Glenridding and Patterdale Circular
Walk date – 27th December 2025
Distance – 6 miles
Weather – dry with sunny spells, variable cloud, no wind at valley level, very cold
We could have done this walk yesterday (Boxing Day) when it was dry, sunny, very cold with no cloud or very strong winds, but as the good weather arrived immediately after Christmas Day, by which time fatigue and lethargy had set in, neither of us had the inclination or the energy to do very much so we didn’t bother. Feeling somewhat brighter today we settled for this low level walk in the Patterdale/Glenridding area, with a few little humps and bumps along the way to prevent our leg muscles seizing up completely!
Route
Patterdale cricket ground – Glenamara Park – Grisedale – Thornhow Barn -Lanty’s Tarn – Mires Beck – Greenside Mine – Greenside Road – Glenridding – Patterdale cricket ground
Walking from the parking area alongside the cricket ground up to the path from Patterdale to Grisedale through Glenamara Park. By ‘eck it was parky through here. Sunrise was about an hour ago and although we have daylight the sun is low in the sky and hasn’t risen above the surrounding fells. We’ll be walking westwards when we reach the Glenamara Park path so it’ll be some time yet before any sunshine lands on us.
We didn’t follow our usual route across the field to the Glenamara Park path and we emerged onto it slightly lower down than usual. We had just passed through the gate in the shot when I noticed that the top of Place Fell was now in sunshine, I was wishing there was some of that down here.
Having negotiated some very icy rocks close by the gate we eventually reached the frosty, grassy path beyond them with a view of Birks Fell just beginning to show a little sunlight in a few places.
J contemplating the crossing of Hag Beck eventually settling for the ice free stepping stones rather than getting his new boots soaked.
A look back at the stepping stones across Hag Beck after our crossing.
The view across Ullswater from Glenamara Park. On the right skyline is the Arthur’s Pike/Bonscale Pike/Loadpot Hill group and immediately below them is Silver Point. In the centre is the flat top of Great Mell Fell and over on the left the slopes of Watermillock Common are appearing.
As the path turned towards Grisedale we noticed a couple of walkers who were ahead of us had turned up the very steep path leading to Thornhow End/Birks Fell. It didn’t take them long to discover just how steep a climb it is and we noticed that they had stopped for a breather about a hundred yards from where they had joined the path. We carried on around and followed the path into Grisedale whose scenery is just appearing behind J.
We continue on into Grisedale passing these stone structures along the way. I hesitate to call them sheep pens since they have only three walls and not the usual four, but they are obviously intended to serve some purpose.
Eventually, below Thornhow Crag, the path leads over to a gate, then drops down into Grisedale and deposits us on the lane coming up from Patterdale. The grassy path leading down to the barn was very icy today.
The barn beside the path below Thornhow Crag is named, appropriately enough, Thornhow Barn. A notice close by informed us that it was part of the Patterdale Hall Estate but, by the looks of things the owners of the estate don’t seem to be doing much about keeping it in good repair. There are notices warning folk to ‘Keep Out’ though.
A look back at the barn as we made our way across the grass to the lane in Grisedale.
The splendid scenery along Grisedale was in full display today. Cloud just clipping some of the tops and most of them catching some sunlight.The tarmac lane only reaches as far as the last residence in the valley, beyond that it reverts to a rough track.
From the bridge a view of Grisedale Beck flowing beneath it. On the skyline are the eastern slopes of Birkhouse Moor.
Another sunny spell came along so another chance to appreciate the breathtaking grandeur of the Grisedale scenery. Walking over the tops of the Helvellyn range is ok but you don’t get quite the same awe-inspiring impressions that you do when viewing them from the valley.
We began to climb the hill leading up to the path to Lanty’s Tarn so I took another shot looking along Grisedale, this time with the inclusion of Birks Fell and Saint Sunday Crag. A few more weeks will have to go by before the sun is high enough to lift Grisedale out of the freezer.
That spectacular view again.
Up beside a frozen Lanty’s Tarn where stones thrown across the surface failed to break the ice. J threw a bigger one than I did and even that failed to break the surface.
We followed the path alongside the tarn to its northern end where J obligingly posed on the little bench seat carved from felled logs.
The path from the tarn eventually leads to this viewpoint, plus bench, immediately opposite Glenridding Dodd across the Glenridding Beck valley. Its much duller now that the clouds have joined forces although it looks a lot brighter in the east.
From the same viewpoint and looking across the Glenridding valley to Sheffield Pike and Glenridding Dodd.
Birkhouse Moor from the same viewpoint. The path in the shot is the one we will be following down to Mires Beck.
A sunny spell came along and landed on Sheffield Pike as we walked over to Mires Beck …..
….. and the next sunny spell lit up Glenridding Dodd and the holiday rental cottages below it. Those cottages would once have been lived in by mine workers, and their families, employed at the now disused Greenside Mine, just further up the Greenside Road.
The sun is higher now so Place Fell gets some sunny treatment. We are still on the shady side of the street so we don’t.
The bridge crossing Mires Beck with the sunny top of Birkhouse Moor on the right. The houses above the bridge appeared to be inhabited rather than holiday rentals.
We crossed the bridge and continued along the path for a short way before coming to a wall corner the other side of which had these two slate signs. I had come across these in Jan 2017 when I took a solo walk while J was at home nursing a compound fracture of his ankle, although I was going in the leftward direction on that occasion, today we followed the right hand path towards the Greenside Mine.
Place Fell again in full sunlight as we take to the path high above Glenridding Beck. We had been passed by a couple of male walkers a little way back along the path. Now we met them again and, as they were coming towards us, one of them jokingly said ‘we’ve just seen two people who look exactly like you two’. In other words – we’ve taken the wrong path and now we’re retracing our steps to get back on the one we want. I think they wanted the Mires Beck path going up to Birkhouse Moor and eventually Helvellyn, but had noticed us taking the Greenside path and followed us instead. (Tip – don’t follow other walkers and assume they are going where you intended going.)
Continuing along the high level path with the disused mine gradually coming into view. Also in view above the mine area is Stang End, the eastern end of Raise. I think that’s Raise over to the left behind the shaded slope of Birkhouse Moor.
Greenside Mine is getting closer …..
….. and eventually comes into full view revealing some of its former buildings and the various levels above them. The remaining buildings have been re-purposed into a variety of uses and the site is both a Scheduled Monument and a Special Area of Conservation. The lead mine closed in 1962 when it ceased to be economically viable.
The sound of the adjacent Swart Beck as its white waters tumbled down the ravine could be heard very clearly over here.
We’ve reached the bridge across the beck which seems to be the point at which the beck has two different names: below the bridge it flows down to Glenridding and thus becomes Glenridding Beck, while above the bridge it bears the name Red Tarn Beck since it flows out of Red Tarn. Whatever its called at this point it looks like a good amount of work has taken place since we last used the path coming in from the left. That was in June 2011 and neither of us recollects a stepped path leading to and from the bridge.
Peering down into the rocky bed of the beck from the bridge. The wooden surface of the bridge was icy and was placed quite high above the beck so I was much relieved once we were across it.
Down at Swart Beck where we’ve just had a five minute break to wrap ourselves around a chocolate bar each, no prizes for guessing the name of J’s chocolate treat!
Walking down Greenside Road with a sunlit Place Fell, Angletarn Pikes and Brock Crags in view. We were hoping that the sunny conditions would last until we were out of the shade just a little further down …..
….. they did and we were in the sunlight at last. The shot of the top of Place Fell is incidental, I simply wanted to take a shot of us being in sunshine. We had initially intended leaving the Greenside Road and cutting back across the valley over to the Mires Beck path and then picking up the path from there back to Lanty’s Tarn, down into Grisedale and then via the tarmac lane back to Patterdale. We decided to stay in the sunshine while it was available and continued on down to Glenridding. We met a few more people out for a walk on the way down.
Looking across Glenridding village to Place Fell and Angletarn Pikes as we walked down the hill and into the village.
At the bottom of the hill with a view towards Rattlebeck Bridge and Birkhouse Moor on the skyline. A left turn here brought us back to the village and into the car park. One person was trying to enter their bank card number into the pay machine but it wouldn’t play ball. J pointed out a slot on the machine which took cash but the person didn’t have any cash so we couldn’t help any further. Lots of cars were parked in it but not many people around in the village so maybe they were all out on the fells somewhere.
Another view of Birkhouse Moor and Glenridding Beck from the road bridge in Glenridding. We can’t walk across this bridge now without recalling the destruction caused by Storm Desmond in 2015.
The skies clouded over again as we walked back to Patterdale passing the hire boats beached up at the St Patrick’s moorings …..
….. still gloomy as we passed Glenridding’s war memorial …..
….. and even Place Fell has lost its sunshine …..
….. and the view of Grisedale Beck and its surrounding trees was no better. The cricket ground where we are parked is over on the left, part of the roof of the pavilion is just in shot, and the cars parked in the trees over on the right belong to visitors and/or employees at Patterdale Hall. So that’s the end of today’s walk folks, all that’s left for us to do is walk up the path on the other side of the wall on the left and back into the car park. I’m looking forward to a drink of hot coffee when we get back in the car because despite wearing a hat, two pairs of gloves, padded jacket, winter weight trousers, thick socks and various mid-layers I’m not at all warm. To add insult to injury, as I was taking off my boots when we got home I noticed that I had been wearing my summer weight boots too! I just took them off the shelf this morning in the cupboard where we keep all our walking gear without noticing what they were. Perhaps not the best type of footwear for a very cold day!