, plenty of waterfalls and a nice loop…
The big walk for this visit to the Lakes (apologies for the large amount of photos!), this was a bit of a concoction of fells thrown together to make a loop and pick off a load of Wainwrights. These fells would normally mean a couple of walks to pick them off, and all requiring a…
This is a regular walk when I head north to the Lake District, and a simple one at that. I really ought to include Rydal Water in the loop and walk back via the coffin route and make a bit more of it. However today the weather was a bit gloomy, cloud was down and…
After the visit to hospital I knew that my youngest needed to rest this holiday, so we had a couple of days just mooching around the house and Grasmere and doing very little. By Friday I wanted to walk again, however the weather had turned a bit and the fine weather of earlier in the…
Its taken a bit to get round to writing this post, a walk to one of the great mountains in the Lakes and picking up a few other Wainwrights on the way around, with any luck. The walk is a very good one and is a change from the previous walks on this holiday (Carrock…
After our first walk in the Lakes in nearly two years, we sweltered in a heatwave the next day. We therefore decided to walk after tea in the evening for our second outing. This would hopefully give us a slightly cooler walk and meant the fell needed to be reasonably near to the house in…
Well, finally, we could make our way to the Lakes to stay for a holiday. One Covid cancellation and one burst water pipe in the holiday cottage, had meant that the last time I set foot in Lakeland was October 2019. Which is far too long ago for me. Those that say that the hills…
Such a good walk this one, if you have National Trust membership then start from the main car park beside the lake, something I try to use in lots of car parks up here. If not then there is another car park to the west just off the road to Coniston. Either way this is…
I had a choice of a few walks for this day, I could head to Great Gable or maybe pick off some behind Skiddaw. But this time I decided to finish off the Far Eastern Fells. This is my first book of the Wainwright’s that I have finished and one that I thought would be…
Another visit to the Lakes for me and this was a walk that I actually came up with myself, looking at the Far Eastern fells I had left, this walk seemed possible on the map. When I looked online this turned out to be a Longsleddale Round, plus Selside Pike. For some reason this fell…
After three walks in three days we had a couple of days off, with a pootle around Ambleside on one day, followed by a trip to Keswick for some present shopping the next. We were ready for our next walk. The strange thing about this walk was that we discussed it 12 months ago when…
In between the walking days in our week in The Lakes, we had a couple of days off. One was spent pottering around Ambleside in the rain. The second was a trip to Keswick to buy a few presents and have some lunch up there. Considering we were staying in Grasmere, it is normally is…
This was our 3rd walk in 3 days, and surprisingly our longest. The walk out to Calf Crag is much further than it looks on a map, however the path we took meant that the distance was just a sideshow. Greenburn Bottom is a gem of a place and will easily go in my top…
Day 2 dawned and again the weather was dry. Not quite as sunny as it was the day before, however with the cloud off the tops you have to make the most of it in the Lake District. The plan was to grab two southern fells just off the Wrynose Pass, now I’m sure there…
Our week in the Lakes arrived and with it the possibility of some changeable weather. To be honest we did pretty well, looking at the forecast the first 3 days would be good, so out we went for 3 walks. Then a day of rain followed by a mixed bag, where we got one more…
This walk wasn’t on the plan for this holiday, I’d originally wanted to do Yolk, Ill Bell, Froswick and Troutbeck Tongue, however the long drive put me off, so I changed to this one. Talk of a horseshoe walk in the Lake District and you will get quite far down the list before someone mentions…
This is probably a walk that I have looked at for 5 years or more now, each time I’ve put it off and gone elsewhere. I’ve added parts to it and then taken them away, I’ve even changed my starting point at the last minute. Originally this was going to be a walk out of…
Another week in the Lakes and it coincided with some lovely weather which got warmer as the week went on. Before heading up to the Lakes I hadn’t had my usual long walk to get me ready for walks with steep fells over long distances, I am a fan of the Dartmoor landscape but it…
Staying in Coniston means that the Old Man is an ever present sight every day. Both myself and my boys had climbed The Old Man of Coniston before back in 2014. I wanted to keep my run of Wainwrights ticking along and wasn’t keen on going up fells that I’ve done before. However the Old…
Since I had started walking in The Lakes I had in mind a number of routes, paths and edges that have to be tried or at least looked at. The names of these places will be familiar to a lot of people, places like Striding Edge, Sharp Edge and the Corridor Route are all very…
Our annual family Lake District week was here and true to form coincided with a change in weather in this area. Talk in the run up weeks was of hot temperatures and hosepipe bans, on arrival we could see lots of lakes and tarns with very low levels of water. We had, had one previous…
After the Tuesday walk up around High Street I was pretty drained. The heat was tough to walk in and to make matters worse the breeze that was present in the Lake District had completely disappeared on the Wednesday. Thursday arrived and the haze was pretty thick, I had planned on a route that took…
Three days into the holiday and no proper walk for me so far, but the hot weather up here in The Lakes had held me back. Tuesday looked good, the temperature said it would drop a few degrees but the sun would still be out. It was off to Hartsop to do a walk that…
As I reached my last day up here, the weather turns, what a lovely day. Blue skies everywhere. Packing up I headed off to Latrigg to catch the early cloud inversion and sunshine. The views were as good as I’ve ever had up in Lakeland. With good weather comes lots of people and the Gale…
This walk is a classic Lakeland walk, and now I’ve done it I can see why. This specific walk though isn’t the full Coledale Round, that one can include another 3 or 4 fells if you want it to. However I’ve already done Outerside, Barrow, Grasmoor and Wandope, with Hopegill Head pencilled in for a…
Time for another low level walk from my week in The Lakes and this one is a classic and probably my favourite low level walk in the Lakes. I’ve been and done this one once before, on a glorious crisp February day (here). Today wasn’t quite like that but the quality of the views and…
The roman road over High Street is famous around the country for traversing the 828 metre peak of the same name. It connected the two roman forts of Broughton (near Penrith) to Galava (near Ambleside) and took its route due to the marshy and wooded valleys on the normal route, which were prone to ambush.…
Back in the Lakes again for another week of food, drinks, walks, food, walks, drinks and more food. The weather this week wasn’t the best I’ve had up here, only on the last day did it turn into autumn as you would want it and the colours of the trees came out. As it was…
Now the seasoned Wainwright walker will know all about the central spine that consists of 7 Wainwrights, running from Walla Crag to Ullscarf. They will also know, more specifically, about the part from Bleaberry Fell to Armboth Fell and how wet and boggy it can be. I can confirm it is indeed wet and boggy…
On the map this looked like a do-able walk, we had about 4 hours to do the walk (with treetop adventures at Brockholes planned for later that afternoon) and no walk the previous day. The weather was looking good and the pay meter in the Grasmere car park was broken, must have been my day!!.…
This walk wasn’t really on the agenda for this week. We were a bit tired after the previous day on Skiddaw and we felt a shorter easier walk would do. Nothing longer than a few hours. This walk is ideal for that. Starting at the Honister YHA and following the easy path (called the Drum…
This is the first of 4 walks on this visit to the Lake District this summer. The boys wanted to beat their previous highest mark (which was the Old Man of Coniston at 803m). We were staying in Braithwaite and the mountain of Skiddaw overlooks this village, it seemed an obvious choice. So 4 children…
Ok, before anyone shouts this isn’t quite the Newlands Round. I’ve done Catbells previously so this allowed me to park in Little Town and head up to Hause Gate and onto Maiden Moor, thus missing out a short part. Still this is still a pretty big walk and gives one of the best views in…
I’d been planning this walk for a while, I’d neglected the eastern fells, picking at the Mell Fells or Arnison Crag on one off walks that didn’t really do the area justice. The plan was to walk the Helvellyn ridge, Clough Head to Seat Sandal 10 fells in a line (11 if you venture off…
A week off work for me, usually means a packed rucksack and bag, followed by a 400 mile drive the the Lake District. The first week of April was such a week for me and I picked the right one to go up. The weather was good, just two cloudy days and a bit of…
The final walk of a week in the Lakes was up a fairly simple fell on the side of Thirlmere which takes me to 89 Wainwrights done. The tracks heading up through the woods are steep but the distance is pretty short and it doesn’t take much more than 90 minutes to get up and…
This was to be my big walk of the week and it didn’t disappoint. I’d neglected the Far Eastern Wainwrights during the 80 odd I’d done so far and decided this holiday to put that right. I’d fashioned two walks of 5 and 7 fells each, one that took in Steel Fell, Wether Hill, Loadpot…
Third day in the Lakes and the weather was just how you want it at this time of year, sunny and a nice nip in the air, with plenty of colour on the trees to give you some nice photos. To be honest I only took my phone with me but the walk itself was…
Another week in the Lakes, although this ones a bit different. I’m staying in Keswick this time, in order to take advantage of the pubs and eateries on the doorstep and I won’t be walking as much as I normally do when I’m up here. However my first day here and I’m doing a walk…
This turned out to be our last walk in the Lakes this week, the weather on the Thursday turned to heavy rain and Friday we were leaving. Still this is a fine ending to our week of walks. As many know this is the smallest of the Wainwrights, standing under 300metres it would normally be…
treksandtors 