Windermere - Troutbeck - Ambleside - Tues May 4th 2010

(Click over photos once, then again for full image size)......Probably about six and a half mile, of easy to moderate terrain. Opposite Booths at Windermere and up the side of the Windermere Hotel to reach Orrest Head, a fabulous viewpoint to take in Windermere, almost the full ten miles or so.... and turn around to look over the fells of Kentmere and High Street......

On the way there was some great mature woodlands which will have hosted Red Squirrels. Just before the hamlet of Far Orrest I witnessed a Common Redstart, sallying after flies..

It was a great suprise, because at the farm buildings at Far Orrest and on the side of the footpath, there was a small open tent with a refreshment table which included fresh buttered scones, bottled waters etc and a notepad was left for comments etc and honesty box.. we couldnt resist a scone and put the seventy pence in the box before carrying on our way.. How great for such a welcome sight and for the trust shown (see photo).......

Then on past the rocky outcrop of Allen Knott and down, across and eventually down towards the beck of Troutbeck, where here we crossed over two wooden bridges, and then steadily climbed to the village of Troutbeck, a lovely little place with some very old buildings which still had timber lintels, in fact in some instances, I am sure they could still have been the original lintels from the when the buildings where first built, and that would be guessed at perhaps around the mid 17th century, with one particular building which looked even older....

I always wondered what Troutbeck would look like, I remember from a child the song "Dye ken John Peel".....and that it was said he came from or lived at, and also I camped at Troutbeck as a child with the Boy Scouts, but to be honest with you cant remember a thing about them days.

A very beautiful village, set within one of the most beautiful of valleys, which heads off to the great "Kirkstone Pass" and over towards Ullswater.

We turned left up by the side of the village post office, the lane called Robin Lane, and after a couple of hundred yards or so, came upon a seat for the weiry souls who passed by, and we took advantage of resting and snacking...this was a special place with the most magnificient view (see photo), again looking down towards Troutbeck. Directly in front of the bench was a sort of little memorial stone devoted to the recognition of the Troutbeck sheepdogs (see photo). And closeby was a grand array of local wild flower species which had been introduced eg: Forget Me Nots and Fritillaries etc... we continued up Robin Lane and it was so obvious by the garlic smell, that you where bordered by many Ransoms on either side of the stoney lane...

Continuing up dale and down vale crossing through fields and farmhouses, we eventually entered some mature woodland called "Kelsick Scar" and maintained by the National Trust, just further along and we made a slight deviation to "Jenkin Crag" another well known viewpoint where you can look down towards Waterhead and the Lake Windermere. It was great to hear a Cuckoo calling away from somewhere high up on Kelsick Scar, also noticed looking down on us, yet quite camouflaged from beind some shrub was a Roe Deer which quickly bounded off when it realised we were watching it....

Ten minutes on and we were coming down at Waterhead, Ambleside....