Walk date – 18th January 2023

Distance – 2.8 miles

Weather – dry, sunny, ferocious north westerly wind

 

We may have only walked quite a short distance today but by the time we got back to the car we were as ragged as if we had completed a ten miler. The forecast had mentioned that the north westerly wind speeds would be in the range of 25 – 35 mph and possibly higher occasionally. Thinking that lowly Souther Fell, at a little over 1700′, and being in the lee of the higher fells to the west of it, wouldn’t be too badly affected off we went. The off-road parking areas at Low Beckside were all available so parking up was no problem but once out of the car we knew we were in for a windy walk, just how windy we were as yet unaware. All the photos I took as we struggled across the summit plateau were taken in extremely high winds, so strong that I was amazed to find that the shaky scene I was seeing in the camera viewfinder did not appear on any of the photographs. All I can say is ten out of ten for the anti-shake feature on the camera because it most definitely was working overtime today.

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Route

Low Beckside – Souther Fell – Low Beckside

Bowscale Fell from our off-road parking area at Low Beckside farm. The road is too icy to cross just here so we walked over the snowy grass verge until we reached the ice free patch of road just up ahead. Having reached it we crossed over and followed the path down to the footbridge over the Glenderamackin river. With a zoom in it might just be possible to identify the signpost which indicates the start of the path.

There’s not much to be seen of the path thanks to the snow but there is one nevertheless. The ditch to the left was waterlogged as was the crossover point when we reached the bottom of the slope. After crossing the ditch we go through the handgate and make our way over to …..

….. the footbridge across the river. The wind had dropped as we walked the short distance to the bridge but it was only a temporary lull.

A view of Low Beckside farm from the other side of the bridge. From here we had a short walk up to the double gate which led us out onto the back access road which begins behind the Mill Inn at Mungrisedale and terminates at Scales.

Low Beckside farm as we leave the back road and begin the climb up to the path we will be using today. A zoom in will show where we were parked, on the other side of the wall to the red slurry wagon. We could hear the slurry wagon being filled when we got out of the car.

The back road, on the left, continues on towards Scales, we take the snowy path rising up towards the right of the shot and begin the climb up the eastern slopes of Souther Fell.

Little and Great Mell Fells across the snowy fields of Mungrisedale as we climb the equally snowy path.

A little further on, when we stop for a breather, we notice that the farm buildings are about to disappear from view. Apart from the gusty wind along here its a beautiful morning, blue skies and sunshine with just a light patchwork of cloud here and there.

Looking ahead as the path climbs steadily. This is the first really snowy walk we’ve done since last winter but fortunately the path has already had quite a few people walk over it so its well compacted and we are spared the hard work of breaking untrodden snow. Despite that the gusty wind is now right in our faces making the climb much harder than it would have otherwise been. Eventually we reach the path junction and bear off right to climb the last few feet up to the little col between the slightly lower south top of the fell and the actual summit. That right turn brought us up to the col and straight into the full force of the wind …..

….. where I could barely stand up to take this shot towards Bannerdale Crags. I was intending to walk across and get a little closer but the extreme wind put paid to that idea. Before starting this report I had a look at the fell top assessor’s report for this day and noted with some surprise that he had recorded a maximum wind speed of 22.2 mph at 1.00 pm on Helvellyn summit, that the average wind speed up there was 9.5 mph and no indication that the wind was making walking difficult. However, given that we were back in the car by 1.00 pm when he took his reading it may be that the wind speed had dropped considerably by then as it often does during the afternoon. It was most definitely much more than that up here this morning.

The east ridge of Bannerdale Crags on the left and the long sweep across the crags over to Bowscale Fell. It just wasn’t possible to stand around, look for good camera angles and compose a decent shot so the photographs taken from the summit plateau were a matter of point, click and hope for the best. J did a sterling job of standing behind me and holding onto my pack straps to stop me from being blown over. That also applies to the rest of the shots taken along the plateau.

On the left is the snow covered summit of Bowscale Fell and to the right is the slightly lower east top. If the winds were so extreme along here what must things have been like up there.

Looking back across the little col towards the south top where once again there wasn’t a soul in sight. Well, not everyone is as daft as us I suppose. With a zoom in you might be able to spot the little cairn situated over there on the right.

A big lump of cloud obscuring today’s view of Great Dodd and Clough Head.

The very top of Blencathra is covered with cloud but Atkinson Pike has managed to put in an appearance behind Bannerdale Crags. Surely no-one has attempted Sharp Edge today. J didn’t have the anemometer with him for an exact reading but we estimated that the wind speed across here was well in excess of 30 mph.

Another look back towards the south top as the cloud moves along and lets the sunlight through.

A zoom in on the east ridge of Bannerdale Crags with Atkinson Pike still clear of the cloud which continually smothered Blencathra while we were up here.

Icy pools here …..

….. there and everywhere. This is the end of a particularly long stretch which straddled the path. Not trusting the ice to hold we diverted around it. Towards the upper right of the shot is Cross Fell and its near neighbours, all with a good covering of snow. As we picked up the path again heading for the summit I noticed two large shadows moving in front of us and turned around to see two tall fellows in winter running gear running up behind us. They gave us a quick hello as they passed, had a brief pause at the scrape of rock marking the summit area and then went on their way complete with ice axes strapped to their backs. How they were able to run in such extreme winds and without getting blown over baffled me, we were having a battle to even walk in a straight line plus walking poles to provide at least a little stability. You have to hand it to fell runners as hardy as these two were.

The Tongue and the path alongside it leading up to the top of Bowscale Fell. Its only just over a month ago that we were walking down that path during the very frosty period we had in early December 2022.

Another look across over towards Bannerdale …..

….. followed by a look down at the many paths below The Tongue and Bowscale Fell. The one directly below the slopes of Bowscale Fell is the one alongside Bullfell Beck which we used on our 7th Dec 2022 walk up to Bowscale Fell summit.

We dropped down into this little hollow for some respite from the wind so I took the above shot while we got ourselves together again. We had linked arms all the way along the plateau in an attempt to buttress each other and used a walking pole in our free hands for stabilization. Several times along the way the wind speed increased, when it did we just sat down and waited until the speed decreased and we could stand up and start walking again.

From the same spot I took another shot, hoping that the cloud might have lifted from Blencathra but it hadn’t thinned out quite enough for a clear shot of the very top.

We are off the plateau now but even as we descended the wind did not abate one iota and J was still on buttress duty as I took this shot looking along Mungrisedale …..

….. and this one for a final view of Bowscale Fell.

Looking eastward from the descent where Gowbarrow is in view just to the right of Great Mell Fell.

Below us is the little hamlet of Mungrisedale. This is a steep descent route so we decided to avoid descending via this path because of the strong wind, cut this corner off and instead take an off path route through the dead bracken …..

….. to the one of the paths just visible in the bottom right of the shot. We weren’t completely out of the wind as we descended and the bracken was a pain in the you know what but at least the risk of being blown over had decreased. The risk of being legged over by the tangled bracken increased commensurately so we proceeded carefully. Anyone who has ever had a fight with dead and tangled bracken will know exactly what I mean.

Low Beckside farm is in view again now that, and despite the bracken’s best efforts, we have reached the path we were aiming for.

Here’s J on the afore-mentioned path having been relieved of buttressing duty. This is the path we would have eventually joined had we taken the steep descent route I mentioned a couple of shots back.

Before long we are at the path junction leading down to the access lane and back where we started. We dropped down to the lane, went through the gate and walked the short distance to the double gate we passed through when we started out and back onto …..

….. the little path alongside the river leading to the footbridge.

Once across the bridge we turned left, walked the very short distance to the handgate, crossed the muddy dip and walked up the slight rise back to the car.

The morning sun has melted the ice on the road, its still a sunny blue sky day and down here the wind has lessened a little. The path we used on our outward leg is clearly visible over on the extreme left of Souther Fell but our return path over to the right is all but obscured by the dead bracken. The lunch boxes remain unopened as an open air picnic was a non-starter today but never mind, those bacon and tomato sandwiches would taste just as good in the car as they would have up on the top of Souther and they did. The farmer at Low Beckside came past us with his tractor and slurry wagon, backed into his yard and began refilling it in readiness for his next slurry spreading trip. The sight of two folk sitting in a car and munching on sandwiches will be a familiar sight to him, this little road is always jam-packed with cars during the summer months so he didn’t so much as bat an eyelid as he drove past us. All in all we don’t seem to have much luck on Souther Fell, this is the third time we have walked over it and each occasion its been in strong winds. Perhaps that’s why we haven’t walked it very often.

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Walk date – 15th January 2023

Distance – 5.5 miles

Weather – dry, sunny spells, moderate breeze

 

A low level walk of moderate distance today. The forecast for tomorrow (Monday) was looking better but J reminded me that the car was booked in for its MOT so that was that. Since our last walk on Jan 2nd we’ve had day after day of gales and rain so, as today was forecast to be dry and less windy, we opted for a stroll through Grisedale and just enjoy the views that the valley has to offer.

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Route

From Patterdale cricket ground along the eastern footpath to the bridge crossing by the sheepfold, then returning to Patterdale via the western path and Lanty’s Tarn.

To begin with a few shots taken from the car on the way to Patterdale …..

Blencathra …..

….. Clough Head …..

….. and Ullswater as we drove down the A5091. There was still a fair amount of cloud around but also plenty of blue bits so we kept our fingers crossed.

Place Fell from the cricket ground car park. Only a handful of cars were parked up so we had no problems in that respect. There’s only a partial covering of snow on Place Fell which is probably the result of all the strong winds blowing it away and dumping it somewhere else.

From the cricket ground we walked up the tarmac lane past Waterfall Wood Cottage (holiday let) high above Grisedale Beck.

A peep down to the beck just after we had passed the cottage. Torrents of water thundering down and plenty of waterfall views all the way up the lane.

Reaching Thornhow End and the point at which the lane loses some of its steepness. The lane had been running with water all the way up to this point.

We’re almost into Grisedale now, the tarmac lane turns off to the right, crosses the bridge over the beck and continues as far as the farms on the slopes of Grassthwaite Howe. The valley path continues straight on of course but eventually loses the tarmac surface beyond the turn off for Braesteads farm.

Onto the valley path now with this splendid view of the snow covered rocky faces of the Helvellyn range immediately ahead of us. Just what we’d hoped for. The fell top assessors have been reporting for a few days now that Helvellyn’s summit plateau had very little snow, having been scraped away by the gales coming in from the west, but that the northern and eastern facing slopes had much greater accumulations. Ahead of us, from left to right, are the north and eastern facing slopes of Dollywaggon Pike, High Crag and Nethermost Pike.

Further along and in the top left hand corner of the shot the top of Saint Sunday Crag has come into view.

We’re beyond the turn off for Braesteads farm now so the track has lost its tarmac surface although it still provides a decent enough surface for the vehicles which need to access the holiday let at Elm How. The water level in Grisedale beck indicates just how much of the wet stuff has fallen on the Lake District over the last two weeks.

Approaching Elm How with a bright blue sky above us and only bits and pieces of cloud still hanging around. The vast bulk of Saint Sunday Crag keeps both sides of the valley, and us, in the shade but that’s the price you have to pay when walking through Grisedale at this time of year. We’ll be in sunshine by the time we’re over on the western path, if we still have some sunshine by then of course.

The front elevation of Elm How cottage. One of the cows in the barn next to it was more interested in scratching its neck on the dividing wall.

Heading further into the valley with a fantastic view of Nethermost Pike soaring above Eagle Crag. Look out, large puddles ahead!

Large puddles were a constant feature which involved much side-stepping onto the higher ground beside them. Other walkers had obviously done the same so the diversion routes became incrementally muddier and higher.

A look back along the valley from the old barn which stands just a short distance from Elm How. The path on the opposite side is still overshadowed by Saint Sunday Crag.

On we go following the path as it winds its way above Crossing Plantation. A feeder beck overflows the path and creates a big puddle and a small waterfall. An occurrence which was a constant feature of today’s walk.

Still wending our way along the twists and turns of the path above the plantation …..

….. which we eventually leave behind and immediately have this marvellous view across the valley.

A closer look at the view, in the foreground lowly Eagle Crag barely has any snow but behind it is the rugged and snow covered eastern face of Nethermost Pike. The higher slopes of Helvellyn are on the extreme right.

On the middle skyline, sandwiched between Eagle Crag and the unnamed hill on the left is Dollywaggon Pike. Just ahead of us, roughly where the path start to rise around the unnamed hill, is where we are planning to bear off to the right, cross the bridge over the beck, and follow the upward path which will bring us out beside the derelict building alongside the path on the western side of the valley. We know it will be a wet crossover but as we’ve never diverted over to it on previous walks we decided we might as well just get on with it today.

Heading towards the bridge and the sunny side of the valley and, as expected, the path, such as it was, turned out to be very soggy indeed.

We reached the bridge, after a few diversions to avoid the worst of the squelch, and spent a few moments there to take a look around from our new viewpoint and to appreciate standing on something firm and dry once again.

The view of Dollywaggon Pike looking upstream from the bridge …..

….. and the view looking downstream. Crossing Plantation is the group of trees over on the right with Place Fell on the skyline.

Saint Sunday Crag, and a couple of walkers on the path below it, from the bridge. Apart from meeting a chap walking his dog along the tarmac lane as we started out these are the first people we’ve seen so far. Just after I’d taken the shot we saw another pair coming down the same path and another couple walking up it.

Another shot looking back down the valley this time including the old sheepfold and various pens. From here a very rough path, and very wet at its lowest point, leads up to …..

….. this derelict building alongside the western valley path and opposite the old mine workings on Eagle Crag. Too high to have once been a sheepfold so it is probably the remains of a former mine building. Whatever it once was it provided an out of the breeze place to take a refreshment stop for a few minutes. Nice to be in the sunshine now.

After our break we began the walk back on the sunny side of the street although in its initial stages, from the old building over to the bridge across Nethermostcove Beck, we had to do a great deal of bog-hopping. Although it was only a short distance it was a relief to …..

….. reach the bridge and stand on something dry and solid again. In keeping with every other beck around these parts Nethermostcove Beck was full and in a hurry to add its own contribution to the flooding of Ullswater. At the rate it was flowing it would have reached its destination before we were halfway back down the valley.

A few yards of water free path appeared so I took a shot looking down the valley again.

The cloven stone below Bleaberry Crag the top of which forms part of the Striding Edge route to Helvellyn from the Hole in the Wall.

Looking back up the valley after having threaded our way through the assortment of drumlins back there. More cloud has appeared over the Helvellyn group than there was a little while ago.

Saint Sunday Crag casts its shadow over the valley again as we pass Elm How again, obviously on the other side of Grisedale now.

Just to give you some idea of how quickly water was pouring down every little gully.

A look back and finding out why we weren’t still enjoying some sunshine, the cloud has moved in. The beck in the previous photo continues on down to join Grisedale Beck and if the path hadn’t begun to rise a little at this point we’d have still been splashing our way through it.

This next one proved to be just that much too deep to splash through so we found a hop over point just up the slope on the left. That didn’t keep us out of the wet though as the overflow continued on along the path until it started to rise again a little further on.

An impressive stand of Scots Pines further along the path. Several have lost many of their lower branches making them very top heavy now and very prone to being blown over. A couple of them had already succumbed.

Still an occasional patch of blue sky but the skies have mostly clouded over now

A closer look at the waterlogged fields around Braesteads farm. A little further on, as we reached our turn off point back down into Grisedale, we decided to carry on and walk the short distance up to Lanty’s Tarn. As we did so we passed …..

….. this lovely little group of miniature waterfalls just as a brief spell of sunshine landed on it. Wet trouser bottoms and damp boots are immediately forgotten.

After a short uphill walk we arrive at Lanty’s Tarn, nobody around and a still surface so I took a shot of a tranquil scene. I was only just in time because immediately after taking it a number of groups of people, plus dogs, arrived. Most dogs, upon seeing water, plunge straight in and these ones were no exception. End of tranquil scene.

Making our way back down the hill from Lanty’s Tarn with a view of Thornhow End, Saint Sunday Crag and a lot of cloud.

Returning to the path junction to descend back into Grisedale with a final look back up the valley. I think we can safely assume that the sunshine has gone somewhere else for the rest of the day.

Arnison Crag gets a hint of sunlight as we descend …..

….. as does Angletarn Pikes over on the left.

Back at Waterfall Wood Cottage now as we regain the tarmac lane and drop down it back to the cricket ground. I didn’t take any more photos on the way down so that’s it for today’s walk. Good to be out again in dry, sunny, and relatively wind free weather. We can only hope it won’t be another two weeks before it happens again. Look what greeted us this morning …..

….. overnight snow and a bright sunny morning on M.O.T. day. Are we fated or what?

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Walk date – 2nd January 2023

Distance – 6.7 miles

Weather – blue skies, sunshine, no wind

 

A long valley walk today to get our legs back into some sort of working order after the enforced idleness of the poor weather and to mitigate the indulgences of the festive season. It’ll take more than a long valley walk but its a start. The ground is thoroughly sodden, becks, tarns and lakes are full to overflowing and paths are generally well churned, muddy and puddly. Borrowdale was no exception but it is close to home, easy to get to and the lay-by just above Huck’s Bridge is rarely full. Walking along the valley would entail being in the shade now and again but that applies to most places at the moment as the sun is so low in the sky at present. Our south facing back garden, for example, gets about half an hour of sun these days, if there is any sunlight to be had of course, before it disappears once again behind neighbouring buildings. Anyway, suitably wrapped up in our winter gear and with a flask of hot coffee and a couple of chocolate bars in the pack off we went. As I write this the boots are drying out nicely, two pairs of muddy trousers are in the washer and yes, its lashing with rain again!

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Route

Out and back – Borrowdale from Huck’s Bridge lay-by to the bridge crossing  below Greyrigg Forest

A shot of Greenside Crag bathed in sunlight from the lay-by on the A6 just above Huck’s Bridge with the shadow of Ashstead Fell covering the lower fields. From the lay-by its a short walk up the road to gain access to the track leading down into the valley. We heard the sound of an engine as we walked up and as we got to the top of the rise a farmer driving a quad bike plus trailer came out of the valley, up the access track onto the main road and headed off in the Kendal direction. An empty trailer suggested that somewhere along the valley the sheep were tucking into their morning feed.

High House Bank from the access track into Borrowdale where …..

….. Ashstead Fell is casting its shadow along this section of the valley. Borrow Beck has plenty of water and is rapidly making its way down the valley to join the river Lune at the eastern end of the valley. The silvery ribbon just in front of the beck is the path and its often full of puddles so we know what we’re in for after so much rain recently. Over on the right skyline is Whinash Fell.

Borrow Beck and a smidge of the fells on the opposite side reflected in one of the calmer pools. It all looks a bit chilly but as we were well wrapped up so it didn’t feel nose numbingly cold.

View back towards High House Bank as we walk along beside the beck.

As expected there were plenty of large puddles along the way. They had obviously frozen over during the night and the quad bike and trailer which had driven through just a few minutes earlier had broken the surface layer of ice and scattered the shards everywhere, hence all the white specks you can see in the photo.

The  puddles get larger and longer with shards of ice all around them. We’ll be in the sunlight when we reach the end of the tree plantation on the right.

A pile of ‘pencils’, aka fence posts, so J proceeds to write with one.

Out in the sunshine at last and a look back up the valley as we cross the bridge.

In the fields directly opposite the bridge is this old barn which was renovated when the Friends of the Lake District charity purchased the fields and derelict farm in this part of Borrowdale. It stands directly below the little col between Winterscleugh and Whinash fells.

A look back as we walk through the valley fields. The sheep will be turfed out when the the growing season begins and these fields turn into hay meadows once again.

As we walked through I became aware of movement over to my left and noticed a deer running beside the fencing. We stood still and watched for a few minutes as it went back and forth along the fence line trying to find a way out and away from us. The sheep standing on the slope above took a keen interest in all that was going on.

We quietly began walking again and as soon as the deer noticed the direction we were taking it made a beeline for the open track behind us. The animal isn’t clear to see but…..

….. the photo editing program came to the rescue so here she is trotting happily across the field and making her escape. I’m only assuming it was a female as there are no antlers or ‘dangly bits’ on show but I could well be wrong.

Still walking across the fields with the steep slopes of Winterscleugh Fell over on our left.

At the foot of Winterscleugh and directly ahead of us is High Borrowdale farm.

The farm buildings have also been saved from complete dereliction by the Friends of the Lake District charity …..

….. and this building was, at one time presumably, the farmhouse. The doorway has been barred although you can enter the ruins of the house from the other side. We didn’t go looking round today as all the ground within the enclosure was completely saturated, the water was creeping rapidly over my boots during the very short time it took to take the shot.

A look back at one of the old farm’s outbuildings after we had extricated ourselves from the squelch and took to the track again.

‘And pretty maids all in a row.’ Have a rummage through your memory and see if you can remember the nursery rhyme that came from. The lead sheep had obviously spotted something of interest and the four of them were marching determinedly towards whatever it was.

Mabbin Crag nearest the camera and the sunlit top of Ashtead Fell at the far end.

We’re back in the shade again as we carry on towards Low Borrowdale farm, this time its the shadow of Castle Fell which is being cast across the valley. As we were walking along here we heard voices to our left and then saw two people on the alternative and slightly higher path walking in the opposite direction to us. The first walkers we’ve seen so far but they were too high up and too distant to have a chat with.

In the farmyard the personification of a bingo caller’s well worn line – ‘two little ducks, twenty two’ although these two seemed not to have heard of it because they did not oblige and turn themselves around into the necessary formation. Despite having webbed feet they still slithered around occasionally on the wet grass.

Back in the sunlight again so an illuminated shot of Low Borrowdale farmhouse. I think the Friends of the Lake District charity has someone living/working here in a sort of ‘keep an eye on things’ role. On a previous walk, some years ago now, we did see a youngish chap sitting outside with a glass of wine and a barbecue on the go and we wondered if he was still there. There was no-one around to ask so we still don’t know. Its not a working farm any more, that we do know.

The outside W.C. is still standing despite its ramshackle appearance. Two runners also came along so only a quick exchange of greetings with them.

Heading towards the cattle grid with Belt Howe on the skyline. Just above the tall pole beside the break in the wall you may be able to make out a wall slanting upwards towards the skyline on the right. Behind the wall is a path which begins behind the buildings of Low Borrowdale farm and leads up to a little col between Roundthwaite Common and Birk Knott. At the col several routes are available to walkers for further exploration of the higher ground above Borrowdale. There’s some great walking to be had up there on a sunny summer’s day.

Approaching the bridge and now the shadow comes courtesy of Greyrigg Forest, but there’s a sunny view of Whinfell Common behind us. We’ve just met a solo walker, we also met him at High Borrowdale farm on the way back, so he was doing the same walk as us but starting at the Lune Valley end. Borrow Beck has widened out considerably by now but its about to get squeezed …..

….. as it makes its way through the much narrower channel above which the bridge is situated.

The view upstream from the bridge …..

….. and the downstream view. There are two options here at the bridge, a) turn around and go back the way you came, or b) cross the bridge and follow the path on the other side of the beck, for about a mile or so, to the small car park just off the A685 on the Lune valley side.

We turned around at the bridge and began the walk back, stopping on the way at a couple of picnic tables I had noticed on our outward leg. Its not visible in the photo but there was a patch of flat land atop a slight rise further along and that’s where the picnic tables were. When we got there we also noticed a largish circle had been cut out of the turf, down to bare earth level, and in which were the remains of a small campfire/barbecue. We have seen organised camping groups, mostly youngsters, along here in the past so perhaps the area we used is part of a recognised camp site. Whatever its purpose we made use of one of the tables, got the coffee and choc bars out and had a pleasant ten minute break.

A lovely walk back in full sunshine to the accompaniment of the beck gurgling along beside us. Plus two more walkers and their dogs, making their way to the bridge, and another exchange of greetings.

Mabbin Crag and Ashstead Fell still have sunshine, we’re about to enter their shade again.

Meanwhile, back at Low Borrowdale farm, the two little ducks were making their way towards us so we waited …..

….. not quite deep enough for a swim but definitely adequate for a paddle and a root around below the waterline to see if there was anything worth eating.

We varied the route a little at the farm. Rather than walk back through the fields we turned up the slight rise beside the farm to where there is a path junction. The one in the shot goes up behind the farm and eventually meets the one going over Belt Howe which I mentioned earlier. The path we took is behind me at this point. Very waterlogged here and no choice but to wade through it.

Once out of the squelch there’s a lovely wooded path, slightly elevated above the valley as can be seen, and it was this path that the two walkers whose voices we heard earlier were walking across.

From the path the view down to the meadows which we were walking across when we heard their voices, too high and distant to exchange greetings between us and them at the time as is obvious from up here.

Further along the higher path but still in the shade of Mabbin Crag nevertheless.

A look back along the hay meadows towards the sunlit fells above the Lune Valley.

Back at High Borrowdale farm where the sun has passed its zenith so the shadows cast by the fells on the opposite side begin to lengthen. We were in full sun when we were here on the outward leg. Its only just turned 12.30 pm too. A solo walker carrying quite a large backpack caught up with us along here and swapped a brief hello with J. I was several yards away from him trying to find a dryish patch of ground, I didn’t find one.

Crossing the hay meadows, where we saw the deer earlier, with Whinash Fell and Greenside Crag on the skyline.

High House Bank is back in view so we aren’t too far away from our starting point now. This part of the valley doesn’t get any sunlight at all during the winter so its always a chilly walk back through here.

A look back towards Winterscleugh Fell from the puddly path …..

….. and a look ahead to the sunlight we’ll be enjoying before much longer. Note the still in good repair old sheepfold on the other side of the beck.

We are about to walk up the access road to the A6 at this point. In the distance are the buildings of the farm at Huck’s Bridge and over on the right the stepping stones across the beck. As we approached this point a solo walker came towards us, so we  each said our hellos as usual, I took the above shot and then we began walking up the hill to the A6. We were only a very short distance up the hill when the very same solo walker came back up the slope and made her way back up to the A6 just a few steps in front of us. The sun was directly in our eyes during all of this so we couldn’t actually see where she went but there was no sign of her as we walked down the hill to the lay-by so she must have turned left heading in the direction of Kendal. Perhaps, as J thought, she was looking for another path, most likely up to Ashstead Fell, and took the valley path by mistake.

On the A6 now and walking back down the hill to the lay-by. On our right the Breasthigh Road snakes its way across the fell side and the moon has appeared above Whinash Fell. It always feels odd to see the moon during daylight hours even though its a very normal occurrence.

Back at the lay-by and a look down the hill towards Huck’s Bridge. Beyond the bridge the A6 road rises over the Shap fells and onwards to Penrith. We’ll turn off once we’re beyond Shap and head off down into the Eden Valley and home. We’ve had a great day of weather today but the forecast for the next few days is not looking good, gales and heavy rain are being predicted so there may well be another period of gazing at raindrops pouring down our windows before we can get outdoors again. I started writing this walk report this morning and mentioned then that it was raining, a few chores have been done in between the writing of it  and now, as I finish writing, the afternoon is turning dark and the rain is still bucketing down. Ho hum.

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Walk date – 31st December 2022

Distance – Less than a mile

Weather – low cloud everywhere, rain showers, no wind

 

About three days after our last walk the freezing cold and calm spell came to an end and back came the dull grey skies and rain/sleet/snow accompanied by very strong winds. Today was forecast to be more of the same, minus the strong wind, and true to form it rained solidly until about 12.30 pm. As the rain abated we thought we’d do an out and back stroll from Pooley Bridge along the Ullswater lakeshore path while we had the chance of some dry weather. The dry weather didn’t last long and as soon as we opened the front door the rain started again. We decided to take a chance and drove the short distance over to Pooley Bridge and by the time we had parked up the rain had stopped again. Its not a long walk along the shoreline but in the end it turned out to be even shorter than we had anticipated. We didn’t take the gps so there’s no route map/mileage but we didn’t get very far so there’s nothing to show anyway. I took a few photos along the way …..

The houses alongside Ullswater’s outflow channel which were flooded out in 2015. All have been rebuilt, and some are now two storey houses where previously all of them were bungalows. Judging by the high water level flowing past their front gardens the occupiers are probably hoping the days of incessant rain come to an end before much longer, it certainly looks a bit perilous from over here.

Dunmallard Hill and the Pooley Bridge jetty.

The shoreline path is flooded so everyone had to take to the higher path and there were dozens of folk, plus their wet and muddy dogs, walking over it in both directions. We’ve never seen so many people on this path before.

No ‘steamers’ to ruffle the water at the moment.

A look along Ullswater towards Hallin Fell which is gradually disappearing in an incoming shower.

Our lakeshore stroll is over almost before it has started and we have to call it a day at this point. Not only has Ullswater taken over the path …..

….. it has flooded the next field too.

A last look along the water before turning around and returning to Pooley Bridge.

Arthur’s Pike getting covered in cloud and after a couple more minutes neither it nor Bonscale Pike were visible.

Walking back to Pooley Bridge and a light drizzle is just beginning to fall. A glance over to our right made us realise just why there were so many people out and about, the camping sites on both sides of the back lane over there were chock full of camper vans! We haven’t seen it as full as it was today even in the height  of summer.

Elder Beck is normally little more than a trickle of water but its filling up the whole blooming bed today.

We noticed a couple of well wrapped up paddleboarders gliding serenely across the water. At least there’s no wind to blow them off course or rough up the water today. It was very unusual to see paddleboarders wrapped up in thick coats and long trousers so we could only assume that they were wearing wetsuits underneath their outer layers.

Only  part of the lower shoreline path is visible, the rest of it plus the numerous little beaches are under water. At least the multitude of dogs were enjoying themselves – straight in and no messing about, plus lots of excited barking.

Back alongside the ‘des res’ row of new builds. I wonder how much their insurance premiums are now? Once back in Pooley we decided to drive round to the Howtown jetty and see what conditions were like there.

No different! The jetty is sticking out into the water on the right and the gate and path leading to it is over on the left, access to both is a non-starter at the moment unless potential passengers fancy a calf deep paddle. Its either that or a longer walk around to the bottom of Hallin Fell and get to it from the path along its lower slopes.

Standing in water up to the ‘running boards’ of my boots for an atmospheric shot across the water. The ground slopes away at this point so one step further forward and the water would have been over the top of my boots.

Now standing at the muddy roadside for this over the wall view of Hallin Fell. The dark area in front of the blue bundles is floodwater covering the path to the jetty and a good portion of the field too.

Back to standing in the floodwater for another atmospheric shot, no jetty this time just a few boats. Even the low lying hills beyond the water are disappearing quite quickly now and by the time we were back in Pooley the cloud was down completely, the light went along with it and its only just gone two o’clock! Well, its still drizzling, there’s nothing to see, everywhere is either muddy or flooded so we might as well make tracks for home I suppose.

When we turn off the A6 and head down into the valley we are often treated to a view of Cross Fell and its neighbours over on the northern Pennines. Not today though, nor on many of the previous days just lately, we can’t even see the bottom of the valley now. Ah well, these gloomy days will come to an end eventually. Until then we send our best wishes to you all and hope that the coming new year will be a happy and peaceful one for us all.

 

Walk date – 10th December 2022

Distance – 4.5 miles

Weather – mostly sunny with intermittent cloud, no breeze, very cold

 

The very cold and calm spell continues so we drove over to Seatoller to spend a morning in the lovely area of Borrowdale. This is a delightful walk, especially in today’s weather conditions, and there is such a variety of routes to choose from that you can be spoiled for choice. Whichever route is taken the surrounding scenery is wonderful and today’s weather provided the icing on the cake, quite literally, bearing in mind the frosty conditions and all the snow flurries covering the surrounding fells. As we drove past the Glaramara hotel to drive the final few yards to the car park a very large walking group, consisting of about thirty to forty people of all ages, appeared from the hotel grounds and began heading in the same direction as us. By the time we had parked up the leading walkers came trooping past the car and made their way past us, up the path from the car park and then onto the main path, all heading in the same direction that we were planning to take. We began to wonder how much of an impact such a large group would have on the walk we were planning but as things turned out it had no impact at all because we never saw the group again. Made us wonder where they were heading, Honister perhaps?

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Route

Seatoller – High Doat – Cumbria Way – Castle Crag – Lingy Bank – Longthwaite – Johnny Wood – Seatoller

The path leading from the car park at Seatoller up to the main path we were heading for. Every stone was rimed with frost making it very difficult to gain any sort of firm footing. Micro-spikes were brought into action.

On the main path now and a view along Borrowdale with the distinctive points of Low Saddle and High Saddle on Coldbarrow Fell clear to see on the right skyline. There’s some cloud around and every so often some of it drifts across the sun, this was taken during one of those moments. Wiping the mist from my specs every time I took a photo became part of the job description today. Warm breath landing on cold lenses is an occupational hazard!

We turned off up the hill when we came to this little beck. J is already on his way, its too chilly to stand around for long.

Its a steep climb up towards the Scots Pines to the next path we’ll follow but its quite a short climb and we are soon back on the level again. Without the spikes getting up here would have been very trying, the grass was very icy and gaining a firm footing up here would have been very difficult.

Rosthwaite Fell or Bessyboot, call it what you will, as seen from the top of the short steep climb …..

….. followed by a view looking towards a very cold looking upper Borrowdale from the same spot.

We followed the path around to this gate and then turned right, where J is standing, for the path to High Doat. Keeping straight ahead on the path from the gate will eventually lead you over to the one coming along from Honister and a right turn at that junction will take you over the Cumbria Way path towards Castle Crag.

From the High Doat path we can see a mass of mist creeping over Coldbarrow Fell. Low Saddle is hidden by the mist but High Saddle is clear of it as is Ullscarf on the right skyline.

The sun isn’t high enough at present to bring much in the way of light to upper Borrowdale so it remains in the chiller cabinet for now. The mass of cloud roiling above Great End and Seathwaite Fell at the end of the valley provided some interesting atmospheric effects from time to time.

Still making our way over High Doat with a look back now that more height has been gained. On the left is Base Brown and its alternating stripes of sun and shadow, and on the right skyline is the knobbly top of Grey Knotts. The brown mass between the two is Seatoller Fell.

A longer view along upper Borrowdale where, with a squint of the eyes and a zoom in, you might be able to spot Great Gable to the right of Base Brown. Meanwhile the cloud above us has moved on and we finally get our share of the sunlight. It never fails to surprise me how much of an effect sunlight has, spirits soar and the landscape is suddenly alive with colour.

The view towards the Skiddaw group from High Doat. High Doat seems to be one of those little humps and bumps which are generally ignored. Its not very high and its hardly breathtaking to look at but the views from the top of this little hill are spectacular, today especially. The pale wintry sky, the snow covered Skiddaw group and the inversion over the vale of Keswick contrasting with the sunlit Castle Crag was stunning. This was most definitely the highlight of today’s walk and our eyes were constantly drawn back to it. I did take some other shots while we were up there though so here are a few of them …..

….. to the east across Borrowdale is King’s How and Grange Fell. On the distant skyline behind Grange Fell is High Seat (Watendlath) …..

….. to the west is High Doat’s nearest neighbour, High Scawdel …..

….. further along to the north of High Scawdel is High Spy where a wisp of cloud just happened to drift by …..

….. to the south west are Base Brown, followed by Great Gable with Green Gable just below it, with Grey Knotts on the extreme right …..

….. and moving the camera a little to the left brings Great End and Seathwaite Fell into the picture. I couldn’t go any further left than that as the sun was so bright at the time. In summary High Doat offers walkers some wonderful views in return for very little effort.

We eventually made our way down from High Doat, crossed the stile and back onto the Cumbria Way route. This shot looking back at High Doat after we crossed the stile shows an unassuming and modest little hill which doesn’t appear to have very much going for it, but once on the top there’s a very different kettle of fish on offer. Worth going out of one’s way for on a day like today.

From the stile crossing we made our way towards Castle Crag along the Cumbria Way. The bridge in the photo crosses Scaleclose Gill and looking ahead we can see no walkers along any of the paths. In summer, by now, we would have exchanged greetings with dozens of folk but today, so far, we have seen no-one.

That ribbon of mist behind Great Crag is still hanging around although both Low and High Saddle are now visible.

Sunlight once again on King’s How and Grange Fell.

Looking back to High Doat which punches well above its weight in the views department.

Lots of becks and bridge crossings along this route, some of the bridges look to have been recently installed. A splash of sunlight lands on the lower slopes of High Spy …..

….. and a little further along Castle Crag gets the same treatment. The air quality is good today so all manner of little details can be identified. A zoom in will reveal the zig-zag route up the slate ‘staircase’ on the old spoil heap.

Another burst of sunlight brightens up the bracken clad slopes of High Scawdel and gives them a rich caramel colour …..

….. and does exactly the same on Castle Crag.

The icy path up to the top of Castle Crag can be seen over on the right but the eye is drawn towards the spectacular cloud activity above the Skiddaw group. The warmth of the sun on their damp slopes was creating quite a sight as the moisture condensed into rising clouds and eventually evaporated.

We took to the path up to Castle Crag, which has its awkward bits for those of us not in possession of long legs, so J, as usual, arrives at the stile before me. No, we didn’t cross the stile he’s just ‘posing’.

The craggy slopes of Low Scawdel were glowing in the bright morning light, so close it felt as though you could just reach out and touch them. There is a very steep drop between here and there however as the Cumbria Way makes its way down Broadslack Gill far below us.

We picked our way carefully up the zig-zag path of loose slate to the top of the spoil heap where I took a look back at our route so far. Great End is on the middle of the skyline. There’s a bit of sun ‘interference’ on the left of the shot but apart from that the shot didn’t turn out too badly.

A quick look into the quarry area before we made the short climb to the top of Castle Crag …..

….. and here we are at the memorial where lots of poppy crosses were still in place following the Remembrance Day gathering in November. While we were here we were joined by a solo walker so we had our first exchange of greetings of the day. He also remarked on the spikes we were wearing, he wasn’t wearing any and was probably wishing that he had been. They were essential wear today with the ground so hard and icy. Here’s a couple of shots I took from the top …..

….. the river Derwent below us, passing through Grange on its way to Derwentwater with the Skiddaw group in the distance. Still plenty of cloud activity going on over there …..

….. followed by a look over towards King’s How and Grange Fell.

Time to tackle the ‘tinkly’ slate path down the spoil heap again. This shot shows the view from the top, its not difficult its just a bit slithery with all the loose slate lying about. Once at the bottom we went back over the stile and took the downhill path just on the other side of the wall to begin the walk back to Seatoller.

High Scawdel right in front of us as we descend the grassy path.

Borrowdale still looking very chilly as we descend over Lingy Bank …..

….. but things brightened up again a little further down. We met a few more walkers coming up as we descended so perhaps they had been waiting for the day to warm up before setting out for the short walk up to Castle Crag from Rosthwaite.

Back alongside the river now as we reach New Bridge …..

….. and enjoy the lovely riverside walk back to Seatoller on a very sparkly winter morning.

Passing by the stepping stones across the river, its a chilly looking scene despite the sunlight.

Making our way along the very frosty path close to the river.

We arrive at Longthwaite which is quite close to the YHA buildings more or less behind me. It didn’t look as though many people were staying at the YHA, with only one car parked up there.

Walking through Johnny Wood now with sunlight streaming through the bare trees and highlighting all the frosted grasses and bushes. Very crispy underfoot all the way through the woods.

For some reason Sam Cooke’s song Chain Gang sprang to mind at this point.

We’re almost at the end of Johnny Wood now so we’re not too far away from journey’s end at this point. I thought a shot of J walking along the sunlit path would make a good photo but he unexpectedly turned around just as I took the shot so the ‘walking’ shot’ turned into a ‘still’ shot.

The gate at the top of the slope leading back into the Seatoller car park so we’ve come full circle and back to where we started. This morning’s icy rime on the stones, which prompted us to put on the spikes, has melted away so they were now superfluous to requirements but we left them on anyway. It wasn’t worth the bother over such a short distance. We decided earlier on to wait until we were back in the comfort of the car to get the soup and sandwiches out and, as its just gone one o’clock, we seemed to have timed things just right. A picnic in the car will round off a lovely little walk very nicely, as will the obligatory cuppa when we get back home.

Walk date – 7th December 2022

Distance – 6.5 miles

Weather – very cold, sunny start, cloudy later, moderate northerly breeze with significant wind chill

 

The strong winds and heavy rain disappeared during the last couple of weeks although the dull grey skies and low light conditions stubbornly persisted. We were all set to do today’s walk last Wednesday but called it off, there seemed little point when everywhere was shrouded in a thick fog which lasted all day. There was one decent day during the week before that but it happened to fall on a Tuesday which, as regular viewers will know, is a no go day because of prior commitments. Anyway, the forecast for today, and the next few days apparently, seemed to indicate extensive sunshine accompanied by a northerly breeze with some wind chill thrown in for good measure.  We had a heavy frost overnight so a bit of time had to be spent on defrosting the car windows this morning, but we eventually got under way and made our way over to Mungrisdale where no-one was around and we had our pick of the available off-road parking.

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Route

Mungrisdale (off road parking) – Bullfell Beck path – Bowscale Fell – Bannerdale Crags – The Tongue – Mungrisdale

Raven Crags from the off-road parking area at Mungrisdale. There is a route up to the summit of Bowscale Fell through the crags but we’re taking the path alongside Bullfell Beck today. Both routes start at the gate in the shot, just beyond it the path up through the crags veers off to the right, the beckside path passes behind the houses and continues straight ahead.

A little to the right of the previous shot for this view of the farm buildings of Undercrag. Its a lovely morning but very cold and having just stepped out of a warm car by the time we were ready to go I was down to shivering level.

Temporary low light when a small cloud drifted across the sun as I was taking this shot of The Tongue and Bannderdale Crags from the Bullfell Beck path.

The Tongue gets a splash of sunlight as we carry on up the path. The ground is firm underfoot although in several places the path had longish sections of semi-frozen mud. Up ahead, at the end of the path, is the steep climb out of the valley and then its onwards to the summit of Bowscale Fell.

The old waterworks building is in the shadow of The Tongue but a zoom in should be enough to make it out. We’re not looking forward to the lengthy walk through that all that chilly shade especially as we’ve both warmed up nicely following our shivery start.

A look back down at the route so far as we pass by the old building. Bullfell Beck is making its way down the valley below us to the right of the shot.

Beyond the building the path becomes single file only as it progresses upwards above the beck. I took a quick shot of the old sheepfold as we passed it. I didn’t feel like standing around too long in this deep shade especially as the chilly breeze has found its way through here and its blowing straight at us. Cold, wet noses became the order of the day.

The path steepens as it winds its way through the heather and ever higher above the beck.

The climb out is very steep and the path eventually dissipates but we are finally out of the deep shadow of The Tongue so we took a five minute chocolate bar break to relax and enjoy the warmth of the sun. The absence of a path is mitigated to some extent by the patches of grass which can be used to navigate a way around the swathes of boot trapping/lace tangling heather.

A zoom shot of the distant North Pennines showing Cross Fell and a couple of its neighbours wearing a cap of snow. On the way to Mungrisdale we noticed the same light covering on the Dodds, the Helvellyn group and Blencathra. At this point we didn’t know what conditions would be like on the summit but the spikes are in our packs, just in case.

We eventually reach the gentler gradient beyond the climb out and have a view of The Tongue in whose shadow we walked for quite a while. Its great to be out in the sunshine again.

Looking to our left towards the east top of Bowscale Fell, in the shot it looks deserted but there was a solo walker and his dog over there.

Another view of The Tongue now with Souther Fell behind it. We carry on over the much gentler gradient towards the summit. The ground now has a flurry of snow sprinkled over it.

The pile of stones at the summit of Bowscale Fell flanked by Carrock Fell on the right and High Pike on the left. The position of the sun behind me unavoidably results in my shadow also appearing. The northerly breeze is much stronger and chillier up here so we didn’t linger.

Carrock Fell as we leave the summit area, followed by …..

….. High Pike …..

….. Knott …..

….. Great Calva …..

….. the Skiddaw group …..

….. and on the middle of the distant skyline, thanks to the air clarity, we can see Pillar, Buttermere’s High Stile and Red Pike and below them a zoom in will reveal Hindscarth and Robinson …..

….. and last, but not least, comes Blencathra, also covered with a flurry of snow.

A look back at Bowscale Fell summit as we reach the flatter, and usually soggy, ground below it. No problems with soggy stuff today, everything was crisp and firm underfoot. A few iced over puddles here and there were easily avoided.

Making our way over the frozen paths towards Bannerdale Crags. The place looks deserted but there were walkers dotted around here and there. We’ve just exchanged greetings with one solo walker who was making his way over to Bowscale Fell.

One of the many paths passes very close to one of the gullies of Bannerdale Crags which gives a fine view along the lower slopes of the Crags, over Bannerdale and across to Souther Fell.

The view back towards Bowscale Fell …..

….. and from the view point on Bannerdale Crags a view towards The Tongue and the east top of Bowscale Fell.

We walked up from the viewpoint towards the actual summit for a better view of Blencathra …..

….. and then took this close up shot where the Sharp Edge route can be seen very clearly. They aren’t visible in the shot but we could see a pair of walkers on the summit, another pair making their way across The Saddle, and another pair standing on the path slightly above the Sharp Edge exit route. They may have just been peering down at Sharp Edge or could have just traversed it and were just taking a look back. We didn’t see anyone on Sharp Edge itself, conditions would have been very icy across there today so perhaps walkers used the Scales Tarn path instead. We did notice people walking up that path.

Another pair of walkers had arrived at the viewpoint when we returned to it. They were busy taking photos so we didn’t disturb them and began making our way over to the path just above the rim of the crags. This eventually joins the path along the side of The Tongue which will take us back down to Mungrisdale. There is much more cloud around now than there was to begin with so it looks as though today will follow the usual pattern – a sunny morning followed by a cloudy afternoon.

Heading over the rim of the crags now towards a still sunlit Tongue. Thanks to the sunlight its possible to pick out the path we will be using for our return to Mungrisdale.

Looking straight along the course of Bannerdale Beck which in turn drops down into the Glenderamackin river below Souther Fell and creates a very marshy area as it does so.

Looking back to Bannerdale Crags from the path along the rim.

Still sunny on The Tongue so I decided to take another shot as the path alongside it was showing up so well.

Having reached the path on The Tongue we decided to take a short break and have a mug of hot soup before beginning our descent. A small group of walkers complete with a guide had also reached the junction at the same time. They waited for the last member of the group, who was some distance back down the path, to join them before continuing on up to Bowscale Fell so we were able to have a brief chat with them while they waited. I guess that the one they had waited for would have been relieved to find out that all the heavy lifting work was practically over and done with at the junction and all that was left to do was make the shortish walk over to the summit. The above shot was the view from our soup stop where a couple of lenticular clouds drifted slowly across the distant far eastern fells.

Sunny Souther Fell and Great Mell Fell from the soup stop.

We lost the sunlight as we were packing our things away. The cloud finally reached us about 1.15 pm so we didn’t get much more sunshine after that. All the morning sunshine hitting this hillside had melted the ice and frost on the path so it it was quite a muddy walk down.

A look back up the path and the rim of the crags before we begin rounding the bottom of The Tongue and lose the view. As can be seen there’s not a lot of blue sky around up there.

A very gloomy view across Bannerdale towards Bannerdale Crags from the same spot.

We’re still descending but the white house over towards the left of the shot tells us that we haven’t much further to go, that’s roughly where the car is parked.

Raven Crags to the left of the white house as we make our way back to Mungrisdale.

About to cross the Glenderamackin river where we have to take to the detour path installed a few years ago after the flooding washed away the old riverside path. We used the detour path shortly after it had been installed and it was clear then that the slabs of concrete which had been laid would be likely to not stay the course and they haven’t. They have sunk into the marshy ground or have been pushed up out of it and several are lying at different angles to each other, and water from the surrounding marsh has washed over them resulting in the majority being covered in sheet ice today. Its not a long detour and it wasn’t worth faffing about with putting the spikes on so we took to the marshy grassland instead.

Back on terra firma now and about to enter Mungrisdale village. At the end of the path we have a short stretch of tarmac walking along the lane back to the car below Raven Crags.

Back on the tarmac as we pass by Farm Cottage, Mungrisdale with …..

….. a look back along our starting route as we round the bend in the narrow lane …..

….. and walk past the old chapel of St Kentigern and just a few more paces further on we’ll be back at the car. The cloud cover is not quite complete and there are still blue skies over to the east which is where we’re heading so we may be lucky and catch the last of the afternoon sun when we get back home. Its supposed to stay sunny but very cold for the next few days so we might be able to get another walk out somewhere before the present settled spell comes to an end. We’ll see how it goes.

PS – Quite by chance I discovered some information a couple of days ago about the ruined building in Langstrath marked as ‘Johnny House’ on the OS map. I had searched for information about this building but had never been able to discover anything about it. One of my presents to J last Christmas was a book called ‘The Little Book of Cumbria’ by David Ramshaw published by The History Press.  Its a dip in and out of sort of book because it is full of short articles containing factual information about all manner of things Cumbrian and J keeps it handy on the coffee table. I picked it up the other day and it fell open at page 81 where, to my amazement, was a short article about the Johnny House. It seems that it was once an inn known as ‘Auld Jwonny Hoose’. Johnny ran the inn at about the beginning of the 19th century and caught the trade from the two packhorse routes in the area. One route runs from Stonethwaite up and over Greenup Edge and down into Grasmere. The Langstrath valley packhorse route coming over from Great Langdale joins the Greenup Edge one where Langstrath Beck joins Greenup Gill so the inn sited at the beginning of Langstrath seems to have been a very good location for catching both sets of packhorse drivers. So the information about Johnny House literally fell into my hands without me even looking for it. Serendipity?

Walk date – 19th November 2022

Distance – approximately 6.5 miles

Weather – dry, some sunny spells to begin with, clouding over later, very slight breeze

 

Since our last walk we have had day after day of rain, high winds and overcast skies resulting in sodden ground and becks, rivers, tarns and lakes swollen and overflowing. This morning looked as though it would be more of the same but by late morning the heavy cloud began thinning out a little, gradually revealing more and more of the blue sky it had been covering. There was very little breeze and short spells of sunshine began appearing so we threw a few bits and pieces in a pack and off we went over to the old quarry car park on the A5091 where we started today’s walk. Our ultimate aim was Gowbarrow Fell but reaching it via the Ulcat Row, The Hause and the Ullswater Way route. For some reason the GPS did not record the route we took until we were beyond Todgill so the missing section had to be added manually, that’s the part with the blue arrows. The mileage is also a rough approximation as that wasn’t recorded for the blue section either. On the plus side the pay machine in the car park was out of order.

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Route

Old quarry car park – High Cascades bridge – Millses – Norman Crag – Riddings Plantation – Ulcat Row – Greenbank – Todgill – The Hause – Ullswater Way – Swinburn’s Park – Airy Crag (Gowbarrow summit) – High Cascades bridge – Old quarry car park

A pair of visitors had just vacated this spot beside Aira Beck so I took a quick shot while it was empty.

Another shot of the beck from the bridge as we crossed over. Quite a few people making their way back and forth over the bridge or sitting close by just watching, and no doubt being deafened by, the water pouring over the rocks. The sound was thunderous as you can imagine.

We made our way up from the bridge via the very wet, as in running with water, path and reached this point where we would normally turn off to climb up to Gowbarrow top. If you don’t have a lot of time available this is the shortest route available. A pair of walkers, who we had passed further back down the path, reached us as I was taking the shot and asked about the route to the top so we pointed them in the right direction and then carried on straight ahead to …..

….. this gate and carried on with our walk. The little hamlet of Dockray is over on the left and on the right is Norman Crag which the path passes below.

Passing by Millses, which although not named on our route map can be located towards the end of the first blue arrow where a cluster of buildings is indicated.  Aira Beck passes right in front of them. The path we’re following diverts towards Ulcat Row at this point.

Passing below Norman Crag and being intently watched by a local inhabitant a little way above us.

Cottages in the vicinity  of Dockray appear here and there across Matterdale.

Passing through the Riddings Plantation over a very, very wet path, on a sunny summer day this would be a lovely route to follow, today it was a bit of a trial with lots of squelch, squelch, squelch. More of Gowbarrow’s crags are on the right, just visible in the distance is Little Mell Fell and …..

….. over on our left is Great Mell Fell.

One of the cottages beside the track as we approach Ulcat Row.

Ulcat Row ahead as we reach the end of the track through Riddings Plantation. Once through the gate at the end of the track we will have firm tarmac under our feet for a while.

Little Mell Fell not quite so distant now as we walk up Greenbank towards Todgill, the dwelling on the right. Who invited that cloud to come and spoil the party?

Greenbank is a steepish incline but there’s a clear view of Blencathra beyond Matterdale to be had from it. When we drove through Matterdale earlier the upper slopes of Blencathra were hidden by thick cloud so any walkers up there now will have some good views.

On this side of Matterdale we are still under cloud although Great Mell Fell has managed to grab a piece of the action.

A look back toward Great Dodd and Clough Head as we reach the top of Greenbank and the lane begins to level out. It was along here that J thought he’d check the mileage only discover that nothing had been recorded on the gps. (Not best pleased would be a good description.)

The gps having been reset we carry on with our walk and head towards the road at the end of this lane which will take us up to The Hause below Little Mell Fell.

Little Mell Fell from the road leading up to The Hause. Despite the looming cloud we are somehow managing to hang on to a sunny spell.

From The Hause we drop down the road passing the caravan site and eventually turn right onto the Ullswater Way. I walked the Pooley Bridge to Glenridding section of the Ullswater Way shortly after it opened in 2016. J was occupied elsewhere at the time so this section of it is new to him although we have walked the sections of it on the other side of the lake several times. Unfortunately the sun managed to make its way into the above shot even though I tried to cut it out entirely. As far as I can make out the building at the bottom left of the shot is the Rectory where the rector of All Saints Church at Watermillock may have resided. According to the OS map the church is just down the lane from the rectory. The present church replaced one which had been demolished in 1881 so perhaps the rector’s house was also replaced at the same time.

Out into the open again and a look across towards Arthur’s Pike, Bonscale Pike and Loadpot Hill before we begin the stiffish climb up the slopes of Little Meldrum.

Sunny Heughscar Hill in the distance as we climb up the slopes of Little Meldrum …..

….. and a not so sunny view in the direction of Place Fell.

Walking through Swinburn’s Park, a long squelchy walk through deep shade today. Very gloomy through here so I only took this one shot.

Out in the open again with a view across Ullswater towards Hallin Fell, Beda Fell and the Loadpot/Wether Hill skyline.

Still plenty of blue sky around but the clouds are gathering …..

….. making everything a whole lot duller …..

….. and darker with every minute that passes.

Having passed through the last section of forest track through Swinburn’s Park we passed through the gate in the wall and left the Ullwater Way route to begin the climb up to Gowbarrow top. The Ullswater Way merges with the ‘terrace’ route around Gowbarrow at this point and then continues on towards Glenridding . Just out of shot to the right are the remains of the former shooting lodge.

The cloud has completely taken over now and Blencathra’s cloud cap is already beginning to appear.

Great Dodd and Clough Head from Gowbarrow top. Up here we still had some blue sky overhead but …..

….. the sun remained hidden behind all the cloud coming in from the south over there beyond Glenridding so we only had very murky views from this point on.

There was some unusual cloud activity over the Eden valley beyond Heughscar Hill. A long low ribbon of cloud seemed to be hanging above the valley but there was nothing to be seen of it by the time we got back home.

Looking eastward from Gowbarrow’s trig column on Airy Crag and another view of the Eden valley cloud show.

Another shot from the summit, this time towards Place Fell and its neighbours to the south east, and then its time to start to make our way back down. Surprisingly enough we were not the only ones up here and we met others coming up as we descended.

Looking eastward again as we start to descend. The North Pennines should be on view here but obviously they aren’t despite the blue sky overhead.

Ullswater has a bit of a sheen but its surrounding fells are vanishing in the gloom. Better move along then as there’s not much to see here now.

The view opposite as we descend Gowbarrow. I’ve mentioned the new path laying operations in previous walks up here and although some further work has been done we both felt that what has been done so far is no better, and in places is worse, than the previous path. Being very wet, muddy and covered with fallen leaves didn’t help matters either. Maybe when it is all completely finished things will be OK but its something of a dog’s dinner at present.

Almost back down to the path leading back to the bridge with a muted view of Watermillock Common and Parkgate Farm across from us. Once on the path we met three chaps carrying small daypacks and couldn’t help thinking that it was a bit late in the day to be going up Gowbarrow, especially as it was way too cloudy to hope for a fabulous sunset.

Back at the bridge again after splashing our way back across the stream of water which had taken over the path. The place was deserted by now and when we reached the parking area in the old quarry ours was one of only two cars still parked there. As we were getting ready to leave the occupants of the other car also arrived and began the de-booting and de-backpacking process. So that’s it for today folks, we can only hope that the Lake District’s daily deluge eases up soon and that we won’t have to wait for another two weeks to go by until we can get out again.

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Walk  date – 4th November 2022

Distance – 5.4 miles

Weather – mostly overcast, some sunny spells, cool breeze

 

We’ve had relentlessly stormy weather over the last few weeks with day after day of heavy rain and very strong winds, so it has been a case of hunkering down and waiting for things to improve. Staying indoors wasn’t much of a problem in that kind of weather and my back problem would have precluded being out on the fells anyway so I returned to the ‘tying myself in knots’ exercise routine. We had thought about doing this walk yesterday (Thursday) as the day began reasonably well but, as usual, towards late morning the clouds came rolling in and the rain battered down for the rest of the day. Today was supposed to be very windy again but there was no mention of rain in the forecast so we decided to venture out. It turned out to be the best day of the week, although that isn’t saying much as you’ll see from the photos, but we did get a couple of sunny spells and we didn’t get soaked. Although the back problem has eased a little it seemed wise to give the high fells a miss and opt for something with a few ups and downs but nothing which would undo all the exercising effort. Sale Fell seemed to fit those requirements so here’s how we got on.

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Route

Wythop Mill lane (roadside parking) – Routen Beck – Lothwaite – Rivings – Sale Fell – Kelswick – Chapel Wood – Wythop Valley – Wythop Woods – Wythop Mill lane

Just a few steps from where we parked on the back lane from the Pheasant Hotel to Wythop Mill is where we began today’s walk. There was a heavy frost last night which left a thick covering of ice on the car windscreen but by and large it was very sunny in the east when we left home. As we drove west along the A66 it became obvious that this sunny morning was going to be a repeat of yesterday’s sunny morning and would soon deteriorate. At least the clouds ahead weren’t scudding along at speed like they were yesterday so we were unlikely to be troubled by strong winds. Anyway off we went through the gate and up the path to …..

….. the flattish area at the top of the path. We had noticed inversions over the Ullswater area, over Derwentwater and over Bass Lake as we drove along so it wasn’t surprising to see one covering the Embleton valley when we looked around. As we viewed the scene a young woman and her dog came down the path and we exchanged ‘Good mornings’. She carried on down the path in the shot above but the dog stayed with us. I called out to her to say that it looked as though the dog wasn’t ready to go home just yet. With a smile she said that it never was and continued on down. We encouraged the dog to follow her but it wasn’t having any of that so in the end J started walking down the path, the dog followed him and eventually it caught up with its owner and back home it reluctantly had to go.

Looking towards Wythop church (St Margaret’s) from the bench at the top of the path. The Embleton valley was covered by the inversion although we could hear the traffic trundling along the A66 below it.

The view across the valley as we walked up the path from the bench. Seeing the brighter skies to the west gave us some hope of a little sunshine to come because it was quite chilly beneath those grey clouds.

The view along the valley from the broken down wall which the path crosses.

Looking towards Binsey from further along the path. Some of the houses in the hamlet of Routenbeck appear through the mist below us.

At the top of the climb we continued on towards the gate, passed through it and then made our way down to cross Routen Beck. The beck had overflowed at the crossing point so the area around the crossing was very wet. At the gate you can get up to the summit of Sale Fell quite quickly by just following the wall but we were taking the longer route via Lothwaite.

The view back to Sale Fell after we crossed the beck. The path alongside the wall is clearly visible amongst the acres of withered bracken. The path was not as mud ridden as we had expected and for the most part the ground all along today’s route was surprisingly firm given all the rain we’ve had.

Another look back at Sale Fell as the sunlight finally got a look in. What a difference a little sunlight makes.

On Lothwaite now where a few rays of light were trying to penetrate the gloom around Bassenthwaite Lake. They didn’t last long but their effect was quite dramatic nevertheless.

Beyond the water the Skiddaw group remained in cloud with the sole exception of Dodd. If that little fell gets covered then you really have got a low cloud day.

Looking along the Lothwaite ridge towards Broom Fell and Graystones as we approach the bench. We didn’t bother sitting and admiring the view, the bench was wet through with a pool of water around it and the views were dull so it didn’t seem worthwhile. The chilly breeze is stronger up here too.

A little further on the sunlight came back which lit up the fields very nicely.

The path we walked to Lothwaite is just the other side of the wall alongside the plantation.

Looking ahead to Rivings and Sale Fell as we walk over Lothwaite’s ridge. Only a few walkers were out and about today.

Rivings and the huge pile of stones on its top.

This was the most crowded part of our walk today. It seemed as though a couple of sheep, out of shot to the right, had found a nice piece of grass to eat and several of the others were making their way over to them to check things out and maybe get their share of whatever was available. We head for the gate in the wall with Sale Fell summit on t’other side of it.

Beginning the climb up to the summit with a look back towards Rivings where a solo walker has just appeared.

Looking back to Lothwaite from the same spot. The green path visible on the left is the one we followed up to Lothwaite.

On Sale Fell summit now and another look back to Lothwaite …..

….. and another look back to Rivings. The solo walker looks to be heading for Lothwaite.

Looking ahead to Ling Fell during another sunny spell as we begin to descend Sale Fell to make our way down to the Wythop valley.

These orange fungi were everywhere although most of them had gone over by now. I tried to find out what its name is but the closest I could get was ‘orange peel fungi’, although the photos of that variety didn’t really match up so I’m not really sure that’s what it is.

Embleton valley now inversion free.

Ling Fell ahead as we reach the bottom of the descent. I don’t recall it getting any sunlight today, if it did I didn’t see it.

Lord’s Seat and Broom Fell on the skyline as we begin to descend into the Wythop valley.

The path drops down to join the access lane to Kelswick farm where, after a very brief section of road walking, we rejoin the path in the shot and continue on towards Chapel Wood.

Only a short distance into the woodland the ruins of the old Wythop church come into view. The nearest wall contains this plaque …..

….. and next to it is a framed description but the information on it has faded so it is impossible to know what it says or shows so I didn’t take a photo of it.

Another plaque propped against one of the crumbled walls. Perhaps this was once part of the old church and the inscription added later.

A bird’s eye view of the site of the old church.

Walking through Chapel Wood. Very very muddy in some places.

We are out of the woodland now but the Skiddaw group is not out of the cloud which continues to billow all around it.

The view across the Wythop valley towards Lord’s Seat and Broom Fell.

A little further along when the cloud over the Skiddaw group cleared slightly and Ullock Pike appeared …..

….. and stayed in the clear for a few more minutes. We never saw the top of Skiddaw at all today. The path we’re on climbs gently away from the valley and eventually joins up with the engineered forest track leading through Wythop Woods.

A look back from the top of the forest track as it begins to turn and head back towards the Embleton side. Ullock Pike and its neighbours are back in the cloud again. Thanks to the wild weather many trees have been stripped of their leaves now so we haven’t really had much of an autumn show of colour either. Ah well, next autumn perhaps.

Binsey in the distance beyond Bass Lake, quite a contrast with the view at the beginning of the walk.

Here we are, back at the bench area looking down at the last few yards of today’s walk. No reluctant dog this time just one solo walker who has just made his way through the gate and back onto the lane and we’ll be doing the same in just a couple of minutes. My back held up reasonably well despite all the slithering around across muddy ground so let’s hope it continues to improve. It hasn’t been the brightest of days but its the best one we’ve had for over two weeks and its been good to be tramping the fells again even if it was only a lowly one, one is better than none at all.

A quick PS – you may remember that in the ‘tipping point’ post at the beginning of October I mentioned that the US Federal Reserve Committee would be having their meeting on 1-2 November and that they might raise their interest rate, which would have a knock-on effect here and in the EU. The Fed raised the interest rate by 0.75% and, as expected, the Bank of England and the ECB duly raised theirs. The Fed Chairman, Jerome Powell, also stated at a press conference subsequent to the meeting that ‘rates will stay higher for longer’ and that ‘pausing is not something we’re thinking about’. So, at their December meeting US rates are likely to go up again and, in turn, so will the BoE’s and the ECB’s. I wonder how much dollar denominated debt the BoE has? Whatever the amount the interest payments on it have just gone up again. Hardly surprising then that there are indications that our current Chancellor will announce that electric vehicles will now have to pay vehicle excise duty from 2025/26. Gotta fill those Treasury coffers somehow.

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Walk date – 19th October 2022

Distance – 6.3 miles

Weather – Cloudy, occasional sunny spells, light breeze

 

There was an outside chance of a couple of hours of dry, calm weather to begin with this morning before the cloud cover returned. Strong winds were being forecast at height and the arduous walking conditions arising from them made a low level walk a better choice for us today. This circular walk is an old favourite of ours, a favourite which is shared by many others judging by the amount of people we saw doing just the same walk. Some were taking the clockwise direction as we did, while others opted for the anti-clockwise direction. We set out to do this walk last Thursday, an unexpectedly lovely sunny and wind free day, but could find absolutely nowhere to park as every possible parking area/space was taken and fully occupied so we put it on the pending list. On Tuesday of this week another similar day occurred, out of nowhere I might add, but as Tuesdays are already spoken for we were unable to take advantage of it. On the plus side the good weather day meant the washing could be drying outside on the line so it wasn’t entirely a non-productive day. The back problem continues to be a nuisance but today’s walk contained nothing to bother it and we spent a couple of very pleasant hours strolling through the various woodland and shoreline paths although by the time we were on our way back to Grasmere the cloud had rolled in and the weather window closed once again. Its not looking good for the next few days either and its raining (again) as I write.

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Route

A591 Lay-by Grasmere – White Moss Common coffin route – Rydal Mount – Rydal Water – Grasmere Water – Grasmere – A591 Lay-by

Helm Crag from the lay-by which is just a couple of hundred yards from the roundabout on the outskirts of Grasmere village. The lay-by had a few cars already parked but we parked without difficulty today. As the photo shows there is a little light cloud about but by and large its a pleasant autumnal morning.

After walking from the lay-by down to the roundabout we turned up this little lane which takes us past the Wordsworth museum …..

….. and past Dove Cottage a little further on. The notice on the wall informs you that William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy lived here from 1799 to 1808.

At the junction at the top of the hill you can take a breather, if you need one, courtesy of the metal bench on the left and enjoy the view. The path shown in the photo leads walkers through Brackenfell Wood and on up to Alcock Tarn with the option of continuing on up to Nab Scar, Heron Pike etc etc. I have my back to the path we took which leads us up to the old coffin route across White Moss Common and eventually to Rydal Mount.

At the top of the path from the junction the route levels out and in no time at all we arrive at the tarn with no name, it isn’t shown on our route map either although it is shown on OS maps as a long sliver of blue, though once again not named. Various names have been applied to it though, White Moss Tarn, Skater’s Tarn, Mr Wordsworth’s Tarn (apparently he used to skate on it) but nowadays if it does freeze over it would be difficult to do any skating at all as it is so overgrown and silted up. This was the only obvious area of water as the remainder was covered by the encroaching vegetation. What might be for the best – let nature take its course or not? I don’t know the answer to that.

A little further along the path is Dunney Beck, the path beside which is yet another route up to Alcock Tarn. A candidate for a future walk when the bracken has finally died back, perhaps this year will be when we finally get around to doing it, although we say that and then promptly forget all about it! Not the best shot I could have taken but then there was a large van belonging to the LDNP authority parked beside the fence so the viewing angle was somewhat limited. No sign of the park ranger though.

Loughrigg Fell and Rydal Water as we leave a woodland section behind and have a more open view. The bracken has finally turned completely brown on Loughrigg’s slopes but it is still only partial on the slopes below and above us on this side of the water.

Alien invader or dead tree? Its all down to one’s imagination.

The path eventually tips us out onto the hard surfaced lane at the top of Rydal Mount and as we strolled down the lane I took a few shots of some of the houses along the way …..

….. this is one of them which I’ve included as the intensely bright red leaves of the tree were absolutely stunning. I think its a Japanese Maple (Acer Palmatum) but don’t quote me on that as I didn’t go over and inspect the leaves, and there are other types of tree which turn bright red in autumn.  We saw many of these in gardens today.

Towards the bottom of Rydal Mount is St Mary’s Church which apparently stands in the grounds of what was once an orchard.  Mr Wordsworth was a churchwarden here from 1833 to 1834 and he didn’t have far to travel to perform his duties in that respect as he only lived just up the lane almost at the top of Rydal Mount.

The bottom of Rydal Mount is crossed by the A591 which we crossed and then turned right until we reached The Badger Bar above and just opposite it is …..

….. this pathway leading to the footbridge across the river Rothay and eventually to the shoreline path alongside Rydal Water.

Another muted sunny spell arrived as we crossed the bridge which illuminated the pastoral scene very nicely.

The path wends it way briefly through a wooded area so it isn’t long before you are out in the open again and Rydal Water makes its appearance.

The path runs very close to the water’s edge and just about every dog along the way made straight for it, plunged in, swam around for a while before running back out and shaking themselves vigorously all over their owners. I can’t speak for their owners but the dogs were thoroughly enjoying every minute of it.

Muted sunlight lands on Nab Scar across the water.

A look back at Rydal Water which will disappear from our view when we drop down from this high point and follow the path towards Grasmere water.

Silver How in the distance as we make our way down. We haven’t reached peak autumn yet as there is still quite a lot of greenery around. Another two or three weeks should do it though, always providing that any autumnal gales don’t strip off the leaves before they’ve had the chance to change into their lovely autumn colours.

Down at the weir now where things have turned a rather steely grey and everything becomes very muted. We’ve been aware of a very large blanket of cloud slowly approaching for some time and it looks as though the leading edge of it has arrived.

Grasmere in sombre mood. Still quite mild though and only a very light breeze ruffles the surface.

Dunmail Raise in the distance flanked by Seat Sandal on the right, and Helm Crag and Steel Fell on the left. The clouds are beginning to gang up above us.

I waited ages to take this shot. Having found a handy rock on which to perch we had stopped for a short break and I thought that this view of Silver Howe overlooking the water might turn out to be useful. No sooner had I got the camera out than a constant stream of walkers passed back and forth through the gate. Dogs splashed around in the water, folks took photos or just stopped to take in the view, you all know how it goes. I began to think it was hopeless and then, suddenly, there was no-one. The stillness returned and a small gull decided that things were quiet enough for it to perch on the fence post for a while. A quick click and Bob’s yer uncle.

Further along the shoreline path now looking towards Dunmail Raise again where we can see that the earlier brighter skies are disappearing as the cloud cover makes its way north.

The path moves further away from the shoreline which offers us a view of Seat Sandal (L) and Stone Arthur (R). Behind Stone Arthur is the darker mass of Fairfield. The ripples on the water show a slight increase in the strength of the breeze now. Around here (Dale End) some work is in progress, lots of machinery, materials and some fencing. From the notices attached to the fencing it seems that it is a ‘Boathouse Restoration Project’. The word ‘restoration’ I understand to mean to return something to its original condition but what we saw was nothing of the sort. The skeleton of a structure consisting of brand new steel supports (steel work supplied by a Cumbrian forge whose name was on a nearby notice and which I’ve forgotten) is not a ‘restoration’, it is a brand new building and, at the moment, looks nothing like what it is replacing. It is to be hoped that the exterior of this structure will be in keeping with its surroundings rather than the creation of an eyesore. End of rant!

Two grey ponies and their riders pass by as we walk down the road back to Grasmere village. J knows a good pony/horse when he sees one and thought that the leading one was especially good, hence the smile.

Here’s another ‘work in progress’, this time in the grounds of a hotel on the approach to the village. The hotel already has one such sculpture on the opposite side of its driveway, that one takes the form of an owl. (See our walk of 3rd June 2019 for a photo of that.) It will be interesting to see how this one turns out.

Grasmere was busy, as usual, so we didn’t linger once we reached it so here we are making our way back across the field path to the lay-by. Seat Sandal and Stone Arthur on the skyline …..

….. and on our left we have a view of Helm Crag and Steel Fell.  We didn’t have much further to go from here so, with the cloud cover just about complete and the threat of rain in the air, we made our way back to the lay-by which was now completely full. The rain held off until about tea-time and then it tipped it down so with a bit of luck maybe the occupants of those cars made it back without getting a soaking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday 1st October 2022

Just my two penn’orth, for what its worth.

 

The roots of the current financial situation began to grow long ago but as a starting point, and well within most peoples recent memory, three events have occurred which have compounded the problem.
In 2008 we had the ‘global banking crisis’, beginning with the collapse of Lehmann Brothers in the USA and quickly spreading around the world. Remember those queues outside Northern Rock Bank (formerly a building society) when people rushed to get their savings out as news filtered through that the bank had approached the government for assistance with its liquidity problems. (It had borrowed too much in order to fund mortgages and was at risk of being unable to pay the amounts it had borrowed.)

Northern Rock wasn’t the only commercial bank facing that particular difficulty, all of the familiar banking names up and down our High Streets were in trouble too as a result of their own very risky financial activities. All night meetings took place between bank CEOs, the Treasury, the Bank of England and the then Chancellor, Alastair Darling, to try and resolve the situation.

To cut a long story short, as a result we ended up with the commercial banks being bailed out, thereby avoiding a systemic banking collapse, the introduction of quantitative easing (money printing) by the Bank of England to finance the cost of buying government bonds, interest rates being cut to 1%, thus lowering the cost of borrowing, (savings accounts had even lower rates) and a long period of austerity cuts in an attempt to balance the books.

We all soldiered on but by 2020 these interest rates were still applicable, (good for borrowers but bad for savers) and the debt problem created by all that quantitative easing (money printing) remained.

Then, in 2020, came the next big event, the government’s ‘lockdown’ policy. Remember we had three of those which effectively put the UK economy into several months of idleness. Businesses being closed and employees staying at home resulted in economic inactivity and thus a reduction of the amount of business and personal taxation going into the Treasury.

Not to worry though, good old quantitative easing would save the day so, in addition to all the extra medical paraphernalia expenditure, not to mention paying for all that “NHS’ advertising, that the government had incurred we had furlough payments (paying employees to stay at home), ‘bounce back’ loans to small/medium businesses to help keep them afloat (never mind that many of these were fraudulently obtained and will have to be written off), ‘eat out to help out’ and all the rest of it.

All the while government debt was ratcheting up and now we are currently in hock to the tune of £2.7 trillions worth of gross public debt!

In the late summer and early autumn of 2021 as ‘lockdowns’ were conveniently being ‘memory-holed’ and the country attempted to return to some degree of normality, we had the eye-watering increases in petrol/diesel prices at the filling station pumps, rapidly followed by the arrival through our letter boxes and email inboxes of notifications from our respective energy suppliers regarding the massive increases which would be applicable when the price caps on gas and electricity rates per cubic metre or kilowatt hour were introduced in October of that year, with similar huge increases planned for every three months following. The good news, for the government at least, was that this wouldn’t be funded by even more quantitative easing, oh no, no, no, this comes out of your pockets not theirs. The fact that the government quietly pockets quite a bit of cash from the various taxes levied on petrol, diesel, gas and electricity charges is neither here nor there, that great big debt hole has to be filled somehow, and anyway its all down to market forces mate, nothing we can do about it. After a depressing and futile search around for any cheaper gas/electricity deals 2021 came to a close with most of us having to dig deeper into our collective pockets in a valiant attempt to keep our heads above the waterline as inflation took hold. The Federal Reserve in the USA started to raise interest rates and began monetary tightening so no more money printing. The Bank of England and the European Central Bank began doing likewise.

So we were already in trouble early in the New Year when the next big event came along which was that little local difficulty in Ukraine starting on 24th February 2022.

Regardless of one’s point of view about that conflict it was obvious from the very start that applying sanctions to a country which produces, in abundance, pretty much everything that western countries need to buy in order to simply survive, never mind restart their economic growth after the lockdown disasters of 2020/2021 was not the most intelligent policy to pursue. That particular country has plenty of other customers only too eager to buy its products, it has a budget surplus (unlike ours which has a budget deficit) and its economy is doing very well thank you, although the media would have you believe quite the opposite. Perhaps lying is second nature for them now.

Despite it being a foolish policy that didn’t prevent the then Prime Minister, Eton and Oxford educated Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, from pursuing and actively encouraging it though. It created a handy scapegoat and blaming the Ukraine situation in general, and ‘Vlad the Bad’ in particular was, and still is a convenient, not to mention a tried and trusted method, of diverting attention away from one’s own, and that of many previous governments, policy failures. It is always easier to blame someone else for your own mistakes. It is foolish to believe that this war in Ukraine is the source of all our financial problems because it isn’t. Cutting your nose off to spite your face in the form of sanctions, not to mention pouring public money into what is reported to be the most corrupt nation on the continent of Europe, has only added to them.

No matter, he’s yesterday’s man now and we have a new ringmistress in charge of the circus, and a new Chancellor of the Exchequer, so everything’s fine now?

Er, well, no, not really, because he’s inherited the debt problems so kindly left to him by his predecessors and in an attempt to get the UK out of the quagmire he managed to land us deeper in the doo-doo.

Before the new Chancellor had even issued his mini-budget statement our new Prime Minister had already announced a two year energy price cap on the afore-mentioned gas and electricity rates. Although those rates would still continue to change, the two year price cap announced by the PM would mean that the government would be paying the excess instead of the customers. That would obviously entail more government borrowing and, of course, at much higher interest rates now.

So along comes the Chancellor a week later and announces that he’s proposing making some tax cuts, i.e. less tax money going into the Treasury’s piggy-bank, but doesn’t address the little matter of the increased government borrowing, mentioned in the preceding paragraph, and how that will be funded. Remember that we are now in monetary tightening mode, quantitative easing is off the table so where will the money for all that two year rate capping come from?

The usual route the government takes is to issue gilts, or gilt edged securities to give them their Sunday name, which tempt buyers by offering good rates of interest over a fixed term. A bit like High Street banks do when they offer better interest rates if you are able to lock away your savings for a two, three or five year term without needing access to it. The longer the term the higher the interest rate on your money will be.

Now who is going to buy those gilts?
Ordinarily it would be large investment houses, insurance companies, pension funds, foreign banks, foreign governments, wealthy private individuals and so on. These individuals know how things stand and how the markets operate so given that they would already know the extent of UK debt, that the interest rate on gilts had already moved higher, that UK growth was sluggish, and that the £ was falling against the $ they would be unlikely to be rushing in to buy. Five or ten years is a big chunk of time to wait to see a return on capital, especially if they are not convinced that the required growth in an economy to provide those promised interest rates is likely to happen within that time frame, and especially one with a weak/falling currency.

In addition to all of the above the Chancellor’s failure to mention how the extra spending would be funded (apparently he’s going to flesh out the details later) only added fuel to the fire so, instead of rushing in to buy more, investors decided to get out while the going was good and made a dash for the exits taking their money with them.

The Bank of England eventually had to step in and buy the gilts to stop the rot/downward spiral and will continue to do so until 14th October. What happens then is anybody’s guess.

The Bank is apparently drawing on ‘new reserves’ to finance its ‘temporary’ gilt buying. Makes one wonder where those ‘new reserves’ have come from, quantitative easing perhaps?

Are we at the tipping point yet?

I couldn’t possibly comment.

*****

If you’re interested in knowing what makes up UK public debt and to whom it is owed this report from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales includes a very straightforward and understandable chart together with a short report which is dated 22 September 2022 so before the Chancellor formally announced his mini-budget although the details had been widely circulated beforehand and shouldn’t have taken anyone by surprise – https://www.icaew.com/insights/viewpoints-on-the-news/2022/sept-2022/chart-of-the-week-uk-public-debt

On Monday 3rd October 2022 the Federal Open Markets Committee will hold an extra Closed Board Meeting so it will be interesting to see what comes out of that. Another rise in US interest rates would be certain to be followed by the BoE and the ECB raising their rates too. If the Fed continues raising rates at their next scheduled meeting on 1-2 November 2022 the BoE and ECB will surely follow suit and everyone’s crystal ball is likely to become very cloudy at that point.