Lake District and Dismissed from Medical Care

After being cleared of all medical restrictions regarding the broken leg on July 26, 2016, we hopped in the car and drove to the Lake District of Cumbria hoping to get in a bit of climbing and hill walking. The Grange Old School Climbers Hut in the Borrowdale valley was our destination for three nights and two days. The Hut is aptly named as it was the original school for the area built in 1890. The last classes were held in 1935 and a plaque on the wall dedicates the school to the memory of Margaret Heathcoat recognizing her for a life of good works. The Climbers Club, took it over and made it into a quaint hut to encourage mountaineering and rock-climbing in the area. It was a joy to stay in.

The 'Hundred Year Stone'
sculpture to mark 100
years of  National Trust

All the land in England higher than 3,000 feet lies withing the Lake District National Park in northwest England. Most of the land in the park is under private ownership and though there is free movement on park land, access to cultivated land is typically restricted to the public footpaths. Even the small towns such as Keswick are located entirely in the park. In addition, Cumbria has some unique language that I had to learn in order to read climbing and hiking guides:

• Fell - hill or mountain
• Ghyll - ravine
• Beck - stream
• Dale - valley
• Tarn - mountain lake
• Bothy - a shelter, found in remote, mountainous areas, typically left unlocked and available for anyone to use free of charge.

What charming words! Absolutely love them!!

View of Derwentwater from Castlehead,
with Cat Bells Fell in the background

The original plan for this trip was to do three classic trad climbs, Little Chamonix , Gillercombe Buttress and Troutdale Pinnacle. These are well known, easy climbs with easy access and we were looking forward to it. The first morning, however, was drizzly and overcast so we decided to go into town for plum bread (raisin bread toast) at Brysons Tea Room in Keswick. Brysons advertises it will ship it's pies and plumb bread anywhere in the world! Maybe one day, I'll order some for home! It was yummy!

After finishing the plum bread, it was still overcast so we decided on a walk around the lake. We parked at the National Trust Great Wood car park and headed toward Derwentwater. The walk around the lake was beautiful with lovely rock sculpture to picturesque sail and row boats and fun history. We were enjoying the walk so much we just continued. Some of the more interesting points are Friar's Crag, which is said to be the launching point for monks making a pilgrimage to St. Herbert's Island which is the setting for Owl Island in Beatrix Potters book, the Tale of Squirrel Nutkin. There are several islands each with a marvelous history. One of the more interesting is Derwent Island which was bought in 1778 by Joseph Pocklington. He built a house, fort, Gothic boathouse and a mock stone circle on it and being quite an eccentric held an annual regatta where he challenged the townspeople of Keswick to attack the island while he shot at them with his cannons! We continued on to the small promontory of Castlehead where we were treated to a fantastic view of Derwentwater. Tea and farm shops are found in the strangest places in this county and sure enough, we encountered Annie's Pantry and Farm shop along the trail. Annie's is only accessible on foot and was quite a civilized stop for cappuccino and hot chocolate. By this time, we were thoroughly enjoying the hike and seeing a sign that Castlerigg Stone Circle was only 1/5 of a mile decided to continue on.

Castlerigg Stone circle with Helvellyn
and High Seat Mountains in the
background

Castlerigg Stone Circle is a Neolithic Stone Circle with an uncertain purpose. Many of the Bronze Age circles are thought to be burial chambers or ceremonial areas but no evidence of this has been found at Castlerigg. It is suggested this circle had astronomical significance with alignments with planets or stars. One of the more unusual features is rectangle of standing stones within the circle, again with the purpose lost in time. We traveled the 1/5 of a mile across ghyll and dale even encountering a cow who had 'just' given birth, snacked on wild raspberries, but no Stone Circle! We kept walking and eventually found another sign indicating we only had 1/2 mile to go! Were we lost in some sort of space, time, distance continuum? We continued along a small lane, eventually encountering a road worker who told us we were indeed on the right path and it was just down the lane on the right and he was indeed correct. The detour had taken us three miles out of the way but was well worth the visit even though there was a group of school age children having an outing there. We may never quite understand the discrepancy in signs but it was well worth the extra few miles to see Castlerigg Stone Circle in the sun as the following day would prove to be quite rainy.

Row boat on a beautiful
Tarn (mountain lake)
surrounded by fells (hills)
near Watendlath

After the walk we took a drive down a single track road across the Ashness bridge to the hamlet of Watendlath. It is 847' above sea level and has an attractive tarn surrounded by fells in a classic hanging valley. A hanging valley is a valley cut across by a deeper valley or cliff. The peace of the place is what grabs you immediately. Though there was a fisherman on the tarn in a small row boat, we didn't see anyone else in this ancient settlement. One can only wonder how people lived so remotely.

Atmospheric conditions at Honister Pass
just past the Honister Slate mine, known
for it's green slate.

The second day turned out to be rain all day, dashing any remaining hopes we had for climbing. In fact, each time we would park the car to attempt a walk the rain would start in earnest! We took a driving trip that took us over Honister Pass, stopping at Honister Slate Mine, then made our way to Cockermouth, an ancient market town. Cockermouth sits at the mouth of the Cocker River and thus it's name. We stopped for a cappuccino then drove back to Keswick poking around in the shops then had a wonderful baked trout dinner in a small hotel bar!

This is a place that certainly deserves more time than we gave it but that just means we'll have to come back again!