Keswick to Caldbeck
Walked by Sally and Richard, Saturday 21st September 2019
15 miles of walking, plus ascent to 658 metres (10 hours including breaks), all on the route of the Cumbria Way.
For photographs taken on this walk click here
This was the leg of the Cumbria Way that we had particularly not wanted to do in bad weather, thus why we had cut our holiday in June short. After returning today on a glorious September day, we concluded that we had made the right decision in June. This was not a "walk in the park" and it took us a full day, but it was a magnificent high-level walk which we thoroughly enjoyed. After linking up from the Dales Way to the Cumbria Way yesterday we had travelled on to Keswick by bus, and we'd stayed in Keswick Youth Hostel, the first time in over 40 years that either of us had stayed in a youth hostel: things have changed! We had a comfortable family room to ourselves, with views over the rooftops of Keswick and mountains beyond. Meanwhile, from the balcony at the front of the hostel the views were across the River Greta to Fitz Park and Skiddaw and Latrigg beyond. Keswick was busy, but we'd managed to get a table at the Golden Hills Chinese Restaurant last night, where we'd had a pleasant meal. This morning, the dining room in the Youth Hostel was packed when we arrived shortly after opening time at 7.30, but once a group of around 30 npower employees, on a sponsored walk in aid of Macmillan, had left to climb Helvellyn, it quietened down considerably. The age profile also altered - the only people left in the Dining Room were us and four men who were probably even older then us!
After yesterday's problems caused by my slightly too small walking boots, I had decided that in order to enjoy today's walk to the full we should wait around in Keswick until 9am, then pop into Blacks and buy a new pair. Richard then realised that my existing boots had insoles which were removable, so we removed the insoles, and reasoned that the risk of walking in these was no more than the risk of walking in a new pair of boots. So we were able to set off as soon as we were ready, after returning to Keswick's Moot Hall to track our progress from there (since this was where we finished back in June) and buying lunch provisions from the branch of Greggs closeby. It was market day, with some very interesting looking stalls, but we wouldn't be able to carry any purchases, so dragged ourselves away and set off walking at 8.50.
We walked back along Station Road, passing the Youth Hostel again and crossing the River Greta, then walking past Fitz Park, where people were just gathering for an event of some sort. We passed the Keswick Museum and Art Gallery and the Leisure Centre and found ourselves approaching the Keswick Country House hotel...with no obvious way out the other side. A little checking revealed that we should have taken a path in front of the Leisure Centre and, more generally, the guide book was more useful than the map for directions out of the town. We followed close to Brundholme Road then turned right onto a gravel track signposted for Skiddaw. This took us over the A66, with stunning views to Skiddaw and Latrigg. We passed Spooney Green, which may or may not still be a B&B, and stopped to take off sweatshirts, as the morning was already warm.
Then we climbed steadily on a track with Skiddaw to our left and Latrigg to our right. We were overtaken by several other walkers, but we had the excuse of stopping to take photos of the stunning views back to Derwentwater and the mountains around Keswick, and to Bassenthwaite, which emerged beyond the southern slopes of Skiddaw. Eventually we passed the path leading to the summit of Latrigg (which, from the board in the Youth Hostel, it would appear that some people run up and down before breakfast...) and emerged into the Skiddaw Car Park, at the end of a minor road which we had seen vehicles climbing up. As was to be expected on such a lovely September Saturday, the car park was pretty full.
Shortly beyond the car park, the path divides, with the route up Skiddaw going slightly to the left (and then zig-zagging up the mountain) whilst the Cumbria way goes slightly to the right. We had expected most people to head up Skiddaw, and this is probably true in general. However, there were a group of walkers just in front of us, and they headed off on the Cumbria Way path. Bother! However, our path was exactly as described in the guidebook: "This delightful path enters the ravine of Whit Beck where the colours of the waterside larch, the bracken and the heather of the upper slopes make up a fine natural tapestry". Our photos of the approach to Whit Beck are very similar to the one on the front of the guidebook. To our surprise we overtook the group as we crossed Whit Beck (their guide seemed to be giving them a very long lecture on the geology of the area), but they followed almost straight after us and we continued to play leapfrog for the next few miles.
We continued across the low slopes of Lonscale Fell, stopping before turning into the valley containing Glenderaterra Beck (which divides the Skiddaw massif from Blencathra) to take final photographs across Latrigg to Derwent Water and the mountains beyond, being passed by several mountain bikers and some of the walking group. When the leader came past he was muttering about the group getting split up, with the faster walkers "worrying about the bus". We continued high above Glenderaterra Beck for a couple of miles, initially overtaking the group again, when they were stopped for another briefing, then being overtaken by them when we stopped for an apple, to change my socks and to apply sun cream. The group were very pleasant, but once they were out of sight we were able to fully appreciate the beauty of this bleak landscape. We saw the group in the distance for one final time, as they descended to cross the Beck, and presumably to return on the path on the other side of it. Perhaps they weren't walking quite as far as the speed of some of them had led us to believe!
Our path climbed slowly towards the watershed, rounding the slopes of the Burnt Horse ridge. The vegetation was mostly heather, almost but not quite over - it would have been spectacular here a month ago, We crossed Salehow Beck, which joins the infant River Caldew which we would follow for much of the rest of the Cumbria Way.
Skiddaw House, a remote private hostel affiliated to the YHA, came into view and we climbed up to it. The woman walker we'd met in Rosthwaite was breaking her journey between Keswick and Caldbeck here, which would certainly take the pressure off the leg we were doing today. I'd emphasise that our today's leg is perfectly achievable for someone with our (fairly basic) level of fitness - provided you allow plenty of time. However, I think people, including the woman we met, stay at Skiddaw House partly for its remoteness; it certainly has that, being off-grid, 3.5 miles from the nearest road and with no mobile signal.
Several people were sitting near Skiddaw House. I'm not sure whether they were just taking a break or waiting for the hostel to open (reputed to be not until 5pm). Meanwhile we turned right and headed across a heathery moorland landscape framed by a new set of mountains - Great Calva and Knott to our left, with the more distinctive Carrock Fell in the distance. We found stones to sit on for lunch, just before the path crossed the infant River Caldew. As we crossed the beck we were overtaken by a very pleasant mountain biker. He was out for the day from Cockermouth, which reminded us just how close we were to Richard's brother Phillip. the cyclist also told us that we would pass him soon as he had a favourite place amidst the heather in mind for his lunch spot. It must have been a good place, because we didn't see him there, but he did pass us again quite a lot later.
Eventually it became more clear that we were in a valley, and we came closer to the river. We crossed a couple of tributary streams and passed two remarkably intact sheepfolds. The path we were following eventually became a rather boring track and we could see cars parked at the end of the road we were approaching. However this was not our way out of the valley and as yet we couldn't see the way we would go; we knew we needed to climb, but we were hoping it would be in a valley not up the side of one of the mountains above us! In preparation for the climb, we stopped for a break, sitting by the river.
We could hear children playing in the river; this is clearly a spot where families come on a sunny September Saturday afternoon. But where was our route? Eventually, when we were nearly at the road, we were able to see the valley housing the Grainsgill Beck, and we turned into it. Our route climbed gently through mining remains. The official Cumbria Way (as shown on the OS map and followed by the walkers we met at the pub later) carries on by the beck, towards the left-hand side of the valley. However it wasn't well signposted, so we got out the guidebook and followed the instructions given there, or at least I think we did. We kept to the middle of the valley, heading towards "The Lingy Hut" which we could see on the skyline. We stopped for another break and crossed another stream then climbed up and up, reassured that our route was reasonable by the fact that a small group of walkers came down the slope towards us - and also by the fact that we were still heading towards The Lingy Hut, which remained in sight most of the time.
It was a challenging climb (though not, I suspect as steep as the official route), but the view that opened up behind us was superb and there was a huge sense of relief when we found ourselves standing by The Lingy Hut, now at a height of around 600 metres and almost at the highest point on the Cumbria Way. The Lingy Hut is a bothy, and a Cumbria Way sign on the hut, pointing from right to left relative to our approach route, confirmed that we had not used the official route.
We turned to the right, now back on the official route and on a track which climbed gently, passing just below the summit of Great Lingy Hill. When compared with the climb up from the River Caldew, the final climb the grassy hill of High Pike was very easy, and we were there - at 658 metres, the highest point on the Cumbria Way. The views in the late afternoon sun were glorious, to the Solway Firth to our left and, straight ahead, down to Caldbeck. Someone has even put a slate seat at the summit of High Pike (presumably in memory of a loved one) - what a good idea!
The village of Caldbeck was clearly visible in front of us, and it didn't look that far away, but we knew it was not as close as it looked, and there would be a fair amount of descent involved - and I can be even slower when walking downhill than when walking uphill! The final complication was that we would run out of daylight around 7pm. We set off down the grassy slope in front of us, on a clear grassy track, heading straight towards Caldbeck.The walking turned out to be easy and, on such a lovely evening, absolutely glorious. My hip had complained a bit on the climb but, bizarrely, my slightly small walking boots had not been a problem today (though it transpired later that my toes were quite bruised). We continued to follow the instructions in the guidebook, which were generally helpful, though the instructions didn't make it clear what the distance was between the different steps (which could be rather variable) and not all the things that appeared to be path junctions on the ground were mentioned in the instructions. Thankfully, the OS map App on my iPhone came to the rescue - this enabled us to see where we were on the map and thus to decide whether, for example, we had reached the cross roads at which the route turned right or went straight on. Again there was evidence of former mining, and we eventually descended on a former miners' track which zig-zagged down the hillside.
On the approach to the hamlet of Nether Row we rejoined the "Foul weather route", which had left us back at Skiddaw House. I am so pleased that we had waited for decent weather for today's leg rather than walking 18 miles (which is the length of the foul weather route) from Keswick to Caldbeck in poor visibility and rain, which is what we would have had to do if we'd come this way in June (or, as things turned out, tomorrow...). We stopped to ring Richard's Mum, whilst we were sure of a signal and before it got so late that she worried about us, then we followed country lanes and tracks to Caldbeck.
The Oddfellows Arms was easy to find, though it is on a road junction with frontage on three roads, so finding the entrance was more challenging. It turned out that the accommodation block was back in one of the buildings we'd been standing beside whilst looking for the entrance and, because we had been late in booking, we had (for a price!) a suite of rooms, one with a double bed and one with three singles; and they persisted in thinking there were three of us throughout our stay. Some reviews of the Oddfellows Arms talk about a long wait for food, and others did indeed have a long wait this evening, but our fish, chips and mushy peas (which I eat to tease Richard's Mum, who hates them) came relatively quickly, and were a highly appropriate way of celebrating today's achievement. We got talking to a couple who we'd noticed in the Youth Hostel this morning. They were indeed walking the Cumbria Way and had found today's leg tough (they'd followed the official route up Grainsgill Beck, which possibly is even steeper than the one we'd followed) and didn't fancy the final leg to Carlisle, so they were planning to get a taxi back to Keswick tomorrow to enable them to walk up a mountain (obviously their real passion). How nice it is that we are all different - today's walk had been challenging but we'd loved it, and we were looking forward to tomorrow's walk, despite the fact that the weather forecast was not good.