Loughrigg Tarn

Transcription

This is Loughrigg Fell Between Grasmere and Ambleside. Four square mile of rough and rocky fell country that rises to just eleven hundred feet so as Lakeland Fells go it's not very big. but size, as they say, is not everything. Loughrigg has so much to offer that it's difficult to know where to start. It has plenty of footpaths to explore remote tarns rocky crags. A cave. And when the world was in black and white it even had a nine hole golf course. From Ambleside the route to the top is really easy. Straight up this road through the old golf course and up the fell to the summit. But I'm not going that way I'm gonna nip over this wall and head towards Clappersgate. You see, the the thing about Loughrigg is that it's two miles wide. trudging straight up the middle of the old golf course is a nice walk but I'm going view bagging, and the walk around the edge of the fell has at least five that have the WOW factor. There's not a lot to see at first but just over that rise things start to open up a little That's Ambleside. All of it. Not bad for starters. The squares in the field down below are the remains of Galava Roman Fort. It was built during the rule of the Emperor Hadrian roughly nineteen hundred years ago. It may have been built by the lake but I'm pretty certain that the Romans would have used this viewpoint as a lookout post. after all, it gives this superb view straight down Windermere If you take away all the trappings of modern life the view that they would have seen nineteen hundred years ago would not be so very different to what we see today. There would have been more trees the whole area was heavily forested and I fancy that there might even have been a small Roman Galleon moored up in the bay. The view behind us isn't too bad either. It's dominated by Fairfield while to the left are the Langdale Fells. Lily Tarn. Definitely not big enough for a Roman Galleon. but it's got a seat! ideal for sitting and watching the world go by for a few minutes. The guidebook author Alfred Wainwright was certainly impressed with Loughrigg. He devoted 16 pages to be world-famous guide to it. He included six different routes to the top and heaped praise on the fell for having more paths per square mile than any other. It has, he says, a wealth of interests and delights far out to keeping with its size and height. Can't argue with that! Wainwright liked lonely places and it's certainly true to say that part to the fell have a real feeling of remoteness despite us being only a couple miles from the centre of Ambleside. Oh good. It's nearly butty time and as luck would have it one of the best lunch seats in the Lake District appears to be vacant. Now that's not a view that's likely to put you off your sanwiches. Straight down the Langdale Valley. While over to the left is Wetherlam. That's Skelwith Bridge in the valley below. Looks like it's rounding up time I don't think he wants to join in I've left the cake for later. There's another superb view I want to show you. Just through this gate and across the field towards those trees in the distance There we are. Loughrigg Tarn. Pretty as a picture. It's a beautiful place but like so many of the lakes and tarns it also has a dark side. it also has a dark side. In June 1960, a group of schoolboys on a walking holiday stopped here for lunch. The sat on the grass down there to eat their sandwiches, and since it was a nice day some of them decided to cool off afterwards with a splash in the tarn. Tragically one of them didn't come out again. Beyond Loughrigg Tarn the track heads for a minor road. This is the road that goes over the fell from Skelwith Bridge to Grasmere. Luckily it's never very busy. Just over a quarter of a mile later we reach Deer Bolts Wood. We're only four hundred yards from one of the finest views in the Lake District and believe it or not we actually have to go downhill to see it. Through this gate and along the rocky track, and we soon come to a junction. The summit of Loughrigg is straight up that path. But we're sticking to the level This is Loughrigg Terrace, one of the most popular footpaths in the Lake District. And this view is the reason why. That's Allan Bank on the other side of the lake Wordsworth lived there for a couple of years. Evidently it wasn't much to his liking. It was cold and draughty and the fires filled the house with smoke I suppose the moral of that is that you should never get a house based on it's view. Below is the River Rothay It's waters are heading for Rydal, and so are we. Just at the end of Loughrigg Terrace we take this path to the right after a short climb we're rewarded with another stunning view. Well that's four stunning views that we've seen already The one over Windemere, Loughrigg Tarn. Grasmere from Loughrigg Terrace, and now Rydal Water and we've still got at least one to go. This one's not bad. Nab Scar from across Rydal Water. And we get a lovely view of Helm Crag in the far distance but the one I'm thinking of is very different to the others for one thing it's inside! Rydal Caves Wainwright asserted that it was possible to get the whole of the population of Ambleside into this cave all at the same time, although not without some with them getting their feet wet. He never fully explained why anybody would want to do that. This was actually once a slate quarry and the quarrymen have inadvertently left behind a stunning natural artwork. crafted by nothing more than a mixture of gunpowder and muscle. Just outside the cave entrance is another footpath to the top of the fell But we're continuing to resist the temptation and heading down to lake level passing by the lower caves as we go as well as this all but dried up stream it'll not be like that for long if this weekend's weather forecast comes true We're going to end our walk by heading off down the old quarry track to get one last look at Rydal Water, before heading back to Ambleside along with minor road that runs Under Loughrigg leaving the walk through the old golf course to the summit for another day