GLW1407 : A Bretherdale 8

Saturday 7th Septembert 2014

It all started when Margaret said she would like to visit Borrowdale. That's the one in Westmorland, not the famous Cumberland one. I replied that Borrowdale was not that interesting and that the next valley, Bretherdale would be a better bet.

I had a walk planned from Greenholme (home of St George) to Bretherdale Head and Bretherdale Hall. However, I then discovered a website about the proposed Lake District National Park Extension Area between the A6 and the M6. The article describes a figure of eight route taking in the valley of Bretherdale and the high ground to the north. The pictures looked good and the write-up interesting.

The lower part of the walk covered ground that I had planned we should visit and the other half was further up the valley.

Unfortunately the route description was not that clever on the upper part of the walk. In particular it was very vague as to where to come down off the moor. Directions were not given in terms of compass points, distances were few and far between, there was no map of the route and the only grid reference was for where to park the car. It's a shame as the 17 page document is otherwise impressive.

Nor was there any warning that the route back would be very boggy, complete with deep liquid cowpats even in this remarkably dry spell, however that is not entireluy unexpected in these parts!

Having got that gripe out of the way, it was actually a pleasant walk even though a sad, recurring feature was the number of long abandonded farm houses. It is a bit of a ghost valley.

For more pictures, see Lake District National Park Extension Area. Unfortunately we were not able to photograph the buzzard that swooped around us on the way out and the hare that hopped in front of us on the return.

Don, Sunday 7th September 2014