Superb views on Elterwater walk (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Superb views on Elterwater walk

8:50am Friday 20th January 2012

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THIS walk takes you from Elterwater almost to the head of Great Langdale. The views are superb in both directions. As it is rather long and hard going in short stretches you might prefer to make it into two walks, parking first at Elterwater and returning when you reach the New Hotel and then on your second walk parking opposite the hotel and continuing on up the valley.

Park in the National Trust car park in the centre of Elterwater, grid ref 329047. If full, use the free car park on the Common, grid ref 329051. Access this by turning right at the crossroads for the village.

1 Walk back to cross the main road and continue ahead to pass the delightful cottages of the village and then the Britannia Inn. Go over the fine bridge across the Great Langdale Beck, ignore the right turn, and carry on past the youth hostel. At the Y-junction take the right branch and also, right, at the next division of the way. Stride on the pleasing lane with Sawreys’s Wood to the left. After just over half a mile you emerge from the trees with the steep slopes of Lingmoor Fell to the left.

2 Pass through Baysbrown farm following the waymarks. Ignore the three side turnings signed ‘no path’ and walk the main track as it swings gently uphill through more woodland. Beyond the trees, the view opens out and you can now see the broad faces of the Pikes. Go on down the pitched path to reach a signpost just before Oak Howe. Bear left before the cottage to walk a walled rougher path, for nearly a mile, with more splendid views. Cross the delightful clapper bridge over the stream tumbling down from Lingmoor Tarn and take, tucked in a tiny walled enclosure, a gate onto a steep pitched path that descends to the valley bottom.

3 Go through the gate and head on beside the wall on the right. Pass through a gap in the wall ahead and ignore the path off to the right (unless the weather has changed or you wish to make this into a two walk event. In which case go through the two gates on the right before Side House and walk across the pasture to turn right on the main road and into the car park on your right). Continue beside Side House, on your right, and follow a narrower path, indistinct at times and muddy after rain, along the fellside, keeping parallel with the wall down below on your right. After climbing three ladderstiles, take a wide grassy trod down towards trees below on your right, to join a good track through the campsite. This brings you out onto a narrow road. Turn right to reach its junction with the B-road through the valley.

4 Here take a gate onto the long access track to Stool End farm. This is an easy walk with sheep feeding quietly on either side and the Pikes now towering overhead. Pass through the well waymarked farmyard and, once beyond the last gate, turn sharp right to walk a fine wide grassy trod, with a wall to your right. This permissive path leads you to a gate. Once through follow the track right and then left and continue until the wall turns down right to the side of the beck.

5 From here you can see the weir ahead, but alas, in December 2011, only the sturdy abutments of the footbridge (the latter marked on the OS map) remained. If it has been rebuilt, cross and walk up the path to join the Cumbria Way (CW) and turn right to return to the back of the Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel. Here at a junction of paths the CW continues as a wide track, bearing left and heading for the New Hotel. If the bridge is still down and the water isn’t low enough to wade across (the weir is always under water and too slippery to use) return along the lovely path to Stool End, enjoying the superb view ahead, and then on along the access track. At the road turn left, cross the little bridge over the beck and follow the narrow signed footpath, keeping to the right of charming Middle Fell Farm. Turn right as directed to go behind the hotel and take the main track climbing gently left and then on to the New Hotel.

6 Follow the first path on the right that takes you down through the hotel’s car park to join the B-road. Cross and, after a few steps, left, pass through the long thin car park on the right (see point three) and stroll the continuing wide track for a mile. Finally, it winds left to join the B-road again. Turn right and walk with care for 20yards to take the signed track, crossing the valley bottom and over the beck to join a wide track. Turn left and, with the beck to your left, stride on until you reach New Bridge, which was constructed in 1818 .

7 Cross and stroll on until just before the B-road again. Here turn right along a walled track. Wind around left to pass several cottages and on to reach a narrow lane. Cross and go on beside a high wall on the left, following the path as it curves left to the road once more. Walk right. Pass Wainwrights Inn (named after men who once constructed wooden wagons). At the end of the Inn’s lower car park, take the difficult-to spot-signed path leading from the bottom right corner to cross the beck. Walk left and then climb the rising path to join the road. Stride left to descend to Elterwater, with the beck descending in wonderful cascades and falls. Turn left at the village and cross the bridge to return to wherever you have parked.

Information Distance: 10-11 miles but could be walked over two days.

Time: 5-6 hours Terrain: Some good paths and tracks. Some muddy ones and some rough.

Maps: OS Explorers 7 and 6 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.