Advertisement
How beautiful is this?
Wild rhodedendrons near Wast Water Part VI
31st May - Wednesday
Today, after a scrummy breakfast we were off to discover the Lake District. Howard had a quick motorway fix and then it was on to the C roads for the rest of the day. We had decided not to bother with the towns and concentrate on the vistas and see as much as we could in the time we had.
Our route took us along Lake Windermere to Ambleside and over Wrynose Pass
Wrynose Pass lies on a narrow, minor road that twists and turns from Little Langdale onward to Cockley Beck. Here, after plunging to Wrynose Bottom, the road forks. One arm leads south through Dunnerdale; the other fork connects with Hardknott Pass, where the road heads westward through Eskdale.
Wrynose is part of the old Roman road named the 10th iter. It served the troops stationed at Hardknott Fort, and bits of the old road remain running alongside the present one. The unusual name, Wrynose, comes from 'pass of the stallion' and referred to the fact that the steep gradients (up to 1 in 3) needed a well-muscled horse to attain the top.
From Little Langdale the road
....not that we saw any!
Howard bought Linda a blue lapis lazuli squirrel in Bangkok as a reminder of thee day he found a flaw in her speech!!! sandwiches its way through the isolated and unsettled reaches of the Lakeland and Furness fells and climbs to its 1281-foot high summit. At the top is the Three Shires Stone. This denotes the boundary where three original counties once came together (pre 1974): Lancashire, Westmorland, and Cumberland.
Views are far-reaching and dramatic. Southward is Coniston Old Man, while to the north are the Langdale Pikes. Both the River Brathay and the River Duddon have their origin at Wrynose.
Hard Knott Pass vies with Rosedale Chimney in North Yorkshire for the title of steepest road in England, with both achieving a gradient of 1 in 3 (about 33%).
(We went to Rosedale later in the trip) Howard just loves these steep roads
The scenery was beautiful and we loved the dry stonewalls climbing right over the fells.
We stopped at Wast Water, and saw the rhododendrons growing wild.
The rugged and isolated Wasdale valley and its lake were formed by glaciation. At three miles in length and a half-mile in width, Wast Water is England's deepest lake, reaching downward 258 feet, 3 miles in length and ½ mile wide. The lake is linked to the river
What a View!
A lake, dry stone walls, a C road and a steep pass...what more could you ask for? Esk. The pure dark water of the lake provides little in the way of sustenance for freshwater life. However, trout and char inhabit the waters.
Ringing the lake is a panorama of majestic mountains that includes Sca Fell, England's highest mountain.
Of dramatic impact is the desolate Wast Water Screes, a crumbling 1500-foot high vertical wall of rock dropping straight into the lake's southeastern shore. Red tinted bands of iron-laden rock add colour to the unstable black rock. The red colouring was once used for marking sheep.
Our route took us near Sellafield, the world’s first commercial nuclear power station on the coast south of St Bees.
We had lunch at a pub at Ennerdale Bridge but did not see Ennerdale Water, as it is the only lake without a road near it. We travelled passed the two small lakes of Loweswater and Crummock Water to Buttermere Lake, an extremely pretty area and a favourite with walkers. Talking of walkers they were everywhere. Driving along we would come to a group of cars parked in what seemed the middle of nowhere but they belonged to walkers. The Lake District is best seen on foot but it would take
us the whole trip and more to do the area justice on foot.
Now for another pass, Honister. Just past Gatesgarth Farm at the southern end of Buttermere is the beginning of Honister Pass. It connects the Buttermere valley with the eastern end of Borrowdale valley. Rising to 1167 feet in height at the summit, it's one of Cumbria's highest passes. The road's gradient is 1 in 4.
Taking a horse drawn carriage over the pass was a popular trip during Victorian times. Men who took the coach were expected to walk up the pass from Seatoller (Borrowdale) to the summit to relieve the strain on the horses.
We stopped at the slate mine at the top of the Pass and looed in at the Visitor’s Centre where we were sorely tempted to make a purchase but resisted because of weight restraints and we are trying to consolidate our bits and pieces at home.
Nestling between the peaks at the head of the Honister Pass in the Lake District, the Buttermere and Westmorland Green Slate Company Limited is England's only Slate Mine.
Unlike slate taken from quarries, the Westmorland Green Slate is wholly extracted from beneath the
hills - from eleven miles of mine tunnels - and is entirely environmentally friendly.
Its beauty graces both the roofs of humble cottages and magnificent buildings, such as those in Regent Street, London, the Ritz Hotel and St James Palace, R.A.F. Cranwell and the Deutsche Bundesbank.
It was then up past Derwent Water bypassing Keswick and then along by Ullswater where we could see Helvellyn at 3117 feet (950 m) the second highest peak in England and home of Striding edge the Lakes best known ridge walk. Scafell Pike being the highest at 3205 feet (977m), which we saw near Wast Water.
Records indicate the current structure as built A.D. 1496. The Inn was rebuilt after having fallen derelict in 1847. The building sits at the top of the Kirkstone Pass at the junction of two roads, one leading to Ambleside, the other to Windermere. There are indications that records were destroyed as part of the wrecking acts of the Tudor and Elizabethan period before which it is said the site was a monks’ retreat going back many centuries. In the 17th Century, it provided warmth and comfort to travellers and traders. A tradition it upholds today.
Traders
would travel between north Wales and Scotland (usually women) carrying wool and slate in back packs. The Kirkstone Pass Road is the highest road pass in the Lake District. The name of the road comes from the small church shaped boulder (kirk is Scot's for Church) that is situated close by.
The Kirkstone Pass Inn, at 1489 ft is the third highest public house in England. There are stunning views from the inn overlooking the aptly named ‘Struggle’ to Ambleside and beyond to Morecambe Bay.
This was the last pass for the day and we arrived back in Windermere where we started our little tour.
We called in to Morrison’s Supermarket for some wine for tonight’s dinner to be cooked by Liz and in the car park Howard spotted his first reliant Rialto so had to stop and talk with the owner and take a photo.
When we first spoke to Liz about coming to England Linda had mentioned that we were trying to have a gastronomic treat too and eat delicacies from each region. Liz surpassed our expectations and we had Irish sea halibut with local watercress and Morecambe Bay shrimps followed by Westmorland sausage
mash, neeps and onion gravy. Then we had sticky toffee pudding with locally made toffee sauce and Cornish clotted cream. Cheese and biscuits, Garstang Blue, Lancashire cheeses - firm and crumbly, local farm-made blue cheese and Wensleydale cheese with cranberries, followed this. A veritable feast - thank you so much, Liz
Liz should do B&B she is amazing…….. in our room we had local bottled water a big slab of Kendal mint cake, small pack of tissues and Crabtree & Evelyn little soap and shower gel. What a thoughtful hostess. Plus she gave up her own room for us - we later found out (as did Aunty June).
Total travelled 167 miles (267.2 kms)
We saw a fair amount of the Lake District in Cumbria and started off the day in Lancashire
Advertisement
Tot: 0.267s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 15; qc: 61; dbt: 0.0643s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb