This is a fairly easy walk from Ings to Kentmere Hall and back along the Kentmere valley. It’s on good paths but they can be very wet and muddy after prolonged rain. The walk offers good views and an opportunity to think about how the area has changed over the last 600 years or more.

Park at Ings village, such as alongside the lane going southwards (GR SD444 987).

Information

Distance: 8.5 miles, ascent 1,400 feet

Time: 4 hours

Terrain: Quiet lanes and roads and grassy footpaths.

Map: OS Explorer OL7

Route

1 Cross the busy A591 with care and follow Grassgarth Lane up to and beyond the small hamlet of Grassgarth. Keep on the walled track, keeping left where another track joins from the right.

2 At the gate with a fingerpost take the bridleway through the gate to the right, signed Kentmere. You now stay on this bridleway all the way to Kentmere Hall. In places it can be muddy and there is a stream to ford or you can use stepping stones. The track heads directly towards Sallows then after a gate swings right to skirt round the east of the fell. Where the track starts to descend there’s excellent views of Kentmere valley to the right and a bird’s eye view of the whole of Kentmere village with Green Quarter perched on the hillside to its right.

3 Kentmere Hall is a unique combination of a 14th Century pele tower, a 15th Century house and a working farm. It was probably built by William Gilpin, the huntsman renowned for killing a wild boar at Gilpin Bridge in Crook. Towers like this were built as defence against Scots invasions but there is no evidence that the Scots armies came near the Kent valley. ‘Wardens of the Scottish Marches’ were appointed by the king to build up armies paid from taxation. In addition to earning a good wage, these armies could profit from looting and the chance of extorting ransom money for prisoners of rank. By the mid 14th Century Kentdale became a supply of experienced soldiers and the hall may well have been built to emphasise the martial and social status of their leader. The hall was owned by the Gilpin family for 300 years. For the past 300 years it has been owned by absent landlords and let to tenant farmers. Cross the bridge over Hall Gill and go through the gate to come out in front of Kentmere Hall.

4 Turn right immediately after the farm, through a gate onto the footpath that crosses a field, goes alongside Hall Gill, then through a gate to cross the Gill via a concrete bridge. The fields below Kentmere church would once have been wet marshland. Land drains were put in to make the land good for growing crops and keeping farm animals. Our path climbs through Hall Wood then contours above Kentmere Tarn which you pass on your left. In the 1830s and again in 1870 Kentmere Tarn was drained away completely in an attempt to gain more profitable land. Both investments were failures because under the soil was a thick layer of impermeable diatomite clay. Kentmere valley was formed by a glacier and 10,000 years ago, when the ice melted, a microscopic organism called diatomite lived in the clear waters. The clay is their fossil remains, so small that a litre of the material contains more than three billion of their fossils. Diatomite was found to be useful for making filtration media, toothpaste and TNT. The tarn we see today is what was left after dredging for the clay ended in 1985. After passing the tarn our path goes through the factory premises. Vehicles operate in this area so keep to the marked footway. The present owners, Hollingsworth and Vose, now import the materials to produce products for purifying water and other fluids used in engines, food and beverage and medical applications.

5 At the end of the factory buildings keep right and follow the road to Kentmere Pottery. At the studio here Gordon Fox produces fine handmade ceramics that are finished and painted by hand, incorporating fine enamels and lustres. Follow the path between iron railings and bear left onto the roadway.

6 Just before the road crosses the River Kent at Ulthwaite Bridge turn right. Here the track crosses remains of a mill stream which emerged from a corn mill whose ruins can be seen on the left of the road. There was a working mill on this site for 600 years up until the middle of the 19th Century. Our path continues along the side of the stream then bends right to go through Browfoot.

7 Go up the hill to join the tarmacked Browfoot Lane. Carry on up this road for 100 yards then go through the gate on the left and follow the footpath up the hill. After crossing the wall stile at the top of the field turn left onto the track. Williamson’s monument can be seen on the hill to your left. From Hugill Hall there is a choice of routes but my preference is to stay on the tarmac road that descends quite steeply to the east side of Ings. It’s then just a 300 yard walk along the cycle way by the side of the A591 back to Ings.

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.