Kentmere Valley
Walk date – 11th March 2026
Distance – 6.4 miles
Weather – Dry, cloudy with several sunny spells, breezy at times
Two weeks have gone by during which we did no walking, hence no walk reports, but we finally managed to get outdoors and take a walk today. The first week we had family members visiting. The weather was dull and overcast and it wasn’t a good time to be outdoors anyway, so it was just as well they aren’t keen hikers. The weather turned sunny after they had returned home but by then the pair of us had been floored by some ‘flu’ bug or other and we didn’t have the energy or inclination to do anything except put up with it. The oddest part about all of it was that neither of us have had any colds or ‘flu’ attacks for years, its so long ago that we couldn’t remember the last time we did. Neither of us have had what might be referred to as ‘novel medical interventions’ so we can’t even pin the cause on that sort of thing. Only in the last couple of days have we started to get back to being our normal selves again just as the weather turned cloudy, grey and overcast again, typical! Anyway, today’s forecast mentioned sunny spells so we decided to ease ourselves in gently by taking a walk along the Kentmere valley up to the Kentmere reservoir, returning via the path on the eastern side of the river Kent.
Route
From Kentmere: outward route – path on western side of river Kent up to the Kentmere reservoir, return route – path on eastern side of river Kent back to Kentmere
Behind us is the Church of St. Cuthbert in Kentmere where we parked just opposite, beside the village hall. I would have included a photo of the church but a large lorry had been parked in front of it so I didn’t bother taking one. A couple of resident’s cars were parked below the village hall but the space alongside it was empty so J was able to drive straight in and park up without any messing about. The sky was cloudy but we had expected that and hoped that the sun would put in an appearance eventually. We walked on towards The Nook, the cluster of buildings just coming into view in the shot above, but as the road began to curve around towards The Nook, we walked straight on through an open gate to begin our walk through the Kentmere valley.
We hadn’t gone very far when we heard this cyclist coming up behind us so we moved over to allow him to get past. We exchanged greetings as he passed, by which time he was out of the saddle, standing upright and pedalling hard, gasping for breath and spluttering out the words ” You never think its going to be as steep as it turns out to be, do you?” In the above photo he had just about reached the top of the steepish rise and had already settled back into the saddle. We could only agree with his sentiment as we puffed our way up too. I think that’s Raven Crag over on the left. The uphill bit isn’t very long and we soon reach the bend in the path and begin dropping down into the Kentmere valley.
Shipman Knotts on the skyline as we walked down towards the cattle grid and on into the valley during a very sunny spell.
We round another bend and now we had a view of a partially sunny Kentmere Pike but a shady one of Harter Fell behind it. We were down in the valley bottom at this point and were anticipating some good views of the fells on either side of us.
This is Scales farmhouse with its attached bank barn. It is a Grade ll listed building and although it is stated to be a ‘working’ farm we didn’t see any activity related to that, although there was a car parked on the driveway. Maybe its being used as a holiday home now.
Just to the left of the farm was this beck tumbling down from Crag Quarter, and forming plenty of waterfalls, slides, and cascades as it did so. The beck eventually joins the river Kent.
Another view of Kentmere Pike and Harter Fell as we continued on from Scales farm. The sunny spells kept turning up despite the moody sky.
Little by little the fells encircling the valley appeared. On the left are Rainsborrow Crag, Ill Bell and Froswick, the flattish section at the head of the valley eventually leads over to Thornthwaite Beacon, High Street or Mardale Ill Bell, depending on one’s direction of travel, and just in view on the extreme left is Mardale End leading up to Mardale Ill Bell.
Extensive gaps in the cloud provided plenty of dappled sunlight across the valley which made the Hartrigg farm house stand out a treat. The occupants of the house have a great view along the valley to the south. I found the following website which has a few details about the farm but, as the article dates from a few years back, I don’t know if the occupants mentioned then are still living there –
http://www.jennifermackenzie.co.uk/2008/04/02_booth.html
The ‘big ‘uns’ began to get bigger as we continued along. We took the left hand track at the junction above Hartrigg farm, climbed the small rise and, hey presto, Rainsborrow Crag, Ill Bell and Froswick, suddenly appeared again. Nice to see them with sunlight landing on them. The cloud seemed to be breaking up so we had several sunny spells, one after another.
This one landed on Tongue Scar, which looks like an island from this angle. It isn’t an island though, its just part of the path which runs between the Nan Bield Pass and Kentmere.
Mardale End and Mardale Ill Bell, over on the right skyline, seemed to have been particularly unfortunate today as they never appeared to catch the best of any sunny spell, bits and pieces of them did but never the whole of it. We were making for the gate you can see in the photo from where we had …..
….. this fabulous view of Rainsborrow Crag in full sunshine. Rainsborrow Crag is on the eastern side of Yoke and when walking the flat, grassy top of Yoke there is not much indication that the Crag exists unless you make a special detour to view the tarn and take a peek down into Kentmere. (See our walk of 31st July 2020 for a view of Rainsborrow tarn.) As the path goes along Rainsborrow’s lower slopes one is simultaneously aware of how much the Crag towers above you and how small you are in comparison. It can be a quite humbling experience.
We were plunged into gloom again as I took this shot towards the top of the Nan Bield Pass. with a zoom in it should be possible to get a closer look at the shelter up there. Its located right in the middle of the U shaped curve on the skyline. To the left of it, as you look at the shot, is Mardale Ill Bell, and to the right is the steep climb up Harter Fell.
Approaching Reservoir Cottage, built to house the caretaker of the reservoir dam, although the cottage itself stands amongst the spoil heaps of the former Steel Rigg slate quarry which was situated nearby. It used to be used as a field studies centre but I don’t know whether it still is.
A look back along the Kentmere valley with the river Kent making its way down it. Note the size of the spoil heaps.
We were getting close to the reservoir at this point. The shot shows the bridge across the spillway, should walkers want to cross over to the other side of the valley, and the exit point of the spillway as it tumbles down into the valley below. Note to self – remember to take a shot of the water tumbling through the rocks when we get to the other side of the valley.
We continued to follow the puddly path up to the reservoir. Keeping us company was the spillway channel which rattled along at a fair pace. We could hear water music all the way along the valley today, not the Handel’s ‘Water Music’ sort of music, just the various sounds of water as it made its way down every gully, groove or channel it could find. Even the puddles made their own special sound as we splashed through them, none of them were at all icy today.
Finally, we reached the reservoir at the head of the valley and decided to have a short break before heading across to the path on the other side of the valley. As we were sitting there admiring the scenery a big Toyota Hilux vehicle came along the path and parked right at the end of it. We were slightly bemused as we had been seeing notices beside the gates all the way along stating that unauthorised vehicles were not allowed to be on it. J asked the driver about what he was up here to do and the answer was that the chap was a surveyor and had been authorised to do a survey of the reservoir which had never been done before. Apparently it was attempted in the 1970s but the surveyors at that time couldn’t find the reservoir, perhaps they couldn’t be bothered to survey it and used that as an excuse. (By the way, construction of the reservoir began in 1845 and was completed in 1848.) Anyway the chap began unloading his equipment and started setting it up while J asked him if they still used theodolites. No, they didn’t but the chap remembered using a brass one when he was a student. Nowadays they use much more sophisticated equipment apparently and the information gets sent straight to a GPS. I did notice, amongst the jumble of equipment which was in the back of the vehicle, a Starlink terminal and that was the limit of my interest in what he was doing. A few more minutes of conversation, mostly about the various gadgets involved, followed between J and the chap before we took our leave of him and left him to get on with surveying the reservoir. If anyone wants more info on the Kentmere reservoir here’s a link to Wikipedia’s page –
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kentmere_Reservoir
With the surveyor looking anxiously at the sky and hoping it wouldn’t rain we said our goodbyes and walked back down the track to the bridge across the spillway.
The view upstream of the spillway as we crossed the bridge and followed the path leading down to …..
….. the much smaller planked bridge across one of the river Kent’s tributaries.
After reaching the path a little higher up from the planked bridge I took the above shot showing where the water tumbles to after it plunges down from the spillway and joins the infant river Kent. Rainsborrow Crag is on the skyline.
I took an additional close up shot of the plunge from the spillway for closer examination later.
Looking along the river with the circular sheepfold known as Whether Fold on one of its banks, and with Kentmere’s Crag Quarter on the skyline.
A more detailed and wider view of Rainsborrow Crag just as a sunny spell landed on part of it. Spoil heaps and caves are everywhere and there was no shortage of them on this side either. As already mentioned Rainsborrow Crag is the eastern end of Yoke and Andy Beck, artist and author of “The Wainwrights in Colour”, went up through the mining area during his search for AW’s reference points for that book and this link will take you straight to his walk:
https://andybeckimages.co.uk/a-cracking-day-on-yoke/
Its well worth a look as it gives some idea of the complexity of the mining area and the situation the miners worked in plus some jaw-dropping photos of views back down to the valley.
Looking back along the valley towards Ill Bell and Froswick.
J manoeuvring himself through the gated stile. Its quite narrow and for once, being a ‘shorty’, I had no problem dealing with it.
If this looks like just a jumble of boulders to you, that’s what it looked like to us as well. However it isn’t just a jumble of boulders though, it is part of what is marked on the OS map as ‘Settlement’. Apparently it is the remains of a Romano-British settlement which dates back to the Roman period, and features circular enclosures with the foundations of ten stone-based huts and traces of drainage systems, reflecting the layout of a small native farming community. The settlement is easy to notice as it lies more or less beside the path we were using just before the path turned sharply left into the yard of …..
….. Tongue House Barn. The barn is usually used as a feed drop during the winter months for sheep but the hay feeder was almost empty, the metal troughs used for feed pellets were also empty so there were no sheep around when we passed through.
However, we had only walked a short distance from the barn when we heard the sound of a quad bike pulling a trailer full of hay and other sheep ‘goodies’ so we stepped off the path to avoid getting splashed with muddy water. The sheep had also heard the sound of the quad bike and, knowing what was in the trailer, came hurrying from every direction at the sound of the engine and followed it along the track.
The quad bike & trailer has almost reached the feeding station in the Tongue House Barn yard followed by dozens and dozens of sheep. The quad bike driver was in for a hard time getting the food into the various containers while being ‘mobbed’ by the hungry, pregnant sheep.
With the sheep disappearing from view I took a look back at Tongue Scar as we continued along. The clouds seemed to have clustered together again and we didn’t have another sunny spell until we were back at Rook Howe …..
….. although a splash of sunlight landed on the rear of Tongue Scar as I took a last look along the valley.
These hungry ‘mums to be’ had just received their ration of hay and were busy tucking into it. The one with the red rear, on the right, was chewing away on some hay, part of which was dangling from her mouth, and looked in danger of losing her place at the feeder as she was so intent on looking at something which had caught her eye.
Approaching Overend farm buildings at this point. The main farmhouse seemed deserted but the smaller house at the end of the row of buildings was inhabited. Wonder if the farmer inhabits the smaller house and uses the main building as a holiday let?
Walking the green lane from Overend farm …..
….. and a little further along where we found the beck too deep to wade through so we had to use the slab bridge instead.
We had been keeping a lookout for the step stile as we were walking along the walled lane. It eventually appeared and I took a shot of it so that anyone deciding to take a walk along here would know what to look for. There is a similar step stile in the wall opposite.
The path down from the step stile leads down to this bridge across the river and once across …..
….. the short path over grass leads to this squeeze through stile and tips you out onto another walled lane. All we need to do now is just follow the path through a grassy boulder filled area which eventually leads to …..
….. the residence at Rook Howe where we were treated to the last sunny spell of the day. We had already decided to have our lunch break in the car so we followed the cobbled driveway down the lane, crossed over the narrow road at the end of it and made our way back to the car through the churchyard at St. Cuthbert’s. We stopped to read a couple of the poignant poems inscribed on some of the gravestones before making our way back to the car parked beside the village hall arriving just a couple of minutes past one o’clock. Three more cars were now parked behind us along the side of the hall but no sign of their occupants who were probably still out on the fells. Oh, and the large lorry mentioned at the beginning of this report was still parked in the same place, as were the villagers’ cars. We had our lunch, without spilling the coffee this time, and set off for home about half past one. The sky had completely clouded over by this time and there were no more sunny spells, but we enjoyed those that we’d had and it was good to get out again and get the cobwebs blown away.