Lake District Holiday Part One: A Bampton Circular and An Old Favourite. . .

Last week we finally got away for a walking holiday up in the Lake District.  We booked a self-catering flat in Keswick and basically just spent each day walking in the hills.

We were very lucky in that the expected thunder showers and lightning that were forecast didn't appear but it was very, very hot.

I get tired very quickly in the heat and combined with feeling fairly out of shape during lockdown, we ended up doing shorter and lower walks than we normally would have.  But it was a great opportunity to try out some new locations and bag a few lesser known Wainwrights. And to be honest, there are very few places - high or low - in the Lake District that aren't beautiful to walk through. We did six walks in all and I'll blog about them over several posts.

Day One:

Since we couldn't check in to our accommodation until 5pm, we stopped on the drive up at a little village called Bampton Grange, a few miles north of Shap and hiked a 12 mile circular, mostly through undulating moorland up to Bampton Common.

                      

Along the way you get great views of Haweswater Reservoir and this was the perfect lunch spot.  When it was built, two villages were flooded and you can still see the remains of some of the buildings when the water is low. We had to traverse the length of it when we did the Coast to Coast path many years ago and I've not been back in this area since.

Up on the Common you join High Street with views looking towards the fells around Glenridding and Patterdale.

And you can just get a glimpse of Ullswater from the ridge between two Wainwrights - Wetherhill and Loadpot Hill.

We had an easy, gradual descent and then took the road back to Bampton Grange. By that time we had a break from the sun and a nice breeze. It was a good walk to start the week and get the legs going again.

Day Two: 

Still hot but we decided we needed a bit more "up" today so revisited a favourite walk that we hadn't done for six years - a circular from Glenridding (you can do this from Patterdale but there's limited parking), that takes in Place Fell via Boredale Hause and returns along the Ullswater Way.  More details about the walk are here but when we first did it, the weather wasn't nearly as nice so let's just enjoy the sunshine and the views.

                        

The rest of the week included all new walks (at least for me - the Liverpud had done some of them before) including one that's gone into my top ten. Stay tuned.