A walk from Ulverston to Knottallow Tarn This walk starts from the beginning of the Cumbria Way at The Gill, Ulverston. It continues climbing steadily over pleasing pastures to join a quiet road at Higher Lath Farm. After another climb it reaches Knottallow Tarn, a fishing tarn, man-made over 150 years ago. It is split in two by an old causeway and you can just see this from over the wall of the road. It relies on natural water welling up from a spring, rainfall and some land drainage.

Please note there is no right of way around the tarn.

Park in The Gill, Ulverston, grid ref 264785 (pay-and-display and toilets).

1 Leave from the west end of The Gill (behind the Cumbria Way sculpture) and ascend the signed, wide track beside the walled beck on your left. After a short climb take the signed left turn and go on climbing a steepish walled way that eventually winds left and then right to reach a B-road. Look here for the easily missed signed narrow gap stile in the wall on your right into a pasture. Walk ahead, keeping parallel with the wall on your left, to go through a gate. Go on to climb a stile and walk a wide fenced track. Head on into the yard of Old Hall Farm and then wind left beyond a huge slurry tank; the way is arrowed. At the end of the outbuildings, carry on beside the woodland on your left. Watch out for where the narrow path leaves the side of the trees and crosses the pasture, right, and descends a little to the side of the wall on the right.

2 Go through a stile and continue up beside the arrowed wall to come beside the wall of a large house, with a fine garden, Bortree Stile, on your right. Look for a large clump of primroses in bank of a ditch to your right, and then head on up, left of the wall, to go through a gate into a small clearing. Here go through another gate and on up a delightful narrow gill, with a stream trickling, to your right. Cross it by a stone slab. Beyond, is a small grassy space, a real suntrap for your first break. Leave by the step stile over the wall, and walk straight ahead over a pasture to a ladderstile into an area of outcrops, bracken and where some of the gorse bushes have been burnt.

3 Follow the narrow climbing path as it winds slightly left to a stile in the wall. Beyond, bear right over a pasture, towards Higher Lath farm and go over another stile to the road. Turn left and climb quite steeply. Go past a bridleway on the left and a short way along, look over the wall to see the lovely tarn. Look towards the far end to see the old causeway and also the outcrop on Knottallow Hill.

4 Return along the road to take the bridleway now on your right. This gated way is a pleasure to walk, though several gates are heavy to open. Enjoy the superb views as you go, the Hoad monument seeming vey close. The bridleway ends at Gamswell where you join the B-road. Pause as you continue to look for Ingleborough, the Howgills and the Lakeland fells, magnificent if covered in snow. Look over the left wall down into Ulverston to see the canal, wide, straight and short. Continue on the road, as it winds round, left, of a lofty wood. Carry on until you reach the signed walled track, on the left, used at the outset of the walk. Descend to its end and then go right to return to The Gill parking area.

Information

Distance: 4 miles

Time: 2.5 hours

Terrain: Tracks, field paths, quiet road walking. The route climbs steadily all the way to the tarn. After the dry spell the route was almost mud free. Several stiles.

Map: OS Explorer OL 7

NB: Restrictions on space mean that this article provides a general summary of the route. It is advisable for anyone who plans to follow the walk to take a copy of the relevant Ordnance Survey map.