After breakfast we set out and walked into Keswick, about a mile away. It has rained a little overnight and the ground was fresh and clean, but the clouds were hanging around. We took the opportunity and had a look through all the stalls at the Keswick Market that was set up in the mall either side of the Visitors Information Centre. The Info Centre is in Moot Hall, a building that looks like a church, but has never been used as one, built in 1571 & again in 1813, it has been used as a town hall, a prison, a courthouse, a museum and a fruit market. The clock in its tower is unusual in that it is a one handed clock! One handed clocks were produced between 1650 and 1700, they were so inaccurate that it was pointless putting a minute hand on them. It was a typical street market with a bit of this and a bit of that, food, clothing, arts and quirky stuff. Always interesting to browse through.
We went into the Info Centre and got ourselves a map with directions for the walk we had chosen to do, the Walla Crag and Ashness Bridge Walk. In the scheme of things here this was a relatively easy walk. “about” 9km 3-4 hour moderate walk.
For some reason I think we are very good at this directions stuff. We had to consult google maps to get out of town, we had trouble following the initial directions. Apparently “walk straight ahead onto St John’s Street” Really does mean just that! Who would have ever thought that! ?
About now is probably a good point to give you a bit of background to what makes this area of Britain special. Way back in the day, the geology of the whole area was Slate rocks, then about 450 million years ago a huge volcanic disruption of the area saw the centre of the area blown apart by violent volcanic eruptions that shaped all the rock strata as we see it today. This landscape was then carved and shaped by 3 separate ice ages. This resulted in steep valleys being carved out of the impervious rock. These valleys filled with water formed what is known today as the Lakes District. It has Britain’s 2 highest peaks in it, Scafell Pike (978m) and Helvellyn (950m). Both close to where we are staying.
We managed to find our way out of town and on our way. We got to Spring Farm and managed to get ourselves over the “beck”, (again at this point we consulted google to find out exactly what “beck” was and that we had in fact crossed over it!) Onwards and upwards, we travelled into the woodlands ignoring some paths and taking others, all the time keeping the “Ghyll” to our left.
Our next obstacle was a “kissing gate”, I stopped and helped Deb through, but she stopped halfway, we kissed and then she maintained her position, we kissed again, and she maintained her position. This went on for a while until she asked me if I was moving on, it was then that I told her she had to go first, lol, we both laughed, it was fun. ?
We went over a footbridge and up further through a gate onto the “fell” (more googling to make sure we were on the fell). Up a steepish climb for 100m and then we took a left as directed. Turns out all lefthand turns are not the same. This left was one that sheep take, not us humans. It didn’t take us that long before we realised our error, we backtracked and took the actual left turn about 10m further up the hill. This took us on a winding path around the back of a steep ridge and then a moderate diagonal walk to the summit, a small rocky outcrop about 380m high ( equivalent to a bit over 1/3 the way up Scafell Pike, our equivalent of the first camp above base camp at Everest! ?). The views were spectacular and worth the effort to get there. We could see all along the valley and Waters(not all lakes are lakes it seems) below us, the mountainous peaks opposite and at the end away from Keswick. We could even see Bassenthwaite Lake behind Keswick to the north. There were very ominous looking clouds in the valleys at the south with what looked like rain. So I suggested we start heading to our next destination.
Heading down to Ashness Bridge we were directionally challenged a bit, but the tracks we took were far more interesting than those the map gave us, really! Both of us were feeling the climb with a few aches and pains in our knees, me more than Deb. But with a bit of patience we made is down vertical with no spills.
Ashness Bridge is an old narrow stone bridge that offers views up the valley over the waters to Keswick. It was good to have a bit of a break before our walk back.
We walked down a road and followed the “Waters” to Keswick. It was a beautiful walk, the scenery here is amazing, it reminds us of so many places we have seen/been to in Canada and NZ. As we rounded Calfclose Bay just off Broomhill Point we saw an unusual carved stone/boulder on the beach. Turns out it was The Centenary Stone, a monument to 100 years of The National Trust. A large boulder of the Borrowdale Volcanic family was sawn in half with each face then carved into 10 fan shaped segments of 10 folded wiggles. An impressive if not unusual monument.
We continued our walk into Keswick and went to the Theatre to try and get tickets for tonight’s performance, but a main actor was sick and the show was cancelled. So we had a very late lunch in the cafe, strolled through town and the market and headed back to our BnB.
We had intended to have a look through the Pencil Museum here ( don’t laugh, Keswick was the site of the Derwent Pencil factory, and I am sure most of us have used them), but we had lost our enthusiasm by this time.
Our easy walk turned out to be about 25,400 steps! and about 6 hours!
OK, so Dr Google helped us a bit more than usual today, here is what we learned.
A Fell is a high and barren landscape
A Beck is a stream
A Crag is a steep or rugged cliff or rock face
A Ghyll is a deep ravine with a stream running through it.
A Kissing Gate is (fun) a small gatehung in a “V” or “U” shaped enclosure letting 1 person through at a time.
The waterways in The Lakes District are either a Tarn, Mere, Waters or Lake. In fact only one of the “lakes” in the Lakes District is actually called a lake, and that is Bassenthwaite Lake.
A Tarn is a formed in a cirque excavated by a glacier, also known as a “Corrie Loch”
A Mere is a waterway that is broad in relation to its depth, so it has no thermocline.
A Waters is a stretch or area of water.
A Lake is a large area of water surrounded by land.
WOW you two certainly are fitting in heaps of exercise ! Any aches and pains today? ?? too much info bout the kissing gate ??