Oak Cottage - Loweswater

Retreat to the quiet of the Western Lakes

The Cottage, and  the view up the Buttermere Valley
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Date : Friday the 7th May 2004

Occasion : With Jill Rowlands, Ann and the dogs. A medium walk in view of the puppy's young age.

Place : Two peaks, Crag Hill and Grike, towards the lower end of Ennerdale Valley, Cumbria.

Walk details : 4 miles, 1650 ft of ascent, 3 3/4 hours, including a stop for lunch on Crag Hill where we enjoyed the view, while someone caught up with his sleep.

Weather : Fine and sunny all day. Slight breeze.

Visitors are very useful at times - As soon as we left the car park and reached the lake we were able to help the local farmer direct his sheep over the bridge. Jill on this side and Ann and our dogs on the other prevented the sheep taking the lakeside paths, thus hopefully making this dog's job a lot easier.

Two by two over the bridge as intended.

 

A wide shot of the weir, with Great Bourne and Bowness Knott behind.

Our route follows the right hand (southern) lake shore and climbed up steadily onto Anglers Crag.

On the way and ready to start the gradual ascent to the Anglers Crag.

Like Wasdale Screes, Anglers crag has several fine gullies leading directly down into the lake.

Shallow patches and a single central rock island can be seen below in the deep blue waters of Ennerdale Lake.

The upper Ennerdale Valley from Anglers Crag.

To the left is the skyline of the High Stile Ridge. To the right Pillar, Steeple, Haycock, Caw and Iron Crag. Black Sail Hostel is out of sight at the head of the valley.

Enough of this gentle walking, it's time to gain height.

From the crag it was a rapid zig-zag ascent to the Pinnacles of Crag Hill above.

Blue skies and good visibility gave us great views down to the coast and beyond

to the hills of Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland.

Some of the smaller, but still dramatic, Pinnacle Rocks.

Looking down on Anglers Crag and Bowness Knott from the top of the major Pinnacle.

 

With such a depth of view a vertical panorama was required just to start to capture the scene.

 

In his book on this area, AW did say it was an interesting place for a camera.

 

 

From the Pinnacles it was up again taking advantage of a natural grassy slope up through the crags to the summit ridge.

Our view north now included Knock Merton and Blake Fell, as well as the Solway Firth and the Scottish Coastal hills

Crag Hill Summit - Harry's fourth Wainwright top.

 

Hurry up with the photo, this rock doesn't feel very safe !!

 

Sheltering slightly from the breeze we stopped for lunch, and to admired the view.

 

Grike summit with its large stone shelter and summit cairn

which were reached after a gentle ridge walk west from Crag Hill.

Our line of descent was basically north and straight down Ben Gill, following the fence line.

Near the bottom was this level patch of ground which appears to be the spoil heap from some old mine workings, long since abandoned.

Near the bottom of the hill is a convenient gate and pathway down through the forest.

 

Possibly this was the access path for those workings we had just passed on the slopes above.

 

Whatever its original purpose, today it gave us a delightful walk down through the trees and back past the farm to the car park near the lake.

 

Technical note: Pictures taken with a Canon IXUS 400 Digital camera.

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

This site best viewed . . . after a puppy siesta at lunchtime.

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