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" The Fangs Brow Walk "

Date & start time:    Saturday 9th February, 2019.    12.30 pm start.

Location of Start :   Roadside, Fangs Brow, Loweswater, Cumbria, Uk. ( NY 143 211 )

Places visited :         The Chair, High Nook Farm and home.

Walk details :             4 miles, 825 ft of ascent, 1175 ft of descent, 3 hours

Highest point :          The Coffin Road above Holme Wood.

Walked with :             Jo, Ann and our dogs, Amber, Dylan and Dougal.

Weather :                    Overcast but with the occasional sunny period.

© Crown copyright. All rights reserved. Licence number PU 100034184.

 

Jo is over for the weekend and we enjoy a wine tasting event at the Village Hall on Friday night. 

It was organised by our neighbour and was based around seven British wines, with suitable food to accompany each (sorry no samples). 

It was a great evening and there were some interesting wines to taste, all grown in English vineyards.

Jo stayed over to enjoy a walk on Saturday but after Storm Eric the fells and fields were all fairly wet through.

The weather today has improved, though the wind was still very strong and with our backs to that wind we set off from Fangs Brow.

Jo and Ann at the gate on the top road to Lamplugh.

The track will take us towards Burnbank Fell on the right, then on across the top of Holme Woods back to Loweswater.

On the ridgeway behind them a single standing stone sits on the skyline.

The sheep graze at the feeder below, their yellow and green tup-marks emphasising the start of the new shepherd's year.

The long distance views of Scotland are poor today but the blue skies raise the spirit.

The walk is a linear one of about four miles

including the last part of the walk

back to the cottage.

 

Jo and Ann will do the whole walk, whilst

I will turn back part way and bring the car home.

My back is recovering nicely but I'll pass on the full walk.

 

Two of the local horses graze the moorland fields.

They are used to people passing and seem unruffled by our presence.

Sun, glorious sun . . . adding warmth to what is quite a cold north-westerly breeze.

Definitely a hat and gloves sort of day.

The open lowlands to the north . . . but long distance views are still obscured by low cloud over the Solway.

The house at Graythwaite with its accompanying barns.

The telephoto belies the fact that there's nearly 3/4 of a mile distance and a large drop down to the valley floor between here and there.

That distance and dip can be appreciated more clearly with this photo across to Myresyke Farm.

The track levels out and we "follow ... the ... wall"  along the length of Ann's panorama.

From the gate we get views of Loweswater once more.

Two mountain bikers ride pass us but take it more gently on the rising path ahead.

It is steeper and wetter than it looks.

With the sun low in the winter sky . . .
. . . the sunlight shines on the surface of the track.

At the top gate the girls and I part company.

They walk on towards High Nook, I retrace my steps to the car.

A slight diversion off the track found me at the standing stone, with distant views of Grasmoor and the Buttermere Valley.

More local views are obscured by the undulating ground.

The standing stone with a view back towards the car.  

The stone itself is only about four feet high and is away from the main path,

so it is regularly visited by sheep as a rubbing stone, hence the colouration and smoothness on its sides.

- - - o o o - - -

In the mean time Jo and Ann walk along their route . . . along the coffin road.

There are no sheep about so the dogs have a fine run around together.

A brief stop for a photo at the chair.

A similar photo from Jo's camera of Ann and the dogs.

Over the rise and down towards the crossing of Holme Beck.

There's a  good sleeper bridge to cross the beck here.

The view down as they pass the end of Holme Wood.

The slightly pointed layout of the trees represents the beak of the 'pheasant' when viewed from afar.

The extended view from the woodland and Grasmoor, round to Mellbreak, Hen Comb and Black Crag

with the diminutive High Nook Tarn nestled neatly below it, almost invisible in the winter bracken.

The upper High Nook Valley.

The tarn is off to the left, surprisingly away from the two becks that drain the fell sides of Gavel and Blake.

The crossing of High Nook Beck involves either walking through or jumping across the water as the footbridge is still missing.

Heading north now as the bridle way drops down towards High Nook Farm.

Across the new bridge with its fresh stonework.

Older walls further down the track are covered in numerous years of mossy growth.

That brought them out to the bridge at Maggie's Bridge car park.

Sadly this bridge was itself damaged by heavy lorries when they were re-building the top bridge and so will also need repair,

but does it need two such large environmentally intrusive signs ?

Especially as there are three stones blocking the way !

Oh well . . . time to head home where hopefully Roger is preparing a late lunch.

- - - o o o - - -

Technical note: Pictures taken with either Ann's Panasonic Lumix TZ60, or my Panasonic Lumix Gx8 Camera.

Resized in Photoshop, and built up on a Dreamweaver web builder.

This site best viewed with . . . Soup and some Carrot Cake to end the walk.

Go to Top . . . © RmH . . . Email me here

Previous walk - 2nd Feb - Whinlatter and Scale HIll

A previous time up here - 7th June 2003 Fangs Brow and the Coffin Route

Next walk - 12th Feb - Rainbows, Rescue and Dogs