Rosthwaite to Keswick
Walked by Sally and Richard, Wednesday 12th June 2019
8.1 miles (4 hours), virtually all on the route of the Cumbria Way.
For photographs from today's walk and journey back to Milton Keynes click here
We walked slightly further today than yesterday, but it took us an hour and a half less. Today’s walk was pretty easy, which was perhaps just as well as I’d had another disturbed night. However, last night I started to resolve the issues, and some of the way forward hinges on not worrying too much if the weather is bad tomorrow, the day we are scheduled to have a 16-mile high-level walk. If this is the case, we’ll abandon the Cumbria Way for now and head home, thereby gaining a day for work that needs to be done by next week and getting me a proper day off at the weekend.
To return to today, we had a pleasant breakfast at the Royal Oak and left at the same time as the father and son walkers, also heading to Keswick today and then on to Caldbeck tomorrow (without a return to Rosthwaite overnight). It had rained in the night so we had donned wet-weather gear, but it wasn’t raining now, and actually it didn’t rain all the time we were walking.
We gave the father and son time to get ahead of us then walked through Rosthwaite and, on a good track, across the valley to the River Derwent (the Stonethwaite Beck, which we’d been following yesterday, joins the Derwent slightly downstream of Rosthwaite). There were good views to the head of Borrowdale, though the higher peaks were hidden by cloud. At the point at which we reached the Derwent there are stepping stones across, but the Cumbria Way doesn’t use these, instead continuing alongside the river and then crossing by way of a packhorse bridge.
We climbed up through the delightful High Hows Wood, with Castle Crag above us to the left. It was classic Borrowdale walking, with the only issues being occasional route-finding uncertainties (and the guidebook, if I’m honest for the first time on the holiday, was very useful in resolving these) and occasionally slippery slabs of slate. The area we were walking through may be very attractive now, but it is a former slate quarry, as witnessed by regular spoil heaps.
We emerged onto more open ground, passing a campsite and a farm/B&B, where a reversing car tried very hard to knock me down. We skirted above the village of Grange, with distant views to Derwentwater, then descended to the Borrowdale Gates Hotel, where I think we stayed many years ago, though it didn’t look at all familiar, so perhaps I’m thinking of somewhere else.
After a short section of walking along the road we cut across open ground to Derwentwater and then took a very good path which followed the lakeshore some of the time whilst heading further away from it at others. We reached the jetty at Brandelhow Bay just as the round-lake launch also arrived, with some walkers getting off the boat presumably to walk back to Keswick.
We passed several outdoor centres, with children in over-sized waterproofs running about in the grounds of one of them and we also passed a giant sculpture of cupped hands; this is the “Entrust” sculpture, placed here in 2002 to commemorate the centenary of the National Trust’s first purchase of woodland. Sadly, being made (understandably) of wood, the sculpture is showing its age.
When we reached more open countryside, the characteristic shape of Cat Bells was visible behind us. Back in woodland, we passed close to Lingholm, where Beatrix Potter spent many summer holidays. Apparently the red squirrels that still thrive in the area where the inspiration for “The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin”.
We emerged above the lake at Nichol End, with sailing boats moored, and children engaged in more activities. There is a cafe here and we stopped for refreshments - I was served an enormous pot of tea which, most unusually, was more than I could manage.
The route from Nichol End to Portinscale was up a track past building work, then we passed the hotels and restaurants of Portinscale and took a path across sheep-strewn low lying fields to Keswick. The cloud had descended further over the hills to the north, with both Skiddaw and tomorrow’s route completely hidden.
We emerged in Keswick close to the Pencil Museum and easily found the bus station, which conveniently has a branch of Booths Supermarket with a cafe right next to it. After exploring the town a little, admiring the Moot Hall and buying gifts for family and colleagues, we returned to Booths and ate cheese scones whilst considering our options for tomorrow. We catch the number 78 bus back to Rosthwaite, chatting to a female walker who we’d noticed occasionally over the past few days and who was also staying at the Royal Oak Hotel. She is just walking to the Skiddaw House Hostel tomorrow, which is probably OK just about whatever the weather, but it didn’t take us long to decide, in the light of the not-improving weather forecast, that we should go home tomorrow. The rest of the Cumbria Way will keep.
In the meantime, we were joined for dinner at the Royal Oak Hotel by Richard’s brother Phillip and his partner Anne-Marie, and we had a very pleasant evening.
