Heughscar Hill
Walk Date – 8th June 2015
Distance – 2.8 miles
Weather – dry and cloudy with a blustery wind
This wasn’t a ‘serious’ walk, although it had a fairly serious purpose, it was just a short walk up to Heughscar Hill from Askham, to ‘wear in’ a new pair of lightweight boots in readiness for summer walking. Askham is only a couple of miles from home so its a handy little walk for us.
Route – out and back
There were gorse bushes in bloom all the way along the path and the sheep seemed to like being in amongst them, perhaps the grass is greener in there.
This is obviously man made but we haven’t been able to work out what purpose it serves, or served, other than something to do with drainage.
Looking back along the path, with the gorse bushes alongside, which we followed out of Askham village. As you can see its not a strenuous walk, the gradient is gentle and, not surprisingly, its a very popular walk locally, especially with dog walkers.
After the gentle walk up you are rewarded with an excellent view of Ullswater and its surrounding fells from the top of Heughscar Hill. Just goes to show that you don’t always have to do a lot of sweating and huffing and puffing to see some great scenery.
Not the brightest of conditions to show much detail on Arthur’s Pike. One of the paths across there follows the course of a Roman road which runs the length of the ridge over to High Street, down into Troutbeck and on to the Roman fort at Ambleside.
A marker or boundary stone maybe. There were some markings on one side but they couldn’t be clearly identified. This moorland area has a large variety of stone structures of many shapes and sizes, most of them very, very old indeed.
Zooming in for a view southwards down Ullswater, unfortunately there’s just a little too much cloud shadow to get any clear detail.
Across the northern end of Ullswater from left to right are, Clough Head, Little Mell Fell, with Great Mell Fell behind it, and then the dark mass of Blencathra on the right skyline.
Zooming closer for a view of Blencathra with the tree covered slopes of Great Mell Fell just in front of it.
A close up view towards the Glenridding end of Ullswater.
From the cairn on Heughscar Hill a view of Penrith over on the left.
Looking south over Ullswater from Heughscar Hill summit cairn.
Looking along the line of trees on the return path down to Askham village.
Lots of cloud activity over the fields today so I took quite a few shots as we walked back to Askham, and here are some of them …..
Walking back through Askham and passing by one of the many old cottages in the village.
Lowther Castle across the rooftops of Askham village. Formerly the home of the Earls of Lonsdale but the family fortune was undermined by the extravagance of the 5th Earl of Lonsdale and the castle closed in 1937. The contents were removed in in the late 1940’s and the roof was removed in 1957. The shell of the building is still owned by the Lowther Estate Trust. The 5th Earl was also the one who introduced, in 1909, the Lonsdale Belt as a new trophy for the British champion at each weight division in boxing.
Poppies providing a splash of colour on a rather overcast day.
The flowers have decided that summer is here even if the weather hasn’t.
Askham is a pretty village and is home to some lovely trees but I couldn’t take any more photos of them as the camera battery died on me and I hadn’t brought a spare.