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" Mockerkin Mob Christmas Walk - Loweswater "

Date & start time:      15th December 2024.  10 am start.

Location of Start :     Maggie's Bridge car park, Loweswater, Cumbria, Uk. ( NY 134 210 )

Places visited :         Watergate, The Bothy, Holme Force, Watergate and back to High Thrushbank.

Walk details :            2.5 mls, 150 ft of ascent, 3 hrs.

Highest point :           Learning more about the woods . . . and Christmas lunch afterwards.

Walked with :            18 plus myself and the dogs, Woody and Dougal. Six more joined us for lunch.

Weather :                   Damp and grey but we didn't get wet or muddy, a pleasant surprise.

                     

                     

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

 

After the sunshine of five days ago and with the proximity to Christmas, there could have been the possibility of another picturesque winter walk in Holme Wood.

The Mockerkin Mob, our local walking group, had planned a 'B' walk for their Christmas outing but the weather failed to play ball.

However our visit to the local woods this day was very much enhanced by today's walk leader, John, who has intimate knowledge of the area.

Hmmm . . . not exactly a white Christmas walk . . . but when it's planned a fortnight ahead, we have to take the weather on offer on the day.

We walked across the meadows from Maggie's Bridge, over to Watergate Farm when the group gathered to start the walk.

Our organiser is Peter in the centre with the blue/black jacket and on his right is John who will guide us through the woods today.

First stop was The Bothy, which has been variously used as a fisherman's hut, a charcoal burner's lodgings

and used by foresters and their horses when working in the woods.

It was no doubt visited by industrialist John Marshall and the poet William Wordsworth who together had a major hand in re-planting the woods in the 1820's.

It is now a camping barn / bothy available to rent from the National Trust.

John points out a mighty Horse Chestnut and a small leafed Lime.
Tree Hugging with a purpose . . . to estimate the age of the tree.

Four of the group , or was it five (the others were hidden behind) clasped hands around the tree.

Calculating their combined arm-span 'in inches' would give a rough indication as to the age of the tree.

It didn't quite match John's suggestion that it was planted by Marshall in 1820 but It wasn't too far out.

[ The calculation does however differ between the different variety of trees that grow in this mixed woodland.]

Down at the beach where Holme Beck enters the lake.

The dogs had a quick swim and discovered the steep drop off between the beach and the deeper lake water caused by the gradual deposition of the stones.

Chance to play "Pooh Sticks" under the bridge . . . Dougal almost had a hand in altering the result as everyone threw in their sticks.

The Goblin Tree, looking a little cold and damp today.
High pines, thought to be "Silver Pines" but that was not certain.

Holme wood was significantly replanted in the 1820's after it had been cut and cleared by the previous owner.

John Marshall was a great environment and philanthropist and bought a lot of land in Cumbria in order to improve the habitat and restore the landscape.

Holme wood was re-planted in two halves, the lower section as a leisure woodland with a huge variety of deciduous and specimen trees.

The upper parts of the fell were planted with Larch, hated by wordsworth, but necessary to provide an economic future for the woodland.

In the woods there was an archeological survey a few years back, which found Bronze age funerary barrows and charcoal fire pits.

They also identified this stone as a boundary stone placed during the time that the woods were coppiced in sections for charcoal production.

John, who lives next to the woods and who has become an expert on its wildlife and history, pointed out old sheep folds that pre-date the woodland

and the flat area that would have been an old meander of Holme Beck in times past.

Most of the larch has had to be felled due to disease, but some were killed off but left standing to provide an alternative habitat.

Amongst the woodland left, John pointed out what looked like several red squirrel drays.

Holme Beck Bridge . . . an old structural design more akin to a leisure woodland rather than commercial plantation.

From the bridge we could view Holme Force with it's lower spout.
The upper 'mares tail' seemed hidden today, possibly by the vegetation.

One result of the recently felled larch is the emergence of a new viewpoint, from which we can look out over Loweswater.

Click here or on the photo above for a larger annotated panorama.

All group walks need a cheerful group photo . . . I'm on this one . . . thanks to John's camera work.

The diagonal path down which starts at the coffin route, was hardly recognisable.
As too were the newer forest tracks, which were feet deep in mud a year ago.

We walked back down to The Bothy and then back to Watergate where we started the walk.

Lunch was on offer at High Thrushbank, across on the other side of the lake.

- - - o o o - - -

Richard and Carolyn offered hospitality at their cottage and everyone brought a contribution to the feast.

To say we were 'very well catered for' would be an under-exageration !

As the lunchtime conversation continued, the weather improved,

not that we had got wet on the pre-Christmas walk.

From their home Richard and Carolyn had a fine view of Holme Wood

and particularly the 'Pheasant' outline from the 1950's re-plant.

- - - o o o - - -

Technical note: Pictures taken with my iPhone 11pro mobile phone camera.

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

This site best viewed with . . . a year's walking to look back on, and the prospect of more 'A' and 'B' walks with the group in the year ahead.

Go to Home Page . . . © RmH . . . Email me here

Previous walk - 10th December 2024 - Winter Sunshine in Loweswater

A previous time up here - 8th January 2021 - Winter Wonderland (Loweswater)

Next event - 24th Dec 2024 - Seasons Greetings from Loweswater

 

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