The Lake Landers: Four Nights At Coniston Water

This week as the weather was forecast to be OK we booked a last minute trip over to Coniston Water. We were staying at Water Yeat at Crake Valley Holiday Park on the recommendation of some of our friends.

We had some bridge surveys to do on the way just outside Ulpha.

We had bright sunshine, walking to the first bridge with Ulpha Fell in the background

The trees starting to take on their autumnal colours

To get to the boardwalk we were surveying we had to cross the River Duddon via some stepping stones. We were glad of the thick wire handrail to help us across

The river was like a millpond here

We find the boardwalk which is in a very boggy section of the path, it also looks like some of it is missing

Karen crossing the river on our return

The next survey was a bridge slightly further up the valley, Caw in the distance

The bridge we have to survey over Tarn Beck

The beck is fed by the quite substantial Seathwaite Tarn & these falls would probably be quite spectacular after heavy rains

One of the span beams is starting to rot, but otherwise the bridge is fine

We then have a short drive to Whinfield Ground to complete the third survey. We spot a couple of deer in the field

Walking across a field to the boardwalk with the Dunnerdale Fells in the distance

This boardwalk has definitely seen better days

The surveys now complete we travel to our destination. This is our cabin aptly named Pillar

After a cuppa we take the dogs over to Coniston Water which is just across the road from the site

Tuesday dawned misty but we could see that it should soon burn off & by the time we left it had lifted, just a little lingering on the lake

We drove to Coniston to start our walk, looking up at The Old Man Of Coniston

Looking down on the old mining cottages, Wetherlam's summit our target for the day is beyond the fell to the right

A panorama of the valley, The Old Man to the left, Brim Fell & Great Carrs

The Old Man & Brim Fell with the quarry workings below

As we climb some haze or mist creeps into the valley

Black Sails, our summit is beyond the fell to the right

Looking down on Coniston Water & the valley is getting quite hazy

The dogs enjoy a dip in a small tarn along the way

Looking down through the haze onto Lake Windermere

The mist is at about the same height as us, looking over to The Old Man

As we near the summit we spot there is a spectacular cloud inversion in the Wrynose Bottom

From the summit looking north

Sca Fell & Scafell Pike rise above the clouds

Zooming in on Sca Fell

Wetherlam (762m)

The Old Man of Coniston, you can see the mist in the valley here too

Crinkle Crags

The cloud bank is now quite solid below us

Great Carrs

Prison Band & Great Carrs

Looking down on Greenburn Reservoir

Our first glimpse of Levers Water which we are to descend to

Looking back up to Prison Band where we started our descent into the valley

Levers Water as we get closer

A hazy sun casts its shadows across the water

The dogs are straight in

Levers waterfall

Another waterfall on Church Beck

Wednesday was a lot cloudier with the mist quite low so we set off to do the remaining bridge surveys we had bought with us. Starting off in the woods on Broughton Moor

We think these may be shooting huts at the bottom of the valley

Ruins at Appletree Worth

The first bridge is an old pack horse bridge over the Appletree Worth Beck, but we aren't down to survey this

The Knott

Walking along wide forest tracks

This is the first bridge we have to survey over the River Lickle

Any opportunity to play in a river

This bridge is further up the beck & is named Natty Bridge

We then turn back & retrace our steps. As the weather isn't great we stop for a wander around Ambleside & Windermere before catching the ferry over to Faw Sawrey

We have watched the ferry before but never caught it

It is quite a gloomy Windermere in the mist

Thursday was a better day so we drove to Tarn Hows to climb two quite low Wainwrights (in fact we discovered afterwards they are 212 & 213 out of 214 in height)