Loes suggested a walk along the fell wall below Whiteside as somewhere to walk without much altitude to climb.

I prefer not to do out and back walks, so between us we we devised a route that took us along old valley tracks to join the wall for the return half.

The weather was favourable and the walking a pleasure, so we extend our ramblings, with a surprise in store half way round.

The houses at Turner How and a view of today's weather.

Mellbreak is in the distance, but not too far away, which means the drive to get to our start point was a short one today.

The private track up to Low Hollins has a gradual climb towards Whiteside and Hopegill's Dodd Fells.

It is also an ancient bridleway that connects the houses and farms that sit slightly back from the main valley road.

We pass Low Hollins farmhouse with its classic mullioned windows and overhanging roof.

The lane which brought us up to Low Hollins and New Hollins changes to more of a light track beyond.

High Hollins didn't feature on the slate sign earlier because it in normally accessed by a driveway from the Millbeck road.

Behind the larger house is a more modern home that has farm outbuildings behind it.

Beyond Miller Place the byway joins the local road

and a footpath sign offers us a way between the fields to reach the out-take wall and the path beyond.

Rather than head back this soon, we continue on above the wall,

heading in the direction of Hope Farm and the distant summits Kirk Fell and Graystones.

These fine Herdwicks occupied the path ahead, but kindly step aside to let us past.

The summer-like clouds high above us move aside to give us full sunshine once again.

The sight of some snow on the top of Ladyside Pike to our right, encourages us to walk on a little further.

We chose the lower path through the winter bracken below Dodd where we see the snow extending to the summit of Hopegill Head. 

I step sideways a little to try and get a better view as Loes walks the path.

When the sun shone directly on the summits, the contrast of colours was superb.

However we are back into the shade a we near Hope Gill.

As it happens the view wasn't as good from here as we had hoped . . . we should have taken that top path !

The path we've just come along was so well formed that I thought it may have been a water leat for distant Millbeck,

but there's no sign of it linking up with the river ahead, so that ruins that theory !

We turn and make our way back into the sun . . . there's the view of the distant Scottish hill that I promised.

See what I mean about the substantial nature of the path ?

The nicely graded route, apart from the odd missing sections, heads back towards Miller Place.

We reject our outward 'lonnin' in favour of the path by the wall.	That brings us along to the stream crossing at Coldgill Beck.

This was the same stream that we crossed in the field earlier.  It will continue down and join the River Cocker near Hopebeck Bridge.

After a sight incident with a wet path (!) we continue along the fell close to the wall.

To round off the rather elongated circular walk we'll walk on above Hollins and rejoin the Buttermere road near Beck House.

As the path turns underneath Whiteside we walk a more craggy section of path and gain views of Mellbreak once again.

Looking up to a holly tree growing out of a crack in the rock, with Whiteside high above.

The map shows a footpath climbing steeply up this side of the fell . . . but there's no trace of it on the ground.

Our eyes and the camera drift off to the right where we have a fine view of Low Fell across the other side of the valley.

The wooden square fences are there to protect new tree plantings . . . they remind me on an old pinball game we played as kids.

What we need is some large ball bearings to roll down the field and gain points for lodging them in different fenced enclosures !

That would be wizard . . . except that they are all four sided, secure enclosures so no ball could enter !

Just two fields away now from our path down to the Buttermere road.

We'll follow the wall down to the River Liza that reflects the sunshine on this side of Scale Hill.

One last view of the snow covered summits of High Stile and Red Pike, further up the Buttermere Valley.

The last section of the walk to the bridge was a little more damp than the field we had just crossed,

and I think Loes was smiling about getting through the the obstacle course without getting wetter than she was just a short while back !

The path takes us out to the road at Beck House and it is just a short walk from here till we see the familiar sight of Turner How once again.

It is only another hundred yards down the road and we'll be back at the car.