Category: Lake District
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Castlerigg Stone Circle
My early morning run took in the Castlerigg Stone Circle, a 4,500 year old monument built by the earliest farming communities who took advantage of the fertile lands of the valley bottoms. Castlerigg is particularly impressive, giving a 360° panorama of the surrounding fells. This is a view south up the tiny Naddle valley. It’s…
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Blue Monday
“Scientifically” the most depressing day of the year. It wasn’t too depressing in Keswick in the Lake District today. Blue skies, no wind, and feeling a lot like spring is just around the corner. This is a shot from Otterbield Bay on the west side of Derwentwater. Far left is Walla Crag, which Lady Derwentwater…
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New Year in the Lakes …
… with good friends and great food, and lots of rain. One of these friends is Alice Leon, a young writer from Guisborough. I am honoured she has agreed to write a guest post for me. Scree slopes and waterfalls paint a heavy contrast against the faded patchwork fields of Guisborough, which had become the…
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Grasmere
Although many names with the element ‘gras‘ do derive from the Old Norse for swine or pigs, Grasmere has an Old English origin and means exactly what it says on the tin, a lake of grassland or pasture. One of the prettiest lakes in the Lake District. But also the most popular.
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Stanah, St. John’s in the Vale and Thirlmere
A low walk before the rain set in. I’m not sure what to call this valley. Thirlmere, Thirlspot, St. John’s in the Vale? Helvellyn Gill flows down it before its confluence with St. John’s Beck, the natural outflow of Thirlmere, which lies in the Wythburn valley. It’s all very confusing, but maybe not if you’re…
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View east from Helvellyn
If Helvellyn were just a few metres higher we would have definitely been above the cloud ceiling. As it was, views of the Eastern Fells opened up for the briefest of moments. in this glimpse, the cliffs in the distance, right of centre, belong to Rampsgill Head. That much I’m sure. I think. The trouble…
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Addacombe Hole
A last look back at the cove and the ruined sheepfold where I had spent the night. Addacombe Hole is really the most spectacular hanging valley. Between Crag Hill and Wandope, it is steep semi-circle of broken sides of crags and scree with a flatish bottom, and a moraine hiding an exceedingly sharp descent to…
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In the Lakes
Manning a checkpoint on the Mountain Trial tomorrow so walking in this afternoon. Can’t tell you where I am, it’s a secret.
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Devoke Water
In the classic Monty Python sketch, John Cleese walks into The Cheese Shop and utters the immortal line: And I thought to myself, ‘a little fermented curd will do the trick’, so, I curtailed my Walpoling activities, sallied forth, and infiltrated your place of purveyance to negotiate the vending of some cheesy comestibles! The phrase…
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Mediobogdum
The ‘Cohors IV Delmatarum‘ (4th Cohort of Dalmatae) were tough mountain men from the Adriatic coast of the eastern Mediterranean. It is thought the Roman auxiliary regiment was involved in the invasion of Britain in 43 AD and again suppressing the insurgency led by Boudicca. Eventually peace descended on the southern half of Britannia but…