Ruth and I had hoped to spend the Christmas travel window in the southern Highlands but our plans were thwarted by the last minute reduction of that window to a single day and total closure of the Scottish border to non-essential travel. Instead, we therefore spent the week at her house in Natland and entertained ourselves with a selection of local walks and runs.
Sunday was wet and windy so we opted for a local trail run rather than a trip into the high fells. We started in Kendal and ran together up onto Cunswick Scar and then south along the ridge over Scout Scar. Ruth dropped back down to Kendal for a 10k loop while I continued south past Sizergh Castle and then through Levens Park and back up the old canal to Natland, around 20k in total. The strong southerly breeze made it hard work with a headwind much of the way, but thankfully the rain held off save a couple of showers towards the end. At the end of week 2 of my 16-week marathon training plan, it was good to get the long run ticked off in such scenic surrounds.
On Monday we headed to Patterdale for our walk, with the best of the weather forecast in the northeast Lakes. We parked by the George Starkey Hut and set off across the valley to Side Farm, surprised to find that Ullswater had flooded this far up the valley and had to splash through up to six inches of water on the track. I was surprised to get across with dry feet! We then followed the scenic traverse path parallel to the lake shore, over Silver Crag and on to Martindale where we paused for lunch. Although the forecast had been for improving conditions, the cloud had gradually dropped through the morning, and our return route over the top of Place Fell was mostly in thick and damp mist, with few views until we dropped back out of it at Boredale Hause for the short descent back to Patterdale.
Tuesday was a drier and brighter day. We started at the head of Langdale, where Andrena joined us for our ridge walk over Pike o’Blisco, Crinkle Crags and Bow Fell. The ascent of Pike o’Blisco was mostly in sunshine, with excellent views of the Langdale Pikes and down the valley towards Fairfield. After passing Red Tarn, we walked in mist for some of the ascent to Crinkle Crags, but were rewarded at the summit where we broke out of the top of the cloud for a few minutes and enjoyed some impressive cloudscapes. The clouds gradually lifted again as we continued past Three Tarns and up Bow Fell, such that we had intermittent views west to Scafell Pike and northeast towards Helvellyn. Bow Fell is surely one of the finest viewpoints in the Lake District, and the air clarity this day (when outside the cloud!) was superb. We descended via the Band to reach the car just before sunset.
It was wet and windy again on Wednesday, so we didn’t go out together. I made the most of a pause in the rain for an interval training session on the flat and almost deserted lanes of the Lyth Valley. The upwind intervals heading northeast were much slower than the downwind ones to the southwest!
Christmas Eve was forecast to have the best weather of the week and so it proved for our walk around the Coledale Horseshoe. We parked in Braithwaite and chose to walk clockwise, starting with the ascent of Barrow. Snow had fallen the previous day to leave a clear snow-line at around 600m, and the ground was frozen hard at all levels. We first reached the snow on Causey Pike, and walked mostly on the white stuff from there all the way around to Grisedale Pike. Once again, the visibility was superb and we enjoyed views of the snowy, sunlit summits of the Northern Fells and the Helvellyn ridge as we continued over Scar Crags to Crag Hill, as well as towards Scafell Pike and High Stile.
The snow had drifted fairly deeply on the west side of Crag Hill, making for an enjoyable descent before the climb back up Grasmoor, whose northern crags looked grand today. Hopegill Head also gave fine views, east over Grisedale Pike to Skiddaw, south over Coledale Hause, and north over the Solway Firth to Criffel – as clear as I’ve ever seen it! The descent from Grisedale Pike brought us quickly back below the snow-line and onto frozen turf all the way back to Braithwaite. It was unusual to walk all day in the Lakes with no sign of a thaw at any level! Despite the sunshine, it had been bitterly cold in the north wind, and we had not wanted to take our gloves off for more than a moment at any point!
We were keen to get out for a walk on Christmas Day, and chose to head to the Yorkshire Dales where we could get up and down Ingleborough before lunch, leaving plenty of time for preparing the Christmas dinner afterwards. The morning started with hazy sunshine that gradually turned to high level cloud as we ascended by the good track from Ingleton – a popular choice as we must have passed around 50 people in total. Having taken in the views from various points around the summit plateau, we descended towards Little Ingleborough and from there took the boggy path (hard frozen again today!) back to the lane and Ingleton.
We had a lazier start on Boxing Day with more rain expected in the hills. I jogged into Kendal mid-morning to have a go at the MapRun orienteering course around the town centre before jogging back to Natland for a relaxed afternoon and dinner of Christmas leftovers.
My full photo album is available on Google Photos here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/zEmyi9MnGYM1MrGEA
Maps of our walking routes can be seen here:
Place Fell: https://www.plotaroute.com/route/1381568
Pike o’Blisco to Bow Fell: https://www.plotaroute.com/route/1381571
Coledale Horseshoe: https://www.plotaroute.com/route/1381576
Ingleborough: https://www.plotaroute.com/route/1381577
All in all, a lovely relaxing week in some familiar but very scenic places – a pretty good consolation prize to ease the disappointment at not being able to make a trip to the Highlands this winter!
David Pettit's photo blog 