Five Wainwrights Weekend

Saturday

It's been 15 months since we bagged our last Wainwright, just before we went into Lockdown 1.0 and we've been itching to get back up here ever since.

This weekend, the forecast looked good so we headed up early morning.

We parked at the car park for Spout Force to start our walk.

Setting off

Almost as soon as we'd set off we came across a 'closed path' sign.

The route to Spout Force is closed due to forestry work in the area.

So we retraced our steps to the car park and headed down the road towards Scawgill Bridge.

There's room for about 3 or 4 cars to park here, so it's also a good starting point from here.

Back on track now and after a few metres we came to the path that ascends steeply through the ferns.

The path is very steep but we took it slow and steady and soon made it to the rocky step which is straightforward to get round if you don't want to tackle it head on.

We pushed on and it soon levelled out and we headed to Graystones (Birkett) then onto Graystones (Wainwright).

Then we headed down to the stile which is completely impassable for dogs and downright dangerous for them as there is broken wire and fencing all over the place.  We managed to get Charlie over it before continuing to Widow Hause which looked like it had been subjected to recent felling.

Up the steep slope to the cairn and shelter on Broom Fell and into low cloud. Our second Wainwright of the day and it's only 10:30.

We continued along the obvious path towards Lord's Seat where there's a fence post marking the high point.

The views are a little disappointing but it's just fantastic to be back out on the fells.  Definitely what we needed, a great way to de-stress.

From Lord's Seat we headed down towards Barf.

The path is fairly obvious all the way and looks like it could get very boggy during wet weather.  After only seeing a couple of other people all morning this route was much busier and at the summit there were a few selfish summit hoggers having picnics so we weren't able to get a good photo. 

Amazing views of Bassenthwaite Lake from Barf.

Even a geocache to be found

From Barf  we retraced our steps back towards Lord's Seat.

We skirted round the bottom of Lord's Seat and turned left through the gate through the gate, picking up the path which took us into the forest. 

The path taking a more direct route back down on the OS map didn't look well used so rather than go through ankle twisting heather we opted for the easier route through the forest.

We eventually joined up with the forest road which took us back to where we'd parked.

Walk stats:

Miles: 8

Wainwrights: 4

Geocaches: 2

We spent the next couple of hours relaxing and reading in the van before heading out to the Coast to do some Adventure Labs.  First stop Allonby.

Then on to Maryport.

Sunday

It was hard to believe it was the same weekend when we woke to glorious sunshine this morning.  

The approach towards the fells from Cockermouth is stunning and not one we see very often.

The plan today was to bag another Wainwright. This time Whinlatter (Brown How).  We parked up on the roadside near the visitor centre to start our walk and headed up the forest track until we reached the bench and information board at the viewpoint.

Once at the junction with the viewpoint turn left and head straight up the forest track to the gate which leads out to the fellside.

We reached Whinlatter Top (525m) which is the high point but the actual Wainwright is slightly lower at 517m and is further along the ridge known as Whinlatter - Brown How.

.

Then onward to Brown How to bag the Wainwright.  Beautiful sunshine and fantastic views.

We have the whole place to ourselves!

Whinlatter Brown How summit

Then we retraced our steps and headed back down to the forest.  If my records are correct we have now bagged 116/214 Wainwrights

Walk Stats

Miles: 3.59

Geocaches: 1

Wainwrights: 1

We spent a couple of hours relaxing and reading back at the van before having our lunch and heading into Keswick to do a couple of Adventure labs.

As we know from past visits, data signal is pretty dire in Keswick, so the Adventure Labs were tricky to do.  Luckily we managed to find wifi and entered some of the answers that way.

The weather was beautiful and we really didn't want to head home.  So we parked up at Great Wood car park to enjoy a walk along Derwentwater before heading home.

Another fab weekend, hopefully we'll be back again very soon.