Morning in Coniston and very quiet along the lakeshore. The water level was clearly higher than normal as most of the landing stages were partly submerged. I had breakfast at the Bluebird Cafe overlooking the lake, and then walked into Coniston for supplies.
Back on the path it's a short and easy road walk to start with, then through fields and up into the woods towards Tarn Hows. It's a steep climb.
Maybe not looking its best in the cloudy conditions but the path passes along the west side heading North. The Cumbria way path isn't signposted off the lakeside path at the moment. If you get to a gate at the North end, you went too far (as I did) and need to turn back to the first turning on the right.
Shortly it joins a farm track and then a lane back to the main road and then a path in the field alongside the road to a woodland. This takes you down a lane alongside the wood to a farm where footpath and bridleway signs direct you towards Skelwith Bridge.
The path runs well marked through woodland and eventually nears the road. I carried on to Skelwith Bridge to eat my lunch by the river, decided against a pint in the Talbot Bar of the Skelwith Bridge Hotel and took the path back up alongside Chesters (which used to be the slate mine shop) to rejoin the Cumbria way by the river. However the signposted path now misses out Skelwith Bridge and crosses the river a little upstream by a metal footbridge instead. Then it's up the riverside path through fields towards and past Elterwater. There was plenty of evidence here of recent flooding with debris halfway up the field fences suggesting the river had been a good 6 feet higher at least.
I can't guarantee you will be lucky enough to find this ice cream seller at Elterwater Bridge but I can tell you the ice cream was very welcome.
There is also the Britannia hotel opposite for the thirsty ones.
The path crosses the bridge at Elterwater (the picture is looking up Great Langdale Beck) and heads up the lane and it's now an easy walk on the South (left) side of the river for the next mile or so.
Heading up into Great Langdale the path does climb fairly steeply away from the river and becomes fairly rough underfoot.
But it is worth it for this first view of the Langdale Pikes (the castellated one to the left is Harrison, the highest) and then the path descends again and crosses the road near the New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel.
I continued along the Cumbria way (now on the right hand side of the river and road) to the Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel. If neither of the hotels are your destination and you are staying at the Great Langdale campsite (NT) as I did, then you have to double back up the road for about 100m or so to the entrance. I arrived on Monday in June and there was plenty of room. You can't book ahead at NT campsites for one night and I know it can be very busy there on a weekend. There is another campsite at Baysbrown farm which is between Elterwater and the New Dungeon Ghyll hotel. The Cumbria way goes right past it. If you stayed here, you would be a few minutes walk from the Wainwright Inn at Chapel Stile too which has served me well in the past.
No comments:
Post a Comment