A Sunday Walk From Staveley. . .

For those that don't like climbing the higher fells, there are still lots of wonderful walks and countryside to explore on the outskirts of the Lake District (see earlier posts about Broughton-in-Furness or Arnside, for example).  Staveley, which is between Kendal and Windermere, but still in the Lake District National park,  is another great starting point for a lovely ramble.

Last Sunday, our group did a ten mile circular from the village.  Very quickly you are among the rolling foothills.

Which then leads to moorland, still beautiful in its wintry desolation. I want to knit all the colours in the photo below.

Despite the emptiness, the paths were fairly visible and the ground quite springy, although there was a bit of mud here and there.

While the Herdys rule the Lake District, it's nice to come across some other breeds/cross-breeds of sheep.

And then to stumble across a surprise tarn is always lovely, especially when there is no wind and the water is still and reflective.

Beautiful isn't it?  And yet it has the rather undignified name of Gurnal Dubs.  No idea where it came from or if it is named after someone, but it seems too lovely to be called that. Apparently it is a quite popular place to go fishing, but we didn't see a soul about.

A few minutes walk along and we descended down to Potter Tarn.  Named after Beatrix perhaps?

And from there it was a gradual descent back to Staveley. . .

. . . and one last look west towards the rest of the Lake District.  I couldn't capture it in any of my photos, but we definitely saw the higher mountains in the distance, completely snow-covered.

I'll stick to the lower ground for now.