Things to do in the Lake District dales
If you are planning a trip to the Lake District dales, you can find plenty of things to see and do when you arrive. The dales are one of the most popular areas for Lake District walks, and you can also find a fantastic range of accommodation in Troutbeck and Borrowdale.
The dales are easy to reach from Windermere and Bowness, so if you are staying in the more central Lake District hotels, you are still within easy driving distance of the dales.
Eskdale reigns supreme for low-level walks in the dales, with a remarkable selection ranging from the remote traverse of Great Moss below the towering cliffs of the Scafell range, through the sylvan delights of the mid-valley near Boot, to the easy walking over Muncaster Fell and around the Esk estuary. Perhaps the best of all is the riverside walk from St Catherine's chapel at Boot, upstream at first over rocky ground alongside the Esk, here characterised by swirling rapids, deep silent pools of delightfully clear and cold water, and tiny rocky gorges.
Cross the river at Doctor Bridge, an imposing single arched bridge carrying the farm road to Penny Hill and the path to the superb rocky summit of Harter Fell. Now turn downstream along the south bank, passing through the farmyard at Low Birker and skirting Great Coppice on the way back to the chapel accessible across the river only by means of stepping stones which are slippery and, except in times of drought, usually awash.
Better, then, to carry on along the southern bank, passing Stanley Ghyll (possibly diverting here to the splendid waterfall higher up the gill, in a deep, well wooded and steep sided ravine) and Dalegarth Hall, the former manor house of the Stanley family, with round chimneys but no longer any vestige of the pele tower which was added in the fifteenth century. Now a lane can be followed down to and across the Esk, with a bridleway latterly a marvellous walled green lane leading back to the chapel on the riverside.
Dunnerdale walks
The next spoke anti-clockwise in the Lake District's 'wheel' of valleys is Dunnerdale, probably the least spoilt of them all and certainly amongst the prettiest. There are no major mountains here, though there are distant glimpses of Bowfell and its neighbours from near the valley head and of the Coniston Fells (though not at their most photogenic) and Harter Fell from around Seathwaite.
The valley walking is delectable though discontinuous; amongst the best routes are the walk from Cockley Beck to Birks Bridge, in the footsteps of the Romans as far as the solid farmstead at Black Hall, then alongside the river past the sharp little turret of Castle How and below the forestry plantations on the flanks of Harter Fell to Birks Bridge, a classic and much photographed humpbacked bridge taking nothing more grand than a rough track over a marvellous rocky gorge on the River Duddon.
Lower down the Duddon valley there are excellent riverside walks around Seathwaite, a timeless hamlet which acts as a focal point for the upper valley, and lower still at Ulpha there are good walks on un-crowded paths and bridleways with fine views of the fells.
Things to see in Troutbeck
Third amongst the 'dale' walks is one which hardly qualifies as such; indeed, if the place it explores were any larger it might well be classified as an urban trail. The place is Troutbeck, neatly bypassed by the busy main road from Windermere over Kirkstone Pass to Ullswater, and the attraction is a complex village landscape of intersecting lanes, clusters of farms and cottages grouped around the wells from which communal water supplies were obtained, and points of historical and architectural interest.
The best-known feature of the village is the series of 'statesman' farmhouses it contains; these were the architecturally distinctive farmsteads built by the newly prosperous yeoman farmers of the seventeenth century. The classic 'statesman' farmhouse is Town End, and this is as good a place as any to start. The home of the Browne family for more than 300 years from 1623, it has miraculously survived almost unchanged, with its cylindrical Westmorland chimneys and mullioned windows and, inside, items such as an oldfashioned cheese press, wooden washing machine and antique mangle.
Opposite Town End is a seventeenth century bank barn, of a type found only in the Lakes and in the Yorkshire Dales, and as the village street straggles northwards a further dozen examples of statesman farmhouses can be spotted, though many are no longer associated with farm holdings and have become the desirable residences of offcomers. The most northerly cluster, at Town Head, includes the Queen's Head Inn, with stone slab floors and a mayoral parlour which has been the scene of Troutbeck's mayor-making ceremony for over 200 years.
Borrowdale walks
No apologies are made for returning to Borrowdale for the next example of these walks in the dales. The area around Rosthwaite is especially rewarding, both upstream, around Johnny Wood, and lower down the valley, around Castle Crag. Johnny Wood, accessible by a path leading to the cottages at Peathow and to Longthwaite Bridge, is an excellent example of an indigenous Lake District oakwood, and also has a remarkable variety of ferns, liverworts and mosses, plants which thrive here because of the very high rainfall in the area.
Downstream from Rosthwaite a path can be followed over New Bridge and close to Pennybridge Dub as far as the quarries in High Hows Wood; close by here is Castle Crag, whose hillfort certainly in use in Roman times and in the Dark Ages overlooks an ice marginal channel later utilised for the route of the ancient trackway from Grange into upper Borrowdale.
The track approaches Grange through Dalt Wood, but near Gowder Dub a riverside path can be picked up for the return journey to the village of Rosthwaite, on its rocky knoll above the Derwent flood plain.
Langdale things to do
A more ambitious walk takes in the two Langdale valleys, with an impressive array of peaks close at hand, together with visits to two contrasting tams. Starting at the Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel, one of the most famous of the climbers' hotels in the district, the walk reaches its first objective, the lonely Blea Tam, by means of footpaths which climb below Side Pike, with magnificent views into Oxendale and Mickleden, the twin valleys at the head of Great Langdale.
A further path leads down to the road from Wrynose Pass as it descends into Little Langdale close to the farm at Fell Foot, sheltering below the 'thingmount' which is reputed to have been the annual meeting place of the Viking settlers in the two valleys. Immediately ahead is Little Langdale Tam, in its wid and somewhat unexciting bowl.
Much more attractive is the area below the tam, with Slater Bridge the highlight. This footbridge across the River Brathay, with its stone slabs linking islands and spanning pools of clear water, was originally constructed by workers in the slate quarries whose remains disfigure the slopes of Wetherlam to the south, and was later used by Lanty Slee, a nineteenth century whisky smuggler whose illicit stills were located nearby in the Tilberthwaite Fells. From the hamlet of Little Langdale a lane runs past Dale End and pleasantly through Baysbrown Wood to Chapel Stile and Great Langdale; footpaths now lead alongside the Great Langdale Beck, with magnificent views of the Langdale Pikes, to New Dungeon Ghyll, where the overused path to Stickle Tam begins.
Windermere and Bowness accommodation
Whether you are visiting the Lake District for the scenery, the vast range of pubs, bars and restaurants or the incredible attractions, culture and history of the area, ther is no better place to find quality accommodation and boutique hotels than Windermere and Bowness. From Windermere you can travel to the fells, the famous lakes in the area and enjoy some of the best walks in the lakes.
Walking in the Lake District National Park
Some of the finest walking in the National Park can be had by tramping the tracks which connect adjacent valleys. No summits are conquered, but the views of the fells are often magnificent and there is a real sense of satisfaction in having followed ancient routes dating, perhaps, from the packhorse era or from the days of whiskysmuggling through such dramatic scenery.
Wasdale Head walks
Wasdale Head is a focal point for these old tracks: from the cluster of dwellings around the famous inn three routes connect the most dramatic of the western valleys with its neighbours. The head of Ennerdale is reached through Mosedale and across the Black Sail Pass; the well-known Sty Head Pass links Wasdale with Seathwaite in Borrowdale; and the old corpse road across Burnmoor, along which Wasdale Head's departed had to be carried until the dalehead chapel was licensed for burials in the early nineteenth century, provides a route to Boot in Eskdale.
The first of these routes, across the Black Sail Pass to Ennerdale, is a classic of its kind. It starts well, too, passing the delightful Row Bridge, a low packhorse bridge which once carried the valley road from Wasdale Head towards the coastal plain but which now merely conveys walkers (and sheep) into Mosedale.
The Black Sail route
The Black Sail route rises gradually across the flanks of Kirk Fell, with the view ahead dominated by the intimidating bulk of Pillar, which forms the back wall of Mosedale. The best is yet to come, however, for arrival at the summit of the pass reveals the wild head of Ennerdale, together with the afforested slopes of the lower valley and the majestic summits of the High Stile range and Haystacks across the glaciated trench. Between High Crag and Haystacks is the Scarth Gap Pass, the natural extension to the Black Sail route, leading down to Gatesgarth and blessed with a marvellous panorama across Buttermere to the northwestern fells.
Lake District cottages
If you are looking for Lake District cottages or hotels, the best place to stay is Windermere or Bowness which offers a wealth of great accommodation and places to stay.
A map of the Lake District
If you plan to tour around the Lake District, pick up a Lake Distric map from any of the tourist information offices around the region. Most Lake District attractions, places of intererst and recommended towns and villages in the Lake District will be listed, along with all major routes, roads and directions.
The Garburn Pass
Towards the eastern fringe of the Lake District is another excellent walk between rather than to the top of the fells. This is based on the Garburn Road, the old packhorse route from Troutbeck to the delightful hamlet of Kentmere.
The route follows a line of weakness in the rocks along a thin band of Coniston Limestone which has resisted erosion less well than the rock formations on either side. From Troutbeck church the old road rises as a stony track etched into the hillside and hemmed in by drystone walls as it makes for the low land between Yoke and Sallows.
East of the Garburn Pass the track is less eroded and more pleasant underfoot as it descends slowly to the village of Kentmere; to the right can be seen the fourteenth-century pele tower of Kentmere Hall. The packhorse route, surprisingly important in its day, then passed through Green Quarter and along the walled lane above Stile End to Sadgill in Longsleddale, where it crossed the River Sprint on the present, picturesque packhorse bridge before heading either north across the Gatescarth Pass to Mardale or south towards Kendal.
The dales are easy to reach from Windermere and Bowness, so if you are staying in the more central Lake District hotels, you are still within easy driving distance of the dales.
Eskdale reigns supreme for low-level walks in the dales, with a remarkable selection ranging from the remote traverse of Great Moss below the towering cliffs of the Scafell range, through the sylvan delights of the mid-valley near Boot, to the easy walking over Muncaster Fell and around the Esk estuary. Perhaps the best of all is the riverside walk from St Catherine's chapel at Boot, upstream at first over rocky ground alongside the Esk, here characterised by swirling rapids, deep silent pools of delightfully clear and cold water, and tiny rocky gorges.
Cross the river at Doctor Bridge, an imposing single arched bridge carrying the farm road to Penny Hill and the path to the superb rocky summit of Harter Fell. Now turn downstream along the south bank, passing through the farmyard at Low Birker and skirting Great Coppice on the way back to the chapel accessible across the river only by means of stepping stones which are slippery and, except in times of drought, usually awash.
Better, then, to carry on along the southern bank, passing Stanley Ghyll (possibly diverting here to the splendid waterfall higher up the gill, in a deep, well wooded and steep sided ravine) and Dalegarth Hall, the former manor house of the Stanley family, with round chimneys but no longer any vestige of the pele tower which was added in the fifteenth century. Now a lane can be followed down to and across the Esk, with a bridleway latterly a marvellous walled green lane leading back to the chapel on the riverside.
Dunnerdale walks
The next spoke anti-clockwise in the Lake District's 'wheel' of valleys is Dunnerdale, probably the least spoilt of them all and certainly amongst the prettiest. There are no major mountains here, though there are distant glimpses of Bowfell and its neighbours from near the valley head and of the Coniston Fells (though not at their most photogenic) and Harter Fell from around Seathwaite.
The valley walking is delectable though discontinuous; amongst the best routes are the walk from Cockley Beck to Birks Bridge, in the footsteps of the Romans as far as the solid farmstead at Black Hall, then alongside the river past the sharp little turret of Castle How and below the forestry plantations on the flanks of Harter Fell to Birks Bridge, a classic and much photographed humpbacked bridge taking nothing more grand than a rough track over a marvellous rocky gorge on the River Duddon.
Lower down the Duddon valley there are excellent riverside walks around Seathwaite, a timeless hamlet which acts as a focal point for the upper valley, and lower still at Ulpha there are good walks on un-crowded paths and bridleways with fine views of the fells.
Things to see in Troutbeck
Third amongst the 'dale' walks is one which hardly qualifies as such; indeed, if the place it explores were any larger it might well be classified as an urban trail. The place is Troutbeck, neatly bypassed by the busy main road from Windermere over Kirkstone Pass to Ullswater, and the attraction is a complex village landscape of intersecting lanes, clusters of farms and cottages grouped around the wells from which communal water supplies were obtained, and points of historical and architectural interest.
The best-known feature of the village is the series of 'statesman' farmhouses it contains; these were the architecturally distinctive farmsteads built by the newly prosperous yeoman farmers of the seventeenth century. The classic 'statesman' farmhouse is Town End, and this is as good a place as any to start. The home of the Browne family for more than 300 years from 1623, it has miraculously survived almost unchanged, with its cylindrical Westmorland chimneys and mullioned windows and, inside, items such as an oldfashioned cheese press, wooden washing machine and antique mangle.
Opposite Town End is a seventeenth century bank barn, of a type found only in the Lakes and in the Yorkshire Dales, and as the village street straggles northwards a further dozen examples of statesman farmhouses can be spotted, though many are no longer associated with farm holdings and have become the desirable residences of offcomers. The most northerly cluster, at Town Head, includes the Queen's Head Inn, with stone slab floors and a mayoral parlour which has been the scene of Troutbeck's mayor-making ceremony for over 200 years.
Borrowdale walks
No apologies are made for returning to Borrowdale for the next example of these walks in the dales. The area around Rosthwaite is especially rewarding, both upstream, around Johnny Wood, and lower down the valley, around Castle Crag. Johnny Wood, accessible by a path leading to the cottages at Peathow and to Longthwaite Bridge, is an excellent example of an indigenous Lake District oakwood, and also has a remarkable variety of ferns, liverworts and mosses, plants which thrive here because of the very high rainfall in the area.
Downstream from Rosthwaite a path can be followed over New Bridge and close to Pennybridge Dub as far as the quarries in High Hows Wood; close by here is Castle Crag, whose hillfort certainly in use in Roman times and in the Dark Ages overlooks an ice marginal channel later utilised for the route of the ancient trackway from Grange into upper Borrowdale.
The track approaches Grange through Dalt Wood, but near Gowder Dub a riverside path can be picked up for the return journey to the village of Rosthwaite, on its rocky knoll above the Derwent flood plain.
Langdale things to do
A more ambitious walk takes in the two Langdale valleys, with an impressive array of peaks close at hand, together with visits to two contrasting tams. Starting at the Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel, one of the most famous of the climbers' hotels in the district, the walk reaches its first objective, the lonely Blea Tam, by means of footpaths which climb below Side Pike, with magnificent views into Oxendale and Mickleden, the twin valleys at the head of Great Langdale.
A further path leads down to the road from Wrynose Pass as it descends into Little Langdale close to the farm at Fell Foot, sheltering below the 'thingmount' which is reputed to have been the annual meeting place of the Viking settlers in the two valleys. Immediately ahead is Little Langdale Tam, in its wid and somewhat unexciting bowl.
Much more attractive is the area below the tam, with Slater Bridge the highlight. This footbridge across the River Brathay, with its stone slabs linking islands and spanning pools of clear water, was originally constructed by workers in the slate quarries whose remains disfigure the slopes of Wetherlam to the south, and was later used by Lanty Slee, a nineteenth century whisky smuggler whose illicit stills were located nearby in the Tilberthwaite Fells. From the hamlet of Little Langdale a lane runs past Dale End and pleasantly through Baysbrown Wood to Chapel Stile and Great Langdale; footpaths now lead alongside the Great Langdale Beck, with magnificent views of the Langdale Pikes, to New Dungeon Ghyll, where the overused path to Stickle Tam begins.
Windermere and Bowness accommodation
Whether you are visiting the Lake District for the scenery, the vast range of pubs, bars and restaurants or the incredible attractions, culture and history of the area, ther is no better place to find quality accommodation and boutique hotels than Windermere and Bowness. From Windermere you can travel to the fells, the famous lakes in the area and enjoy some of the best walks in the lakes.
Walking in the Lake District National Park
Some of the finest walking in the National Park can be had by tramping the tracks which connect adjacent valleys. No summits are conquered, but the views of the fells are often magnificent and there is a real sense of satisfaction in having followed ancient routes dating, perhaps, from the packhorse era or from the days of whiskysmuggling through such dramatic scenery.
Wasdale Head walks
Wasdale Head is a focal point for these old tracks: from the cluster of dwellings around the famous inn three routes connect the most dramatic of the western valleys with its neighbours. The head of Ennerdale is reached through Mosedale and across the Black Sail Pass; the well-known Sty Head Pass links Wasdale with Seathwaite in Borrowdale; and the old corpse road across Burnmoor, along which Wasdale Head's departed had to be carried until the dalehead chapel was licensed for burials in the early nineteenth century, provides a route to Boot in Eskdale.
The first of these routes, across the Black Sail Pass to Ennerdale, is a classic of its kind. It starts well, too, passing the delightful Row Bridge, a low packhorse bridge which once carried the valley road from Wasdale Head towards the coastal plain but which now merely conveys walkers (and sheep) into Mosedale.
The Black Sail route
The Black Sail route rises gradually across the flanks of Kirk Fell, with the view ahead dominated by the intimidating bulk of Pillar, which forms the back wall of Mosedale. The best is yet to come, however, for arrival at the summit of the pass reveals the wild head of Ennerdale, together with the afforested slopes of the lower valley and the majestic summits of the High Stile range and Haystacks across the glaciated trench. Between High Crag and Haystacks is the Scarth Gap Pass, the natural extension to the Black Sail route, leading down to Gatesgarth and blessed with a marvellous panorama across Buttermere to the northwestern fells.
Lake District cottages
If you are looking for Lake District cottages or hotels, the best place to stay is Windermere or Bowness which offers a wealth of great accommodation and places to stay.
A map of the Lake District
If you plan to tour around the Lake District, pick up a Lake Distric map from any of the tourist information offices around the region. Most Lake District attractions, places of intererst and recommended towns and villages in the Lake District will be listed, along with all major routes, roads and directions.
The Garburn Pass
Towards the eastern fringe of the Lake District is another excellent walk between rather than to the top of the fells. This is based on the Garburn Road, the old packhorse route from Troutbeck to the delightful hamlet of Kentmere.
The route follows a line of weakness in the rocks along a thin band of Coniston Limestone which has resisted erosion less well than the rock formations on either side. From Troutbeck church the old road rises as a stony track etched into the hillside and hemmed in by drystone walls as it makes for the low land between Yoke and Sallows.
East of the Garburn Pass the track is less eroded and more pleasant underfoot as it descends slowly to the village of Kentmere; to the right can be seen the fourteenth-century pele tower of Kentmere Hall. The packhorse route, surprisingly important in its day, then passed through Green Quarter and along the walled lane above Stile End to Sadgill in Longsleddale, where it crossed the River Sprint on the present, picturesque packhorse bridge before heading either north across the Gatescarth Pass to Mardale or south towards Kendal.
Labels: Garburn Pass
posted by Windermere Boutique Hotels | 02:14
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