Heading up to the Lakes...on our way to the Isle of Skye, Scotland

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Friday 14 March - Left home early to drive up to one of our favourite hiking destinations, the beautiful and delightful Lake District. On reaching the Lakes we were welcomed with wonderful snowy mountains. The mountains looked magical. There is always something magical about when we return to the Lakes. Our first stop was Castlerigg Stone Circle, it is seen as one of the most visually impressive prehistoric monmuments in Britain. It was probably built around 3000 BC and has about 38 stones within the circle. The stone circle is perfectly set against a backdrop of sweeping mountains and sheep happily muching away on grass.

The only downside, was that the peace was broken by an explosion of screaming schoolchildren! This was enough to make us make a quick sharp exit and head for Cat Bells and Black Crag. Cat Bells is a very popular hike for people of all ages and is known for its distinctive shape. There are rumours that wild cats used to live in the area, as Cat Bells is thought to be a distortion of "Cat Bields", meaning shelter of the 'wild cat'. We never saw any wild cats on our pleasant ascent up to Cat Bells.

It had been Lavinia's first mountain walk since her operation, so we took our time to reach the summit, after a small scramble at the top of the mountain. The views from Cat Bells overlooking Derwent Water, Skiddaw (the oldest mountain in the Lakes, at 3053 ft high) and Borrowdale were great! Steve used Wainwright's trusty 'Lakeland Fells' pictorial guide to find our way up to the summit, but it is rather straightforward. It was very cold on the summit, so it was time to pull out the hats and gloves. We spent time savouring the experience and admiring the views across Derwent Water before heading off to see a friend who we were going to be staying with for the night in the Lakes - our dear friend Helen. It was fantastic to see Helen again and after an afternoon of hiking, pizza, wine and beer were the call of the evening. After all of that fresh mountain air and hiking activity Lavinia was falling asleep in her chair...so it was early to bed!

Saturday 15 March - We had planned to wake up bright and early to do a mountain hike with Helen (another keen walker), but the weather was looking a bit iffy. So after hearing amusing stories of Helen's adventures in Lapland building igloos and staying in ice hotels (which sounded brilliant!) we headed out for a gentle pursuit of walking around the deer park at Dallam House & Park. We only spotted one deer in the distance, but we had a lovely stroll in the parklands of Dallam Park. The walk was short because we had been warned that it could take us 7 hours to reach Skye...so it was time to say our goodbyes to Helen and let her know that we looked forward to her joining us on Sunday 4 May on the Pennine Way! Our visit to the Lakes was very brief, but we were there long enough time to savour the beauty of the Lakes again.

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Photos

Castlerigg Stone Circle. Keswick, Cumbria
Some of the stones are over 5 feet in height.