Ashness Bridge, Walla Crag and Rakefoot Circular
Walk date – 24th August 2026
Distance – 4.8 miles
Weather – dry, sunny and warm, light south-westerly breeze occasionally
As the weather for the coming week is forecast to begin deteriorating from Wednesday onwards, with low cloud, gusty winds and heavy rain, we thought we’d better get a move on and get ourselves out on a walk today since tomorrow will be a non-starter as its J’s volunteering day. We chose to start at Ashness Bridge using the Brown Knotts path and continuing on over Falcon Crag and Walla Crag and on to Rakefoot, which would be our turn around point. From the ‘Bonny Lad’ memorial bench, our walk of 22nd March 2024 has details about that, we would return to Ashness Bridge via the path through Great Wood. As we arrived reasonably early there was only one car in the parking area and nobody at all around the bridge itself. Perhaps all the day’s visitors were still having breakfast. Although we have dozens of photos of the bridge I nipped down and took a couple of shots while there was no-one around and while J was putting several £1 coins into the machine. After that we set off up the High Strutta path and began today’s short walk.
Route
Ashness Bridge car park – High Strutta path – Brown Knotts – Falcon Crag – Low Moss – Lady’s Rake – Walla Crag – Rakefoot – Brockle Beck – Great Wood – Cat Gill bridge -Ashness Bridge car park
A beautiful morning with absolutely no-one around at Ashness Bridge …..
….. so I took a shot of the bridge followed by this one of Barrow Beck flowing beneath it. Looks like last week’s showers have helped the water levels a little. There was a slight early morning breeze which brought the temperature down by a few degrees.
We eventually branched off the High Strutta path and headed left through shoulder high bracken towards the bridge across Barrow Beck and then made our way up to the gate …..
….. which brought us out onto the open fellside and the rising path across Brown Knotts. The cool breeze was still with us but as it came from a south westerly direction it remained behind us. Nevertheless we kept our windproof jackets on until the sun rose a bit higher.
On the skyline is the Maiden Moor/High Spy ridge parts of which had the familiar August purple haze of heather in full bloom.
A look across to the head of Derwentwater and its numerous bays. On the right skyline, behind the Maiden Moor/High Spy ridge, Robinson has now appeared and I think that’s Great Gable on the extreme left.
Directly opposite is the landslip scar on Catbells which occurred during Storm Desmond in December 2015. Weeks of constant rain had saturated the ground across Cumbria to such an extent that it couldn’t absorb any more, resulting in rivers and becks overflowing, bridges swept away, severe flooding, landslips etc. Almost all of Cumbria was affected by the severe storm and Catbells was no exception. Emergency stabilisation occurred very quickly and repair/reinforcement work followed. Nature will take care of the rest, although nature seems to be taking its time about it. Right behind it are Rowling End and Causey Pike and surrounding them are the fells making up the Coledale Horseshoe.
The near foreground shows the diminutive Castle Crag over towards the right, and across from it, towards the centre, is the larger hump of King’s How. The narrow gap between them is known as the Jaws of Borrowdale and which contains the B5289. I’m always mightily relieved when we emerge out into the open on the Rosthwaite side, especially as there are plenty of large rock formations jutting out into the road on my passenger side of the car as we negotiate the narrowest part!
As we crested the rising path and arrived at Falcon Crag the light breeze disappeared and the rest of our walk was done in very warm sunshine. On the right of the shot is Walla Crag and its dry stone wall rising up from Cat Gill. On the left is a hazy view of the Skiddaw group with Keswick below.
A good view of the islands at the northern end of Derwentwater as we cross over from Falcon Crag towards Low Moss and on to Walla Crag. Over on the extreme left is St Herbert’s Island with the smaller Rampsholme Island nearby. Further to the north and close to the eastern shore of Derwentwater are Lord’s Island and just above that is Derwent Island.
During our crossing I took a look back at Bleaberry Fell (L) and Brown Knotts (R). Unfortunately, in order to be able to include Bleaberry Fell I had no choice about including the white glare of the sun as well.
A look back at the cairn at the path junction. Left for Bleaberry Fell and right for Ashness Bridge. From here we made our way across up to the stile at Lady’s Rake and on the way over we saw several cyclists coming down the slope. I wondered if they were making their way over to Bleaberry Fell, if so it would mean carrying their bikes up through the pitched stone section just below the summit. If that was their intention then rather them than me. Some of the pitched steps are a little too high for my short little legs and the thought of carrying a bike up them as well doesn’t bear thinking about! Anyway we were too busy crossing over to notice where they went and eventually arrived at the stile crossing on the Lady’s Rake path. We crossed over that and then made our way up to Walla Crag.
There’s a magnificent view of the Skiddaw group from Walla Crag, from Lonscale Fell, on the right, across to Dodd, on the left, and all the fells in between, with Latrigg, the smaller fell below Lonscale over on the right, thrown in for good measure. The white houses of Keswick and the purple haze from all the heather in full bloom each added their own contributions to the wonderful view. More colour was in evidence too from the patches of purple heather and the red rowan berries on Walla Crag itself.
Looking across Derwentwater and its islands towards the North Western Fells from the edge of Walla Crag …..
….. and a little further to the northwest for a hazy glimpse of Bass Lake.
The rocky top of Walla Crag.
Making our way back down from Walla Crag to the triangular stile where we would turn left to make our way down to Rakefoot. The area around the stile has always been a mud bath on our previous visits involving balancing precariously from one stone to the next, with walking poles sinking ever deeper into the slush, in order to avoid going ankle deep in mud. No such gymnastics required today, thankfully.
Over the stile and now making our way over to Rakefoot with this view of Blencathra for most of the way. The shot wasn’t quite as peaceful as it appears to be as I had to kneel down to avoid including in the shot the massed caravans and camper vans in one of the fields just below the path we were on.
A look back towards Walla Crag …..
….. and another look towards Keswick and the Skiddaw group. During the descent to Rakefoot we began to meet more people to exchange greetings with, from family groups to solo walkers and everything in between.
Arriving at Brockle Beck at Rakefoot where a shaft of sunlight had found a hole in the tree canopy and revealed that there was very little water in the beck apart from the odd puddle which had collected between the stones here and there. I don’t know why we used the bridge when we could have walked straight across, habit I suppose. After a short walk down the lane we came to a footpath sign on the left hand side of the road which we turned down and proceeded to make our way down to the path through Great Wood. See our walk of 22nd March 2024 for further details. Link below – https://www.wainwrightwalking.co.uk/walla-crag-2/
We re-crossed Brockle Beck and followed the path to the ‘Bonny Lad’ memorial bench where we had a short break and a drink before setting off again on our walk through Great Wood. The shots above and below were taken as we left the memorial bench and began to make our way down towards Great Wood.
Walking through a dappled Great Wood.
After passing over the bridge at Cat Gill we made our way back to Ashness Bridge using the usual path. Today’s walk is one which we generally use during the autumn and winter months when there is not a trace of living bracken anywhere, only its brown and flattened remnants. Today was a different kettle of fish altogether with shoulder high bracken lining both sides of the path all the way from the Cat Gill bridge until we stepped out onto the road at Ashness Bridge. Combine that with a narrow and rock strewn path with sunshine streaming into our eyes at regular intervals together with the humidity and you will have some idea of the conditions along the way.
Back at the Ashness Bridge car park now and the bridge area was no longer deserted. Folk of several different nationalities were gathered around the bridge gazing at it and taking photos of it, while others had spread themselves out on the grassy bits tucking into a picnic. Everyone enjoying the sunshine and listening to the water burbling down the beck. Cars arriving at the car park, their owners trying to work out how to operate the ticket machine, one or two gave up trying and just walked down to the bridge instead. All of it fascinating to watch. Our final picture of the day is the above shot which shows Dodd, a small fell which can be reached via the very steep High Strutta path, the one we started out on but diverted from, and from Dodd walkers can go on to High Seat. We did a walk up to it in icy conditions in February 2015 but we haven’t gone up to High Seat via that route since so what the route is like now we can’t say. Here’s the link to the walk if you want to know what its like up there – https://www.wainwrightwalking.co.uk/high-seat-and-bleaberry-fell/
Well, that’s us done for the day so now its off back to the Eden Valley and home for a cuppa. With the forecast being a little on the wet and windy spectrum and my car going in for its MOT on Thursday we probably won’t get out again this week. Let’s hope that the forecast for the following week is more promising.