Date & Time: Thursday 17th April 2008. 4 pm start.

Location of Start : Thackthwaite Village, Cumbria, Uk. ( NY 148 238 )

Places visited : Fellbarrow, Low Fell, Low Fell southern viewpoint, the pine tree, Foulsyke and home.

Walk details : 4 mls, 1400 ft of ascent, 2 hrs 45 mins.

Highest point : Low Fell 1,387ft ( 423m).

Walked with : Jayne, Ann and the dogs, Harry and Bethan.

Weather : Overcast with a cold easterly breeze. The weather deteriorated as the afternoon progressed.

Primroses in Thackthwaite matched by others in Foulsyke woods at the end

 

Jayne has escaped from her house full of boxes (after her recent move) and joined us on an extended local walk.

She has thought up a new project . . . to walk every fell seen from the front window of her new home. She started with a quick phone call and ended with a three hour outing around Loweswater.

We parked on the Lorton side of Thackthwaite and walked back through the village to start our walk out towards the open fell.

Once above the wooded lane from the village, the view opens out allowing us to see Mellbreak, Red Pike and High Stile.

From near the fell gate, the view now included the extended Buttermere Valley.

A close up of the head of the valley . . . the view includes six Wainwright fells,

Great Gable, Scafell Pike (with snow) Kirk Fell (in front) High Crag, with Haystacks in the centre and Rannerdale Knotts closer to us.

We leave the main footpath up Low Fell and strike out for the Fellbarrow summit more directly.

Our route will take us up near the wall, towards the summit which is out of sight to the left.

A reverse of the previous photo as Ann and Jayne climb on the short tussocky grass.

Behind the weather is showing signs of the predicted deterioration.

The keen easterly breeze increases as we climb. Perhaps this type of wind has helped kill off the fir trees.

   
The bleak skeleton of a ridge top tree.
Fellbarrow . . . the dogs are first to the top again.

It was Bethan that made it to the top of the trig point first . . . hence the smile ?

Visibility is good out to sea today as we could see the Isle of Man quite clearly ( just above Bethan's head in this photo)

She jumps down to let Harry take top spot . . . but where did those gloved hands come from ?

Jayne dives into her pocket and finds what looks like a hip flask. Ann is intrigued.

   
It turns out to be a mini weather station.
She and I study the wind speed on the summit.

Here the wind speed reached 21 mph, but later near the summit of Low Fell we recorded a wind speed of 56 mph on the exposed edge of the fell.

The walk from Fellbarrow to Low Fell is always that little bit longer than I remember . . . here looking back to Fellbarrow.

Here looking forward . . . the zig - zags belong to our original path as it climbs the fell. We will join it as it reaches the skyline.

Just before the start of the final climb to Low Fell the path crosses over to the eastern side to give us out first view of Crummock Water.

Harry chuffed to be on the top of this one first . . . not such a big jump though !

I think this is where Jayne first mentioned her new project.

It followed shortly after the phrase " You can see my house over there !"

Well . . . you can see our house down there too.

This is the view of Loweswater village, Buttermere and Crummock from Low Fell's southern viewpoint.

Below us is the Church, the Kirkstile Inn and the Village Hall with it's red garage door.

Starting down the southern end of the fell, this is the view of the houses around Foulsyke.

The Loweswater Pheasant

The Loweswater Pheasant.

When we first moved her people said to keep an eye out for it. It took a while but then we realised what we had to look out for.

( Hold your cursor over the photo for a BIG clue )

Nearly home now . . . this tree is often the turning point of a short walk from the cottage.

The question is . . . will we get home before the weather breaks or are we in for a soaking ?

 

- - - o o o - - -

Technical note: Pictures taken with my Cannon G7 or Ann's Ixus Digital cameras.

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

This site best viewed with . . . a waterproof handy in the rucksack, just in case.

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Previous walk - 13th April 2008 Eagle Crag and Sergeants Crag

A previous time up here - 22th February 2006 Fellbarrow and Low Fell with Tim