Grisedale
Walk date – 14th February 2025
Distance – 6.3 miles
Weather – dry with some sunny spells, high cloud, very cold and gusty wind
This past week’s weather (low level banks of cloud, damp and very windy) has deterred us from getting out on the fells again. Up here in Cumbria we seem to get an occasional day with reasonable conditions followed by several days with poor ones. Today’s forecast seemed better than those for the previous few days as there could be a slight chance that some sunshine might appear now and again through the cloud layer. The downside being that the strong wind and its attendant wind chill factor would still be present. Having read the fell top assessor’s reports during the week and noting that their wind chill readings were usually in the mid-teens below freezing point we decided against venturing out onto the fells today. Combined with those wind chill readings was the fact that more snow had fallen overnight on Wednesday making walking conditions at height unattractive, at best, and downright foolhardy, at worst. Taking all of that into consideration we decided on a low level walk as we had been confined to barracks all week. A valley walk would do nicely so we decided on Grisedale, an old favourite when the weather is poor, and sometimes when it isn’t!
Route
Patterdale cricket ground – Lanty’s Tarn – outward route along Grisedale via north western footpath – return route via south eastern footpath – Patterdale cricket ground
Having parked up at the cricket ground in Patterdale, where quite a few cars were already parked there, we made our way up the hill via the access lane into Grisedale. The lane is usually running with water but was bone dry and frost free all the way along today. The only things that weren’t bone dry were our eyes and noses. Walking along the lane through the woodland was chilly enough to start them streaming and we weren’t even in Grisedale at that point. The tissues came out when I stopped for my usual shot of Thornhow End and the footpath sign below it.
A view of the snow covered fells ahead as we entered Grisedale. The snow had almost gone when we took our previous walk up to Angletarn Pikes but now its back, and with a vengeance judging by the amount of covering we can see. We turned down into the valley by the wall towards the lower right of the shot.We had just seen a runner accompanied by their dog turn down it too and when we reached the bridge across Grisedale beck they were both down beside the beck. The dog was happily swimming in the beck despite the fact that the water looked extremely cold and the lady runner told us that her dog always makes straight for any beck and plunges straight in no matter what the temperature is. Apparently the dog decides when its time to come out of the water and when it does it just sets off running again with its owner following on. The dog obviously knows the run route just as well as its owner. The dog was still enjoying its swim when we moved on up the hill towards …..
….. the gate at the top of it. We had already decided that, before walking through Grisedale, we would pay a visit to Lanty’s Tarn as its only a short diversion.
We climbed up the slope to the gate in the wall where the path to Lanty’s Tarn can be found. Don’t be fooled by what appears to be a gentle stroll over the grassy path up to the wall as its really quite a steep pull up the hill. When we reached the gate we turned right and followed the path up to the tarn.
There has been quite a bit of tree felling since our last visit in 2023 which lets a lot more light and sunshine in, making the tarn a much less gloomy place than it was. A brief spell of sunshine came along at just the right moment.
I walked across the dam wall for this shot looking along the tarn. If the surrounding trees had still been here the shot would have turned out very dark and sombre even with the sunny spell.
Making our way back down towards the path through Grisedale I caught sight of the snowy top of Saint Sunday Crag and its subsidiary top Gavel Pike peeping up above the slopes of Birks Fell. A weak and watery sunlight is managing to pierce the cloudy sky and we have a patch of blue too, things are looking better.
Walking along the western path through Grisedale now with Braesteads farm just visible below us on the left. As we got closer to it we could see a couple of vans parked alongside and two workmen doing some maintenance work. One was standing on the top of the reservoir, leaning over its railings and who seemed to be directing the other one. The workman below was hammering at something or other as we could hear the chink, chink of metal against metal quite clearly but what they were doing was impossible to see. Hope it all worked out satisfactorily in the end.
Continuing along the footpath below Grisedale Brow (R) and, although we couldn’t see it, the Hole in the Wall which marks the beginning of the crossing of Striding Edge.
Much further along now and the very cold and gusty wind, which has been blowing directly at us from time to time so far, is becoming a tad more constant now that the valley is much more open. Patches of tree plantations have provided some protection from it so far and, as we are approaching the next one which is Broomhill Plantation, maybe we’ll get some more. The snow covered scenery ahead is magnificent but we have to keep stopping to wipe our eyes to see it clearly.
A close up view of High Crag beyond the steep slopes of either High or Low Spying How. Which one of the Spying Hows it is is difficult to tell from down bere.
Just above us, on a little flat topped rise, was this group of sheep. J had been hearing shouting for some time as we walked along and eventually spotted a chap with a couple of dogs down in the valley fields. It seemed as though the shouting was coming from him so we wondered if he was directing someone above us towards this particular group in order to bring them down for lambing.
The track turned stony as it climbed up over a rising hillside. Trying not to twist an ankle whilst looking the route across through watering eyes did not help matters. Our face and lip muscles are now frozen and we’re finding it difficult to speak to each other.
This wonderful view is our reward when we reach the top of the rise. From left to right we can see the snowy tops of Falcon Crag and Dollywaggon Pike and the snow free mound of Eagle Crag. Behind Eagle Crag are the bulbous tops of the crags around High Crag. Rising up behind them is another snow covered fell which could be Helvellyn although, as I can’t remember exactly where I was standing when I took the shot, it doesn’t look right somehow and so I might be mistaken.
We begin dropping down the path and make our way over to the area where the drumlins are situated
We were about to weave our way through the drumlins when I noticed that Cofa Pike and Fairfield had appeared beyond the steep slopes of Saint Sunday Crag. We’ll get a better view of them when we get further along the valley.
Snow free Eagle Crag and snow covered High Crag as we weave our way through the drumlins.
A close up view of Falcon Crag and Dollywaggon Pike as a thinner sheet of cloud allowed a glimmer of sunlight to fall on them.
We’ve passed the drumlins now and making our way to the bridge across Nethermostcove Beck …..
….. with the view upstream from the bridge as we cross over. The beck has its origins way above us in Nethermost Cove.
The view downstream from the bridge looking back along the valley. The beck eventually joins up with Grisedale Beck, along with several others and the whole lot eventually finds its way down into Ullswater.
The former mining area on Eagle Crag which we really ought to go and explore one of these days. There is an old smithy alongside the path which I didn’t take a photo of today but there are different shots of it on our walks of January 2023, July 2020 and August 2019.
A look back along Grisedale as we reach the top of another rise, Looking as if its at the end of the valley is Place Fell with its subsidiary top of Birk Fell on the extreme left of it.
From the same viewpoint but now looking up towards Grisedale Hause we have a better view of Cofa Pike and Fairfield. Grisedale Beck’s waterfalls dropping steeply into the valley are immediately below them.
Some thicker cloud passed above Cofa Pike and Fairfield and the temperature went down a notch or two.
Spout Crag flanked by Falcon Crag (L) and Dollywaggon Pike (R). Ruthwaite Lodge is in view but it will need a zoom in to identify it. Starting at the left (as you look at the photo) of the craggy area across the middle slopes of Spout Crag, trace a slightly leftward line down the slope until you find a long, low building on a flat, level area. that’s the Lodge.
We didn’t go up to the Lodge today but made this bridge, just a short distance below it, our turn around point. The bridge crosses a little beck arising from Ruthwaite Cove where Hard Tarn is situated. After crossing the bridge we made our way over to …..
….. the footbridge across Grisedale Beck which is formed by the outflow of Grisedale Tarn. Those cliffs on Saint Sunday Crag are looking very bleak today.
Having crossed over to begin our return journey and with the wind now at our backs we decided to stop for a hot drink and something to eat. We found a sheltered spot beside the path and got the flask and lunch boxes out. This was the view we had which I think is the section between Low Spying How and High Spying How behind part of Eagle Crag. We were talking about the fell top assessors being up there at the moment and wondered what the wind chill factor might be on Helvellyn given that its very cold even down here in the valley. We had a look later on only to find that they hadn’t been on Helvellyn today but had chosen Long Top on Crinkle Crags instead! Sympathy wasted!
A couple more views from our coffee stop, first a close up view of Dollywaggon Pike and High Crag …..
….. then a close up of some little falls in Grisedale Beck which was just below us …..
….. then a look along the beck to the point where it drops down very steeply into the valley and creates the waterfalls that appeared in one of today’s earlier photos. Its quite difficult to achieve a good view of the falls given the steep nature of the ground and all the trees and various humps and bumps in between.
The view along the valley as we continue on after our break. The sheepfold area is over on the bottom left and the various tree plantations which gave us some protection on our outward leg are scattered along the left hand side of the beck. On the right of the shot is Crossing Plantation, the next plantation we’ll come to via the path just in front of it. We won’t need protection from the wind now that its at our backs, our lip and face muscles are back to normal and we haven’t needed to wipe our eyes on this return leg either.
New signage has appeared, this year’s by the looks of it. We’ve walked this path many times but never realised that it was part of the Coast to Coast path. There were a couple more of these signposts at intervals further down the path.
The part of the sign named as Patterdale Common and pointing in the direction of Eagle Crag leads to a path which crosses Grisedale Beck via a footbridge and joins up with the path we used on our outward leg. We crossed over at this point on a previous walk, before the signpost was there, and found it to be a very wet and soggy area. There were a couple of small and very weather beaten signs on both sides of the valley indicating that Grisedale is part of the Dalemain Estate. When we walked around Dalemain in January we were unaware that Grisedale was part of Dalemain’s property portfolio although we did know that the red roofed bungalow below The Nab was part of the Dalemain Estate. Wonder if Martindale is part of it too?
The sun shines on Crossing Plantation as we approach it. We did rather better with sunny spells on the return leg than we did on the outward one so we had a much more pleasant walk back.
Approaching the old barn below Elmhow Plantation now so we’re making good time …..
….. but we had a short stop as we reached the farm at Elmhow when we noticed these calves, heads poking through the metal bars and gazing around. Well, most of them were gazing but the ones at either end of the stall were more interested in grazing than gazing. The white faced one standing at the back missed out on the gazing as there was a space between the white and brown calves which it failed to notice. Very nice to see these contented young animals, so cute. Aww!
We leave Elmhow and the calves behind and carry on making our way back down to Patterdale, the sunshine is much appreciated as we’ve seen so little of it this past week.
A pleasant section of the walk back is where beck and path run alongside each other and it was particularly pleasant today because ‘The sun has got its hat on and its coming out to play’. Maybe someone reading this will remember that old song.
Approaching the turn off lane to Braesteads now and then heading over to Thornhow on a lovely sunny afternoon. When we reached the old buildings at Thornhow we saw notices to the effect that they also were part of the Dalemain Estate. Is there anything around here that they don’t own?
The final photo from today’s walk is the lane above Waterfall Woods where this old tree trunk stands. It was probably a victim of a long forgotten storm and its upper branches were sawn off for safety reasons. Ah well, trees and storms have never been the best of friends, have they? The weather is forecast to be another windy, cloudy and rainy week with a slow thaw setting in from mid-week onwards so perhaps there might be a chance to get out again towards the end of the week. We’ll just have to wait and see how things turn out.