Out & About …

… on the North York Moors, or wherever I happen to be.

Category: Lake District

  • Sandwick

    Sandwick

    Another view from the weekend. Sandwick, a small hamlet on the shore of Ullswater. To the right the 1,271′ Hallin Fell, which Wainwright regards as “the motorists’ fell, for the sandals and slippers and polished shoes of the numerous car-owners who park their on the crest of the zig-zags on Sunday afternoons have smoothed to […]

  • Martindale

    Martindale

    I’ve been off-grid in the Lakes for a few days, specifically in Martindale, perhaps the most secluded and certainly the least touristy of the dales. Martindale drains into Ullswater. To get there you have to follow the east of the Lake from Pooley Bridge to Howtown then negotiate The Hause, a steep little pass with […]

  • Suart’s Reservoir

    Suart’s Reservoir

    A busy weekend near Staveley in the Kent valley, “gateway to the Lakes”. Yesterday saw a return to Gurnal Dubs which visited in 2016 during the supervision of a DoE expedition. Today Suart’s Reservoir which is on the south side of the valley in the parish of Nether Staveley. It is entirely on farmland with […]

  • The Green, St. John’s in the Vale

    The Green, St. John’s in the Vale

    Mondays have always brought on a state of dysphoria after the euphoria of a weekend away. I think another post of St. John’s in the Vale is justified β€” a day late but heigh ho. The photo is taken looking south from Lad Knott overlooking the hamlet of ‘The Green‘, which, legend has it, was […]

  • Who was Jim?

    Who was Jim?

    Jim’s Fold, on the Eastern Fells below Calfhow Pike and overlooking St. John’s in the Vale. This was used as checkpoint on this year’s Lake District Mountain Trial. Taken on Saturday, the day before the event, when the fold was occupied by two wild fell ponies and their foals. But the question remains β€” just […]

  • Peat storage hut, Birker Fell

    Peat storage hut, Birker Fell

    I came across this ruin on the descent of Harter Fell. The Scafell range of fells provide a stunning backdrop. It is one of 35 huts that have been identified in the Eskdale area that were used for the storage of peat turves. Its date of construction is unclear, certainly post-medieval but it was still […]

  • Burnmoor Tarn

    Burnmoor Tarn

    Described by Coleridge as “flounder-shaped” with “it’s Tail towards Sca’ Fell, at its head a gap forming an inverted arch with Black Comb & a peep of the Sea seen thro’ it“. He was on his ascent of Scafell in 1802, and took the direct route from Burnmoor Tarn, so he could well have passed […]

  • Ulverston Canal

    Ulverston Canal

    I had it in mind to try to find the ‘Devil’s Chair’, a rock carved stone chair, on Hord Hill near Ulverston, and was intrigued to notice a canal from the town to the sea. A canal! In the Lakes! Perfectly straight, 1ΒΌ miles long. It turned out to be a little gem, brimming with […]

  • Threlkeld Common

    Threlkeld Common

    The boggy wilderness of Threlkeld Common, perhaps more well known because of the ‘Old Coach Road’ which traverses it between Dockray and Wanthwaite, keeping to higher, drier ground. I haven’t been able to find much about the road’s history but I surmise it was the old route between Penrith and Keswick before the bridge over […]

  • Ruthwaite Cove

    Ruthwaite Cove

    A view down Grisedale from the col between Nethermost Pike and Dollywagon Pike. The name Grisedale portrays its Norse roots. The valley of the pigs β€” ‘griss’ meaning pigs, probably wild boar. On the other hand, St. Sunday Crag, the huge fell on the right is from St Dominic and the Latin: Dies Dominica, the […]