Latrigg
Walk date – 25th November 2025
Distance – 6 miles
Weather – dry, sunny, cold, light breeze on summit
A good weather day with strong winds at height was forecast so we headed off to Keswick for a morning walk up to Latrigg which we last visited in 2020. We decided to take a different route today and started out via the old railway route between Keswick and Threlkeld. This path was greatly affected by Storm Desmond in 2015 but the damage was eventually repaired and the path finally re-opened in 2020. We turned off the railway path before reaching Threlkeld, walked up Brundholme Lane and then followed one of the many paths across Latrigg. The forecast was as good as its word and it was lovely to walk in dry and sunny conditions although it did have its drawbacks from time to time.
Route
Spooney Green Lane – Former railway path – Brundholme Lane – Latrigg – Mallen Dodd – Cumbria Way – Spooney Green Lane
Spooney Green Lane isn’t mentioned by name on the OS maps but its location is marked by the green star on our route map. From there we walked down towards the Keswick Leisure Pool (which appeared to be closed) and the start of the former Keswick to Threlkeld railway. The above shot shows part of the ‘down’ platform. In the past the ‘down’ line ran from Threlkeld to Keswick and opposite this platform would have been a similar one, the ‘up’ platform where rail passengers for Threlkeld would begin their journey. The ‘up’ platform was demolished after the line closed in 1972 and the area is now used as a car park. The former station building is a Grade ll listed building and currently is used as an annexe to the nearby country house hotel.
A chilly view ahead displaying the ancient and modern modes of transport. The flyover carries the A66 and the tunnel below it is the Bobbin Mill railway tunnel. Neither of us could remember ever walking through a tunnel when we walked the railway path in the past but a little research told us that it had been filled in following the line closure but had been excavated during the engineering work to restore the path and bridges.
Inside the Bobbin Mill tunnel as we walked along inside it, accompanied by yet another dog-walker. Dog walkers were out in force today, all the way along the trail.
Out in the open again with a view of Blease Fell behind which are some of the other fells which together form Blencathra.
Part of the landslip at Briery which occurred during Storm Desmond in 2015.
Approaching one of the old railway bridges across the Greta river. The wooden structures in the bottom right of the shot are single seats where walkers are able to pause for a while. We didn’t try them for size given that they were covered by a layer of frost but they don’t look all that comfortable.
The river Greta again from the bridge in the previous shot. Full and fast flowing at present, even to the point of creating some small waterfalls on the left banking.
At a bend in the path we stopped to take a look back along the river towards Latrigg on the right. There was an elderly couple already there and the chap asked J if he would take a photo of the two of them. J waited for him to locate the camera on the smart phone but eventually the chap gave up as he couldn’t find what he was looking for. He thanked J for waiting nevertheless and we carried on along the path. Neither of us would have been able to help him anyway as we don’t own a smart phone.
One of the old railway buildings beside the trail. J wanted to check the satnav out of the sunlight so we went inside where I noticed a bricked up fireplace in the wall on the right. No chimney stack, either inside or out, was evident so we assumed that had been removed years ago when the fireplace was bricked up. The building may have functioned as a small waiting room for passengers at a stop along the way, the openings in the wall suggest a door and windows were present many years ago. We turned off the railway trail at this point, passing through a handgate and following the path which brought us out at …..
….. Brundholme Lane. Its a fairly steep climb up the lane so when we paused for a breather I took a look back down it. Just out of shot on the left was a signpost indicating a footpath down a steep path leading over to Derwentfolds. That footpath is indicated on our route map.
A fabulous view of the many fells, plus two sheep, over on our left as we walked up Brundholme Lane.
We’ve arrived at the gate leading to the path up and over Latrigg. The path on the left leads to Brundholme Wood and ultimately back down to Spooney Green Lane. The path across Latrigg is the stony one on the right. The ROAD CLOSED notices on the approach to the gate only apply to vehicular traffic. It doesn’t apply to walkers as can be seen from our previous walks along it in February and July 2016.
We take to the stony track noticing that Blease Fell still had a sliver of snow left over from last week’s snowfall as is the case on most of the Lakeland fells at present.
Lonscale Fell from the walk across Latrigg. It looks quite benign from this viewpoint but it presents a very different face when viewed from the Glenderaterra beck aspect.
Blease Fell again. I don’t know anything about the dark patch below the sliver of snow and above the field wall. It doesn’t seem to be marked on any of the maps so I can’t say if its just an old landslip, a former quarrying area, a collapsed mine shaft or a simply a patch of scree. It seems to cover a fair patch of ground whatever it is.
The view behind us as we continue on across Latrigg. The small hill on the right is Great Mell Fell.
Another view of Great Mell Fell together with Clough Head and Great Dodd.
The sun seemed extra bright today as can be seen from the white patch of sky on the right. I chanced a shot of the ridge from Clough Head over to the Helvellyn group anyway which hasn’t turned out too badly. The humpy, bumpy fell below the ridge is High Rigg which we walked across a couple of weeks ago.
A look back from the scrape of rocks marking the top of Latrigg …..
….. and looking forward from more or less the same spot. There were lots of people on Latrigg today so we had several moments of ‘hanging around’ until there was a clear view.
Pretty much the whole of the Coledale Horseshoe can be seen from Latrigg’s summit although in today’s bright sunshine much of it was in shadow. Even so, Grisedale Pike, over on the right, and the lower fells of Barrow and Outerside on the left showed up fairly well.
A sunlit Barf, on the left, above Bass Lake. With a zoom in it might be possible to catch a glimpse of the whitewashed stone known as “The Bishop of Barf” as I think it just a part of it appears above the shadow line.
From the top of Latrigg there is also a fine view of Dodd, Carl Side, Skiddaw South Top, and Skiddaw’s Little and Lower Man.
The bright sunlight resulted in this rather muted shot of Derwentwater, Keswick and the surrounding fells.
A close up view of Dodd and Carl Side from the bench seat viewpoint.
We began making our way down via the hairpin bends and the deeply rutted paths over Mallen Dodd, the shadow of which presented a few problems since it made it difficult to see where we were putting our feet.
Another view of the Coledale Horseshoe with Causey Pike over on the left and Grisedale Pike on the right.
The deeply rutted path and the bright sunlight presented us a few problems from time to time. This is a look back as we passed through the gate below the patch of gorse bushes.
The two old stone gateposts are still in situ and when we arrived one walker, who had just climbed up to this point, was sitting down and giving her calf muscles a rest. She had my sympathy, I know that agonising ache very well.
Approaching the bridge across the A66 …..
….. after which we dropped further down the track, where the fells of the Coledale Horseshoe could still be seen above the houses along Spooney Green Lane, and arrived back at the car. We hadn’t walked the railway trail since it was re-opened and we noticed several things about it. A huge amount of dog-walkers use it so its not a good place for anyone who isn’t a keen dog lover. It is also open to cyclists some of whom passed by us without due warning and almost knocked us and other walkers over. It shouldn’t really be necessary to have to keep looking over your shoulder to find out if a cyclist is approaching, the responsibility lies with cyclists to let walkers know they are approaching. The trail is smooth tarmac along its length which caused a few problems arising from frozen water this frosty morning. The former gravel track was much better for walkers. The new bridges have been surfaced with something which was very slippery, even though they weren’t frosted over, and many people had problems with it. There were notices before every bridge warning walkers about the slippery surface which made us wonder why it had been used to begin with. We resorted to using the uppermost wooden rails across the bridges to keep ourselves upright. The only bridge we crossed which didn’t have that slippery surface was one of the original Victorian bridges, which seemed to have a different surface entirely and where it wasn’t necessary to hold a handrail in order to cross it. Walkers also need to be aware that there are no toilet facilities anywhere along the 5 kilometre route. All in all the route is not as we remember it and we are unlikely to be walking it again despite the LDNPA saying that it was now ‘improved’, ‘sustainable’, ‘resilient’, ‘bio-diverse’ etc. etc.