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Good Lord! more adventures in the Northern Lakes.

Good Lord! more adventures in the Northern Lakes.


Postby martin.h » Sat Oct 10, 2015 8:11 pm

Wainwrights included on this walk: Barf, Broom Fell, Graystones, Latrigg, Lonscale Fell, Lord's Seat, Whinlatter

Hewitts included on this walk: Lonscale Fell

Date walked: 03/10/2015

Time taken: 8.25

Distance: 21 km

Ascent: 1407m

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SATURDAY 3rd,
Whinlatter, Lords Seat, Barf, Broom Fell and Graystones.
13km.
842m Ascent.
5 hrs 15 mins.


The Northern Lake district is an ideal excuse for Denise and I to spend a weekend away from home every now and again and get out into the hills.
The Wainwrights give us the chance to visit new hills instead of going back to the usual well trodden landscape we've been used to in recent years.
There were a few hills in the northwest which were still to be climbed it was just a case of deciding which ones could be grouped together to make a good day out.
Looking at the map there was a group of five hills around Whinlatter which we'd not been in and doing a bit of research and reading reports on here decided to tackle Whinlatter, Lords Seat, Barf, Broom Fell and Graystones on Saturday and finish the hills above Keswick namely Lonscale Fell and Latrigg on Sunday.
After the good weather the week before we were rather deflated when we woke upto thick fog on Saturday morning but it was warm and there was a chance it would lift, so off we set heading for the car park at Darling How farm.

ImagePA030146 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. Entrance to the car park.

We set off walking at 9:45am with all the hills shrouded in mist and with it being warm and humid we just felt we'd not be blessed with views today but there was no hint of rain and no wind so we decided to take it as it comes and enjoy the day.

We headed past the farm on the track.

ImagePA030106 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. The track is nice and easy, looking back.

ImagePA030108 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. The way ahead.

ImagePA030109 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. The lower slopes of Whinlatter, not very slopey!.

ImagePA030110 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. Mist rolling in.

About 2 km later decided to go up Whinlatter direct which was steep, we chose a line through the young trees to get onto the wide ridge just below and to the right of the summit at around NY190254 It was a quick way up but tricky over buried stumps and the branches of felled trees. We walked into the mist towards the summit and found the path and soon the cairn on the top of Whinlatter.

ImagePA030111 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. Whinlatter summit, the lower one of the two tops is the summit.

ImagePA030113 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. Its a good path from here leading to the next top.

ImagePA030116 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. Here we are at the higher summit, strange that this isn't theWainwright.

From the summit we followed the map and took the path heading to Tarbarrel moss and the path through the plantation.

The path leads to a stile in the fence.

ImagePA030117 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. Stile over the fence around Tarbarrel Moss, it was quite wet underfoot here.

The path beyond this and through the trees is plain enough,

ImagePA030119 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. Once over the stile this is the way to go.

and soon joins a forest track which leads to the path that takes you up Lords Seat.

ImagePA030120 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. Up through the trees towards Lords Seat.

ImagePA030121 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. Lords Seat.

As we were on our way up the cloud became thinner but not enough to see much. At the summit there was a check point for the Monster Cycle event I bet that's hard work.
ImagePA030122 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr.Monster checkpoint.

From Lords Seat we headed for Barf still in the mist.

ImagePA030123 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. Barf Summit

At the summit we had our lunch and met the first people we'd seen up to that point.

ImagePA030124 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr.Lunch time views.

ImagePA030125 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr.

After lunch we went back to Lords Seat then headed to Broom Fell. About halfway over there's a fence with a decent stile in it which is not marked on the map but must have been there for a while because it all looked well established.

ImagePA030127 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. Unmarked fence and stile.

There's a massive cairn on Broom Fell just by an old wall and fence which is on the map.

ImagePA030128 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr.Broom Fell summit, quite a majestic cairn.

From here we headed for Graystones we were still in the mist but the whole route has good paths so no real problems and theres plenty of features to guide you on the map.
Theres not much on Graystones to identify the summit so we went to all the three high spots around and chose the highest for the photo.

ImagePA030130 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr.Graystones,

From the summit we followed the wall down towards Scawgill Bridge.

ImagePA030132 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. Path towards the wall off the summit.

ImagePA030133 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. Kirk Fell in the mist.

ImagePA030135 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. Scawgill Bridge.

Then along the road back to the carpark.

ImagePA030140 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. From the road. That's Graystones, we came down by the wall.

ImagePA030141 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr Misty Views to the south.

ImagePA030145 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. Rowan berries.

This was an enjoyable day out even though we were in the mist for all the summits so no views but we'll do it again on a mist free day just for the views.


SUNDAY 4th.
Lonscale Fell and Latrigg.
8km.
565m Ascent.
3 Hours.

We decided to do two Wainwrights around Skiddaw which needed to be done to finish off that part of the Lakes and were ideal as they wouldn't take long to do.

The weather was good but there was a thin misty haze all around but we could see the tops around us so hopefully we'd get better views today.

ImagePA040148 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. Better views today, Skiddaw from the car park.

ImagePA040149 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. Blease Fell hanging onto the last of the mist/cloud.

From the car park at NY280254 we set off along the Cumbria Way towards Skiddaw House and walked around the lower slopes of Lonscale fell until we met the fence coming down from the summit.

ImagePA040150 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. Keswick is in that lot, Latrigg in the foreground, from the fence leading up Lonscale Fell.

ImagePA040151 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. Blease Fell

There's a good path alongside this fence that takes you all the way to the top, its a bit steep but height is gained very quickly and the views over to Blencathra are superb.

ImagePA040152 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. Fence and path, a good handrail in mist.

ImagePA040153 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. Blencathra.

The summit of Lonscale is a great viewpoint for the Northern fells, Skiddaw is dominant as is Blencathra with most of the higher mountains of Lakeland to the south.

ImagePA040154 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. Summit of Lonscale Fell with Skiddaw behind.

ImagePA040156 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. Great Calva and Little Calva with Knott behind.

ImagePA040159 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. Grisedale Pike, Grasmoor, Crag Hill, Causey Pike etc etc etc.

From Lonscale we headed into the dip between Lonscale and Jenkin Hill, picked up a path at around NY281273 which joins the tourist route up Skiddaw.

ImagePA040161 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. Latrigg from the path up Skiddaw, you can just make out the cars.

We went back to the car park from there, we dumped the rucksacks in the car and went up Latrigg which was a very short walk but once at the summit the views were lovely if a bit hazy.

ImagePA040167 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. Keswick from the summit of Latrigg.

ImagePA040168 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. Ray of light, Dodds etc behind.

ImagePA040172 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. Denise on the summit, Keswick looking like Toytown below.

ImagePA040175 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. Looking towards Dale Head, Hindscarth and Robinson.

ImagePA040178 by Martin Hawer, on Flickr. Skiddaw.

We spent a bit of time just looking, its a popular little hill and a lot of people were out enjoying the warmth.
After a while we set off down, had our lunch at the car and set off for home.

We had a good weekend and managed seven Wainwrights so the Northern ones are getting fewer in fact theres only six more to do to finish off the ones around the A66. I feel another weekend coming on...............
User avatar
martin.h
Mountain Walker
 
Posts: 654
Munros:223   Corbetts:25
Fionas:15   Donalds:15+2
Sub 2000:4   Hewitts:151
Wainwrights:214   Islands:29
Joined: Jul 31, 2011
Location: Halifax, West Yorkshire
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Re: Good Lord! more adventures in the Northern Lakes.

Postby ChrisW » Mon Oct 12, 2015 11:31 pm

It's always great to get away for the weekend Martin, shame the views on day 1 were curtailed by the weather but at least you got some on day 2 and had a great weekend overall :wink:
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ChrisW
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Re: Good Lord! more adventures in the Northern Lakes.

Postby mamoset » Tue Oct 13, 2015 8:17 pm

Good to see you found your way around in the clag that day.
I think it was you two, i said don't forget your sunglasses and suncream to as i was setting off at 9.30 that morning.
I was caught in the cloud on Graystones that day and walking circles for a little while.
mamoset
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Posts: 1674
Munros:256   Corbetts:6
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Re: Good Lord! more adventures in the Northern Lakes.

Postby martin.h » Wed Oct 14, 2015 6:34 pm

ChrisW wrote:It's always great to get away for the weekend Martin, shame the views on day 1 were curtailed by the weather but at least you got some on day 2 and had a great weekend overall :wink:


Thanks Chris, we've been very lucky with the weather this year so I guess the odd day in the clag isn't bad, I'm just hoping next year is as good, we've got some big days planned :D


mamoset wrote:Good to see you found your way around in the clag that day.
I think it was you two, i said don't forget your sunglasses and suncream to as i was setting off at 9.30 that morning.
I was caught in the cloud on Graystones that day and walking circles for a little while.


Thanks mamoset, it was us you spoke to, we were half hoping you'd seen a better forecast than we did, :lol: as it turned out the day was ok, at least it was warm and the clag was thin enough to get a gist of the surroundings :D
Cheers.
User avatar
martin.h
Mountain Walker
 
Posts: 654
Munros:223   Corbetts:25
Fionas:15   Donalds:15+2
Sub 2000:4   Hewitts:151
Wainwrights:214   Islands:29
Joined: Jul 31, 2011
Location: Halifax, West Yorkshire
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Re: Good Lord! more adventures in the Northern Lakes.

Postby mamoset » Sun Oct 18, 2015 10:54 am

If you check out David Hall's Walkthefells.net there was a cloud inversion in the southern half of the lakes that day.
mamoset
Mountain Walker
 
Posts: 1674
Munros:256   Corbetts:6
Donalds:1
Hewitts:115
Wainwrights:214   Islands:5
Joined: Feb 12, 2011

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