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The Lake District 2021The Lake District 2021
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A 15-day adventure by Alan Read more
  • Alan Chapman

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  • Alan ChapmanTravelerThe Lake District 2021

    Aira Force and Ullswater

    October 21, 2021 in England ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    Ironically, the weather completely changed for the better as the rest of the group left with frost on the car and a clear blue sky in the morning with a few clouds in the afternoon.
    I drove to Ullswater via Kewwick and the A66. I hadn't realised when booking my additional six nights at Glaramara that there were no roads east of south, only west or north, from Seatoller. So I drove the windy B road to Keswick and the A66 a number of times.
    I went to the National Trust car-park (free for members) at Aira Force on the western side of Ullswater. There was a path going through the forest to the waterfall and the cascades, and it continued up the fell of Gowbarrow (480m) before descending and eventually returning to the car-park, a walk of 4 miles. There were great views of Ullswater from the top.
    Lunch was a Cornish pasty and tea at the National Trust cafe.
    I walked parallel to the road and the lake to Glencoyne Farm for a circular walk of 3 miles through a farm, up a fell, and back through a forest, and then retracing my steps back to Aira Force.
    On the way back to Keswick, I took the road to Castlerigg to see the bronze age stone circle.
    Mileage:44.    Read more

  • Alan ChapmanTravelerThe Lake District 2021

    Pooley Bridge, Patterdale and Ullswater

    October 22, 2021 in England ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    Another sunny and dry day so I returned to Ullswater to do some more of the low level walks listed in a book.
    Starting in Pooley Bridge, I did a 5 mile walk along the lakeside, through a bog on to Barton Fell, and then a gradual ascent, past the Wainwright Stone overlooking the lake, past the Cockpit, a bronze age stone circle, and back to Pooley Bridge.
    After a nice smoked salmon salad for lunch at the Secret Garden, I enquired at about taking a ride on the steamer going down the lake, but the return journey was fully-booked. Instead, I drove down the side of the lake to Patterdale to do a 2 mile walk through Glenamara Park. There was a scenic cricket ground at a college near Patterdale.
    On the way back to Seatoller from Keswick, I stopped at the Bowder Stone, a massive rock left by a retreating glacier.
    Mileage: 63.    Read more

  • Alan ChapmanTravelerThe Lake District 2021

    Crummock Water and Buttermere

    October 23, 2021 in England ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    I drove over the Honister Pass to Buttermere, parking the car. I walked up Rannerdale Knotts (355m) and down Rannerdale to Crummock Water. There was a lakeside path through woods before crossing the outlet of the lake and turning back down the western side of the lake. The weather had turned for the worst with steady rain at time being driven by a blustery wind into my face. Some of the walk was through bogs, crossed by stones in places, but having to find one's own route through the undergrowth elsewhere.
    After 3.5 hours and 9 miles, I arrived back at Buttermere 10 minutes before the time ran out on the car-park ticket. Having paid for another hour, I returned to the cafe visited a week earlier, and had soup, toasted teacakes, hot chocolate and tea fro lunch before driving back to Seatoller.
    Being a weekend, the start of half-term and a low-level walk, there were more people walking than on other days. It's amazing how many people walk in the rain (Mad Dogs and Englishmen) but that's what you have to expect in The Lake District. Many people walk with their dogs; sometimes two or even three.
    There were many more people in the towns and villages than on the walking trails.
    Mileage: 12.    Read more

  • Alan ChapmanTravelerThe Lake District 2021

    Glaramara House

    October 24, 2021 in England ⋅ 🌧 10 °C

    It was a wet morning so I stayed in the hotel reading the papers, doing emails, and having soup for lunch.

    It stopped raining in the afternoon so I was tempted to go to Ashness Bridge and maybe do a walk from there. However, there was a downpour when I got there so I returned to the hotel, read a book, talked to the other guests, and watched the red squirrel eating the food put in a hanging bag for him.
    An Explore group of six arrived in the evening. Explore had put on extra trips after the success of the original programme but they had to be fitted in where the hotel had availability. Unfortunately, the group had a very wet week.
    Mileage: 12.    Read more

  • Alan ChapmanTravelerThe Lake District 2021

    Ashness Bridge and Wagga Crag

    October 25, 2021 in England ⋅ 🌧 10 °C

    It was a dry and sunny morning so I drove the short distance to Ashness Bridge and parked in the National Trust car-park for free. The stone bridge is an old pack-horse bridge, just wide enough for a car to cross.
    The 4.5 mile walk started by ascending the fell and eventually reaching the top of Wagga Crag with excellent views of Keswick, Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite. The walk continued downhill through Great Wood and back to Ashness Bridge.
    I returned to Glaramara House for a soup lunch. and spent the afternoon in the lounge reading a book, the weather having turned showery with rainbows over the fells.
    Mileage: 12.    Read more

  • Alan ChapmanTravelerThe Lake District 2021

    Dalemain House

    October 26, 2021 in England ⋅ 🌧 12 °C

    It was another mixed day with regard to the weather.
    I drove to Keswick and then along the A66 towards Penrith, turning off on a minor road to Dalemain House and Gardens. I'd phoned the previous day and booked the 11am tour of the house. The owners still occupied part of the house but we were able to see some of the rooms, including those dating from Tudor times., as well as a room full of entries into the Marmalade Festivals.
    After walking around the ornamental gardens, I had a soup lunch in what was probably a converted barn, and then bought locally-made apple and brandy marmalade, and jars of Christmas chutney as Christmas presents.
    The afternoon was spent back at Glaramara House.
    Mileage: 50.    Read more

  • Alan ChapmanTravelerThe Lake District 2021

    Mellor

    October 27, 2021 in England ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    I left Glaramara House at 9.00 for the return journey to London. It had been raining since yesterday afternoon, and the receptionist said that the road to Keswick already had flood warnings so she advised going over the Honister Pass and taking the road to Keswick from Buttermere.
    It was pouring with rain with roads as streams and waterfalls cascading down the sides of the Pass where I encountered no other traffic. It was reported later that the Pass had a foot of rain in a 24-hour period.
    Having waited for a herd of sheep to pass, the third time in my stay in the area, I reached Buttermere and took the road to Keswick, which also went high but not as high as Honister, and then down a winding road before eventually meeting the A66 west of Keswick at 9.45.
    After a toilet stop at the last services on the A66 before the junction with the M6, conditions worsened with rain, wind and poor visibility as the M6 reached Shap at 1,000 feet. The rain had stopped by the time I reached Preston.
    After driving along the M61, another service stop for a call to Mellor, to say that I was on my way, joining the M60, making an unnecessary detour through Stockport, asking for directions in Marple, I eventually reached Mellor Parish Centre at 13.30 to meet the archivist.
    The archivist showed me the records of burials plus a map of the graveyard with the graves numbered to correspond to the written record. The records had also been put on a CD which I purchased as well as making a donation to the church.
    We walked to the church which was on the top of a hill. Archaeologists had excavated part of the site to discover a pre-Roman settlement and medieval hall.
    The burial records indicated that there were about four graves with Ernills, my maternal great great grandfather's surname, and about a dozen with Bradburys, my maternal great great grandmother's maiden name. Having kicked away the moss, we found the grave of Thomas Ernill and Sarah Bradbury which also contains some other relatives. There was a stone flower holder with the name Ernill on its side.
    The church where many Ernills were baptised and married was very interesting with a pre-Norman font, a medieval pulpit, and a modern organ to accompany the choir which had sung at Westminster Abbey during the Abbey choir's summer holiday.    Read more

  • Alan ChapmanTravelerThe Lake District 2021

    Brook Bottom and Waterloo

    October 27, 2021 in England ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Turning left out of Church Lane, Mellor, I drive the short distance to 11 Moor End where the family of Elizabeth Bradbury, the wife of Samuel Ernill, my maternal great grandfather, lived in the mid-19th century.
    Continuing through the village of New Mills and a narrow country lane, I reached the hamlet of Brook Bottom where the Ernills lived in the 18th and 19th century. They lived at Cottage No.2, but all the cottages had names, not numbers, now, and a local resident told me that some of the old cottages may have been knocked together to making the modern cottages.
    I had a good lunch at The Fox, a listed pub, which Robinson's, the brewery, had purchased in the late 19th century together with a few adjacent cottages but probably not the one occupied by the Ernills. The staff were putting up their Halloween decorations.
    I left the pub at 16.40 and continued through New Mills to find the A6 and then other A roads across the Derbyshire Dales, through Baslow and Chesterfield, to meet the M1 at the Mansfield junction. The motorway was very busy even in the early evening but gradually quietened as it approached London. After stopping at the last services for petrol and a drink, turning off too early so had to go down the A1 through Highgate and down the Caledonian Road, I eventually got home to Waterloo at 21.30.
    Mileage for the whole day: 338.
    Mileage for the whole trip: 960.    Read more

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