Caldbeck to Carlisle
Walked by Sally and Richard, Sunday 22nd September 2019.
15.5 miles of walking (About eight hours, including breaks), almost all on the Cumbria Way.
For photographs of this walk click here
Neither of us slept very well and we were disturbing each other, so in the middle of the night I got out of the double bed and went and slept (quite well!) for the rest of the night in one of the three single beds in the room next door. Apologies to the staff at the Oddfellows Arms for the extra work this will have made for them in terms of changing sheets, but we had paid for a room for three! We had been pleased to learn that breakfast was served from 8am and, since the weather forecast was for rain later on and we hadn't taken any photos of Caldbeck last night, we decided to pop out to rectify this before breakfast. Too late, as we opened the door of the accommodation block, there was an enormous crash of thunder and the heavens opened. We dashed into breakfast, arriving just after a rather loud group of Germans and a good 10 minutes before a very loud group of bikers. But both of these groups got their breakfasts before ours arrived something after 8.30am, as well as using up all the juice and milk without regard for others. Not a good start! However the breakfast when it arrived was lovely. We packed up, donned waterproofs, settled our bill, and we were off.
Fortunately the weather improved later in the day, but all our photos of Caldbeck were taken in the rain. It is an attractive village, which I'd like to explore further, though in some ways it felt quite familiar as it featured in an episode of "Escape to the Country" which has been aired relatively recently. The people in this episode wanted a house close to the pub and were shown a house very close to, you've guessed it, the Oddfellows Arms. We walked through the village, never expecting the village shop to be open (we had expected to just eat the snacks that we always carry with us for lunch) but it was. Quite reasonably for around 9.30am on a Sunday morning, they didn't have a huge stock, but we bought a flan to share between us. As we walked past the Church, Richard realised that he had not set the tracker going (probably because he'd been too busy calming me down regarding the breakfast incident...), so the map shows us starting from slightly further east than was actually the case. I think we can live with that!
We crossed the Cald Beck (a tributary of the River Caldew) and turned right, heading out of the village. A man out with two dogs pointed out the route across a little campsite; I suspect he's the owner. He told us that a woman who is walking the Cumbria way in the opposite direction to us was camping there; she walked the leg from Carlisle to Caldbeck yesterday, and now faces the leg from here to Skiddaw House in the rain today. We felt sorry for her and very fortunate ourselves. Soon we climbed up into the woodland of Parson's Park. It was still raining, but when we emerged from the woodland, it became obvious that there would have been good views back to where we were walking yesterday, had the weather been better. Somewhere beneath us the Cald Beck joined the River Caldew, and we continued above the river, entering the delightful Dentonside Woods. I think the rain had stopped though it is difficult to tell when you're in a wood, and it was certainly still rather drippy! The path meandered through the wood, initially above the river, but then descending steeply to it and walking alongside it for a while. We followed the edge of the wood as he river meandered away to the east. It appeared that the weather was improving, then it tipped it down! (Not the only time today that this happened.)
We emerged onto the bridge over the River Caldew, and used the bridge to cross the river and then took a narrow and very muddy footpath which climbed to a good track leading to the attractive Sebergham Church, and thankfully the rain stopped for long enough to enable us to photograph it. Opposite the Church, we turned onto a bridleway which crossed fields, taking a slight detour around Sebergham Hall. We reached the road leading to Bell Bridge. It hadn't been entirely clear whether Bell Bridge would be open (thankfully it was!); the bridge was damaged by Storm Desmond in December 2015 and collapsed six weeks later in January 2016. After nearly two years of closure, the rebuilt bridge reopened in December 2017; just as well for us as our route crossed it.
We descended steps to the river bank and there followed several miles of walking alongside the river or close to it. There were no convenient benches on which to stop for lunch, but a selection of logs (presumably from a recently felled tree) served us well. The weather was definitely improving but our decision not to remove our waterproofs yet was the right one; we had another shower! Eventually Rose Castle, the Bishop's Palace for the Bishop of Carlisle from 1230 to 2009, came into view. The present incumbent lives in Keswick, whilst Rose Castle will be home to the Rose Castle Foundation once the renovation of the property is complete.
We approached Rose Bridge and crossed the road here, with the kissing gates that we had to navigate on either side of the road being of the irritating type that are too small to get through whilst wearing a rucksack. We continued on past Lime House School and at some point around here the sun came out and there were lovely views back to the Lake District fells. We passed Holmhill Farm and Hawksdale Hall and turned left, up towards the houses at Bridge End. My too-small walking boots were beginning to cause problems and we wanted a break, but most of all we wanted to take our waterproofs off. A bus shelter near the Bridge End Inn was perfect for the job.
Refreshed and cooler, and having applied some TLC to my feet, we crossed the River Caldew on Hawkshead Bridge. The instructions in the guidebook at this point were not helpful; we turned right after the bridge, but couldn't find a route from here into the village of Buckabank, so we returned to the road and followed the route through he village that is shown on the Ordnance Survey map. We joined a disused railway line and, on it, crossed the river again by way of an attractive white bridge, which took us into Dalston.
Dalston is an attractive large village but, sadly, my over-riding memory of it will be that the advertised public toilets were shut. On the outskirts of the village we turned onto the cycleway which leads to Carlisle, about four miles away. The guidebook instructed us to loop away from the cycleway on several occasions, but the paths involved looked very narrow and overgrown, so we didn't bother. The landscape was sometimes industrial (passing several former mills and a modern Nestle factory) and more open on occasions, but it was attractive enough and not too busy, and the River Caldew was never far away. For a while we followed alongside the railway line which leads from Carlisle to Dalston and then on around the coast to Workington and Barrow in Furness, though we didn't see a train until we were nearly in Carlisle.
We approached Carlisle by way of Cummersdale Holme (an attractive common, across which more people were walking than we'd seen all day) and Denton Holme, where we passed between an old mill, converted into flats, and the Holme Head weir. We continued alongside the river all the way into the City centre, albeit now through a distinctly industrial landscape. We passed underneath the road bridge right by the station, with the Cathedral soaring above the trees and buildings to our right. We crossed the River Caldew for the final time, on another former railway bridge, then walked up the ramp to the main dual carriageway, with Carlisle Castle on the other side.
A short distance further on we turned right, and walked through the historic Cathedral Quarter to reach the Market Cross, which marks the end of the walk. We stopped to take photographs then continued through the shopping centre (where, unsurprisingly at 5.30pm on a Sunday afternoon, everything was closed) and carried on to the station where we managed to get something to eat before everywhere shut down completely for the evening.
Our train back to Milton Keynes was very full, and we were entertained by a dog called Jake, travelling with his taxi-driver owner. Jake enjoyed sitting on the seat opposite us when it was unoccupied, and also enjoyed nestling by our feet; it took us a while to work out that he probably appreciated the smell of damp leather rather more than we did! The train came to an unexpected halt before Oxenholme, because of problems with the electrics, and we then hobbled into the station. However "rebooting the train" (turning everything off and then on again...) seemed to do what was required and we were only about 15 minutes late into Milton Keynes station, very pleased with ourselves for managing to complete the Cumbria Way after the delay, and happy after a lovely weekend of walking.
