The Surprising Hills of South Lakeland

Lockdown, sensible precautions and a stuffed up leg has meant we've been exploring some very different parts of Cumbria recently.  To be fair, we started out in January with the intention of "not walking anywhere we've walked before" and that was all going rather well, up until mid March...  For a few months we kind of stuck to that theme by exploring all the paths we'd never taken through Eggerslack Woods - just over the road from us - then we gradually explored further afield and were about to hit the big hills again when 'leg-gate' stopped me in my tracks.  Literally.

So, low hills and easy toddles have been the order of the day.  The thing that we've noticed is that each time we pop out on the top of a local hillside is how surprised we are with the views.  I completely understand the draw of the high fells, but there is much joy and beauty to be found in the smaller hills, not to mention a lot more peace and quiet.

The other big plus is that many of the smaller hills have benches - very handy for resting dodgy legs as well as making perfect picnic spots.  And on top of all that, there's a lot of limestone in the South Lakes so, even where benches are scarce, there's still somewhere to sit.

Anyway, enough waffle, here are five of our favourite small, local, hills.

Whitbarrow Scar

Whitbarrow Scar was one of the first hills I climbed in the area.  When we were camped up here and looking for a house we were staying nearby and often tootled up to the summit.  There are several routes to the top and, once you're up there, there's a long undulating ridge of craggy limestone with extenstive views of the fells from the northern end and stunning views of Morecambe Bay from the southern tip.  Plus plenty of perfect picnic spots.  Honestly, we love it so much we were even up there on Christmas Day 2019 and enjoyed a turkey sandwich on the top.  Perfect!

Scout Scar

While we're on the subject of scars, the next one along from Whitbarrow is Scout Scar.  The big plus for us this year has been that Scout Scar requires very little effort for very big views.  The car park is an easy walk from the main ridge and many's the time we've stopped off there on the way home from somewhere else to finish our flask of tea on one of the perfectly positioned benches.  It's also 'juniper central' with dozens of juniper bushes scattered around the limestone scrub.  It's a popular local walk but there are plenty of criss-crossing footpaths and wide open spaces, so plenty of room for everyone. 

Hoad Hill

Certainly the most popular of all the hills in this blog, but it's the only one that has a scale replica of a lighthouse on it, so how can I miss it out?  The thing with The Hoad is that most folks go up and down the same route at the front, which is all well and good as the views are superb, but they miss out on a very lovely, and gentle, descent around the back.  Honestly, it's really easy to spot on an OS map and very easy to follow - it will lead along a lovely enclosed path and past a fabulously detailed infoboard telling you all you need to know about the area.  Not that my life revolves around tea and cake, but around the foot of the pepperpot (as it's known locally) there is plenty of seating so you can put your feet up and enjoy the view.

The Helm

Sorry for the rubbish photo, but the weather was very grey that day.  The views, however, were still stunning!  The Helm is tucked away to the south east of Kendal, just above Oxenholme (look for the station on the map and you'll soon spot The Helm!).  There's limited parking along the tiny road alond the base of the hill and plenty of paths leading up to the summit.  Once up there the panoramic views will definitely take you by surprise - even on a cloudy day there were perfect moody views of the Langdale Pikes, the Howgills, Hutton Roof Crags and Morecambe Bay.  I'd have to mark it down for picnic spots, but with Kendal on your doorstep you'll not be far from tea and cake.

Dixon Heights

Remember the end of lockdown, when everyone went a bit nuts and Cumbria was absolutely rammed with people?  Well, we went off for a full day hike around Dixon Heights (just before I stuffed my leg).  It's just above Lindale and is open access land with plenty of paths as well as lots of opportunities to make your own route.  We spent over 6 hours wandering around in the sunshine, enjoyed a long lazy lunch and generally had a fabulous time and didn't see another soul all day. Call me antisocial but, for me, that was pretty much a perfect day.

We absolutely LOVE exploring hidden away corners and finding out more about them.  There are loads of great stories and ideas for places to visit in our books - please feel free to browse our bookshelves here.  I know they are available elsewhere online, but we are a small local business and would really appreciate your support. Thank you.

30 Days Wild: Day 12 - The Long Uphill Struggle

The theme for today is hills - both physical and metaphorical.  We knew we had physical hills ahead of us today, but our first uphill challenge became apparent when we tried to get three bikes onto a Northern Rail train.  To be fair, many of the conductors are flexible around the "2 bikes only policy" and ours let us on, but she really didn't seem happy about it.  You're not able to book ahead so it can be a bit of pot luck as to whether you can take your bike with you when you're planning a day out.

If Sustrans are to achieve their vision of everyone being able to choose to travel in ways that benefit their health and the environment (another uphill battle) then train companies are going to have to join in and make it easier for us to shift our bikes around.

Day 2 of the Morecambe Bay Cycleway kicked off at Ford Park in Ulverston with a fabulous send off.  I don't want you to think that I only describe it as a fabulous send off because they fed us lots of cake, but it certainly helped.  (Frankly I think the cake was an early apology for what lay ahead...)  The Coach House Bistro did us proud and with a full complement of calories we were on our way.

We started with a few very gently hills to "warm up our legs" (mine were still plenty warm from day 1 if I'm honest) - but the hills really were very gentle and there were lots of lovely downs to coast along too.

The route took us up and over to Greenodd then down and across the Leven.  As we were crossing the Leven I got chatting to Bill - 85 years old and usually ahead of me, he became my instant hero.

One of us is 85, the other just feels it...

There then followed my favourite section of the route so far, a lovely run along the old railway line and then a nice broad bridleway to Low Wood.

As we neared the end of this delightful stretch we couldn't help but notice the rather large hill looming ahead of us.  The cycleway only has one big hill and this is it - Biglands Hill - I was told that it was fine for users of the cycleway to push their bikes up this hill if need be, so I opted to do just that.  Purely in the interests of research you understand.

My phone was clearly too exhausted to focus....

 

Team 1 at the summit

Team 2 a the summit!

Even though it had been a long hard slog to the summit we didn't hang around long as we knew that awaiting us down in Cartmel was a lunch of artisan breads and cheeses swilled down with fantastic beer from one of my favourite microbreweries.  With the scent of hops firmly in our nostrils we plunged down the hill.

Unsworth's Yard is the most perfect spot in Cartmel - a village already awash with fine pubs and picnic locations.  Surrounding this tiny courtyard are a superb cheese shop (surprisingly called Cartmel Cheeses, and you can order online!), a divine bakers and the aforementioned thoroughly splendid Unsworths Yard Brewery.

Cheese Heaven

Beer Heaven

Heaven

With the tough stuff now behind us it was onwards to gorgeous Grange-over-Sands.  Although the route was tougher today in terms of hills, there was a lot less traffic and therefore it was a lot more enjoyable and the route to Grange wound along via Flookburgh and Cartmel airfield with an optional diversion to Humphrey Head.

 

Cows cheering us on.

Just one short sharp hill.

Our destination in Grange was the Low Fell Gate campsite which is able to boast beautiful views across Morecambe Bay, but only because it's at the top of another hill...

Because I'm a) a camping wuss and b) we live in Grange, we left them to it and headed for home, taking a small detour along Grange prom - another metaphorical hill to climb as many of the locals are vehemently opposed to the route officially mentioning this as a possible loop along the way, an absolute crying shame as it offers some of the most spectacular views out across Morecambe Bay.  

I think they're under the impression that Tour de France style pelotons will start whizzing through when the reality is that it's more likely to be folks like us - 2 sweaty, smelly and slightly out of condition cyclists in desperate need of a chippy.  It might not be official, but we took the detour anyway.  Anarchy in Grange.  Watch for the letters in the local paper...

A very different day out in Cumbria

Question:  What do you do when you've got the beginnings of a nasty cold and should be tucked up in bed?  Answer: hop on the Cumbrian Coastal railway for a day out indoors.  (And make sure you pack Lemsip!).

The train from Grange to Carlisle around the coast takes a little over 3 hours and affords some of the most spectacular views of the Cumbrian Coastline and inland towards the fells.  As you head around the coast from Ulverston one of the first major landmarks is the wonderful Black Combe - looking particularly stunning with its fresh covering of snow.

There are plenty of opportunities to spy on the wildlife, from the window I saw Buzzard, Oystercatchers and this lovely collections of...erm... Cormorants or Shags - I never can tell from this distance!

The views around the north stretched out across the Firth to Scotland, which also looked as if it had had its fair share of snow.

The last part of the run from Maryport to Carlisle offers a very different landscape of open fields and streams; less dramatic perhaps but no less beautiful.

And then there's Carlisle itself, a lovely town with a wonderful cathedral which manages to retain the feel of a holy place despite being open to the public.  There's no entry charge and there are always a couple of vergers around to answer any questions or explain some of the history.

Talking of history, all along the line are reminders of the history of this vital communication route: disused platforms, extra long platforms dating back to a time when rail travel really was for the masses and modern platforms built on top of the originals to raise them up to conform to modern train requirements.

Old and New

If you buy a Round Robin ticket I'm pretty sure you can come back the quick way via Lancaster, but why do that when you can head all the way back around the lovely coastline again?

Whitehaven

Near Workington

Beautiful Cumbrian Beaches

Fells near Askam

Three hours later and I was nearly home; the sun was setting behind the Hoad, my flask was empty and I really could claim that I'd spent almost the entire day tucked up in the warm with plenty of fluids.  Honestly, who'd stay at home watching daytime TV when you could be sat on a train looking at this?