Date & Time: 5th July 2006. 9.30 am start.

Location of Start : Blea Tarn National Trust car park (NY 295 043 )

Places visited : Lingmoor Fell, Lingmoor Tarn, Side Pike, Blea Tarn and back.

Walk details : 5.7 mls, 1800 ft of ascent , 5 hrs.

Walked with : Sean and his dogs, Ann and our dogs.

Weather : Sunny and hot, very humid and virtually no breeze.

Side Pike, a new minor summit for us, with the Langdales behind.

 

Today was an extremely hot day . . . We are in the middle of a run of very hot weather

so we chose a walk that was a little shorter, a little lower, and one with a reasonable chance of water to enable the dogs to stay cool.

Lingmoor combined with Side Pike in Langdale seemed to be a good choice.

A shady start start from the Blea Tarn car park.

We walked left along the road for a short while underneath the southern slopes of Lingmoor.

Sean with his two dogs, Casper and Angus, Ann with our two, Harry and Bethan.

Fell Foot farm nestling under the crag of Castle Howe

Behind are Great Intake and Wetherlam Fell, Brim Fell and Coniston Old Man.

   
First view of Little Langdale Tarn
Sean on the bracken covered path above the intake wall

A fuller view of Little Langdale Tarn with the ascent of Wetherlam behind.

In the woods opposite are a few of the many Tilberthwaite Quarry workings.

Having passed above High Bield Farm we started up the fell along the prominent wall below and rested briefly at the quarry workings, on a slate chair that someone had constructed many years ago. Elter Water and Windermere can be seen through the strong haze.

The Great Wall of Lingmoor, a fine piece of wall building over very undulating ground,

indicates our route onward and upward to Lingmoor summit.

Ann and Sean in sunshine mode on the top. The distant views really had disappeared as this photo indicates.

Click here or on photo for a wider panorama of the fells we could see.

Lingmoor Tarn a little way below the summit

but as Sean said, you've got to drop down anyway, so we diverted down to see it, and what a gem it was.

Angus doing his otter impression as Harry and Bethan leave the water after a cooling dip.

The tarn was fairly shallow but full of life.

There were a couple of small islands and a large amounts of water plants including this bright green water lilly. The heather around the tarn was just starting to flower and lacewings, dragonflies (both small brown ones and large double winged blue ones) were hovering around the water.

Apart from the occasional low flying aircraft,

and providing the dogs didn't shake over you,
 
it was a delightful scene.
Innocence personified.

Walking across the slope we headed for Side Pike, the rock summit ahead.

There was no specific path to follow, especially across the first part through the mature heather.

Great views of the Langdale Pikes. Here the New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel with Stickle Beck behind.

The Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel nestles under Raven Crag.

The "half a stile" crossing.

The wire fence had trapped the stone scree as it ran off the side of Lingmoor Fell and totally covered one half of the wooden stile.

Stepping over it was most strange, but at least it made it easy for the dogs.

 
   
The path across the side of Side Pike
Ann at the Squeeze Rock - no problem !

The abrupt nature of the Side Pike summit was such that a direct ascent was not practical. The path therefore takes a route around to the left.

The rather nice pinnacle of rock can be seen as a black shadow just below the diagonal line of sunshine in the first photo. There is a route down to the left and back up, but it is a rather exposed scramble.

Sean trying to push the rock sideways to fit through more easily ?

I don't know . . . I fitted through ok !

Up onto Side Pike by the back path

and magnificent views of the Langdale Pikes.
   
Four rather hot dogs
and muddy with it after their swims.

Down to the road and then we took the path across the other side of the valley to Blea Tarn.
   
Cool shade and a young lad's canoe.
Harrison Stickle above the promontory

A real picture postcard view across Blea Tarn to end the walk.

 
 

- - - o o o - - -

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 with . . . plenty to drink and a big hat for shade.

Go to Top  # © RmH  #  Email me here  # Go to 2006 Archive

Previous walk - 1st July 2006 Spout Force waterfall walk, Whinlatter

Previous time up here - 23rd September 2003 Lingmoor, and Pike O'blisco - Holly's 214