Ullswater
27,7,19 and this mission was going to be different from the rest where its useley me and Sam the dog, This mission is going to be a family holiday with my daughter and her two girls, with base camp being a campsite on the shore of the Ullswater lake.
Ullswater is the second largest lake in the Lake District, being about nine miles long,
Dummallard and Askham Fell
The first full day after are first night camping was to walk to Pooley Bridge village along the shore line of Ullswater, this was going to be the first part of a circular walk, the weather was good with plenty of sunny spells.
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| Dummallard |
We made it into the village and stopped for a break, then checked the shops out and then headed over the bridge to Dummallard for a short exploration of this small hill that is covered in trees, we climbed to the top, hear at the top is the remains of an Iron Age hill fort, where it uses the steep slopes of the hill as part of its deffence and adding a deep ditch and rampart on the top. The hillfort sits at the end of Ullswater lake, guarding access to it, and the mountain passes as well.
We made are way back down to the village to continue are walk, so we passed through the village to the crossroads just outside the village and a road then a track uphill onto Askham Fell and the open moorland to another crossroads, its hear where the Roman comes up from Penrith heading for Load Pot Fell and then on to High Street Fell. It was busy with many walkers around on this sunny afternoon.
But what we came to find was a stone circle known as the Cockpit. It did not take long to find the large impressive stone circle.
The Bronze Age in Britain lasted almost 1500 years, and it is hard to date the Cockpit stone circle because it has features of both the early and the late Bronze Age.It has stones set within a low embankment suggesting a late date. Its 20m in diameter and has more than 20 stones standing about 1m high. The Cockpit would have been a meeting place for the local people and used for religious purposes.
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| The Cockpit |
From the Cockpit it was down hill to finish walk off, as you come off the moor you get great views of Ullswater and the fells.
And that was it for this family walk.
Loadpot Hill, Bonscale Pike and Arthur's Pike
Today I left my daughter behind and the girls for a solo walk with Sam the dog and took the van to the starting point for this walk Martindale Hause a beautiful place.
The word hause is used many times in the Lake District, what it means is a narrow passage between hills. This place even had a church next to the car park.
I left the car park on this 10 mile circular walk and headed over to a valley known as the Fusedale Beck, where I started the walk through this quiet valley on this sunny morning, As I follow this valley to its head I start to climbing with the valley and more views open up around me and as I leave the the valley with one hard climb up to the top for Loadpot Hill.
The views change as I make it to the summit of Loadpot with good long distant views but for the surround area I was walking through was just mile up mile of grassland.
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| Loadpot Hill. |
From the summit I went to look for a stone circle, only to find a semi circle of thin flat stones laying flat, it was hard to make out, very poor. So I moved on making my way across the grassland looking for a path to Bonscale Pike, I found some type of path, could be just a sheep track but it was heading in the right direction.
I came to the edge of the fell with the views opening up again, just fantastic they where with Ullswater in view and then the pillars of Bonscale Pike, so I found a place to sit and rest and have some food and enjoy the views.
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| Ullswater |
After my long break it was time to move on to Arthur's Pike, path finding was not easy as I came across Swarth Beck where it was down over the beck and climb up the other side to Arthur's Pike.
Arthur's Pike provided more great views as I passed it, now it was time to come off Barton Fell and head down hill to the last part of my walk, the bridleway what I used yesterday back to the campsite but this time to walk the full length of it back to Howtown and the car park.
Back down in the valley now on the bridleway enjoying this walk with its lush summer vegetation of bracken and trees and the odd foxglove flower and the sound of birdsong on this sunny afternoon, what a joy.
And the end to another good walk.
Eamont Bridge walk
This area has a long history and all centered around the rivers of Eamont and Lowther. And we was going to visit many sites today as we time travel from one site to another, we set off across a field to meet the river Eaamont to follow it to the village of Eamont Bridge.
The walk to the village was good for the dogs to have a run and the two girls while I walked with my daughter.
We crossed the river bridge into the village , many historic houses and inns used by drovers and travelers, for whom the village was the crossing point of the river and the intersection of many roads.
We left the village behind and walked to Mayburgh Henge
As you go through the entrance into the henge, the central area is 325 feet and is surrounded by an enormous bank, composed of river pebbles.
This henge dates from the end of the Neolithic period and the start of the Bronze Age about 4,500 years ago. And at the center is a single large standing stone standing 10 feet.
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| Mayburgh Henge |
The henge thought to have been used for social or ritual activities like trading goods, Mayburgh's alignment to the equinox sun also suggests a cosmological use. Thousands of tons of stone were moved from the riverbed to raise the banks, it must have needed a large community to construct it. This indicates a large residential population living on the land between the two rivers using them as natural defenses and the area was fertile and easy to cultivate.
We left the site to walk down the road to King Arthur's Round Table, this site has nothing whatever to do with the legendary king. But it is a Neolithic henge dating from about 2000 BC, the henge is around 90 meters in diameter. The enclosed area is about 50 meters across, the ditch, it had two entrances but one was destroyed by the modem road.
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| King Arthur's Round Table |
We left the site and went back into the village and picked up the road leaving the village and several roads and junctions later we was on the Roman Road to the fort. But we stopped off at Brougham Hall to go and explore and have a break.
The last part of the walk took us past the earthworks of Brocavum a Roman fort and then pass the medieval Brougham Castle and the end of the walk.
Hallin Fell
This evening walk was only going to take an hour to do my daughter stayed with the van while me and the girls and the dogs went for the short steep climb. It was not a sunny evening but a moody overcast sky that was getting bigger as we neared the top.
At the summit we was greeted by a large stone man made pillar.
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| Place Fell |
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| Beda Fell |
And that was it for this fell and it was down to the van and the end to this family mission
