A Honister Round.
Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 5:52 pm
The weather had seemed to have settled down a bit, so we decided on a to and fro walk around Honister on hills we had only visited once previously. There was low lying cloud on arrival at Honister, though we were confident this wouldn't last We'd set off that early, nothing was open at Honister Mine, so we headed up the old Tramway path to Drum House. We took a left here and went below Grey Knotts, heading for Brandreth first. On the path up to Brandreth, Great Gable, Kirk Fell & Pillar came into view. From Brandreth it's a quick and easy traverse across slightly boggy ground to make Grey Knotts. As the cloud was slowly lifting, we didn't stay long here and made a beeline for Fleetwith Pike, topping Black Star first. It was really warming up by now and the views down Buttermere began to open up. I think the view of Pillar from Fleetwith Pike is as good as any in the Lakes. We left the summit and stopped halfway down Fleetwith Edge for lunch and to admire the views. After our brief lunch stop, we figured it would be rude not to visit the ice cream van at Gatescarth Farm, and well worth it it was too . Went to photograph the Buttermere pines next, but the light wasn't the kindest It was really warm now as we set off up the side of Robinson. The views were good, but not the most exciting route we've ever took up a mountain The cloud began to drop as we approached the summit of Robinson and the temperature dropped, so we decided not to hang around and quickly made our way towards Hindscarth. It was looking quite gloomy, though there was still plenty of people, including young families heading across the tops After being hit by the first spots of rain, we headed down from Dale Head, thanking our foresight in parking at the top of the pass and saving the knees a couple of hundred meters descent This turned out to be a really interesting walk over fells we have tended to ignore, but i'm sure we will be back