Michael

Red Nab Car Park - Wray Castle – Outgate – Latterbarrow - Belle Grange - Red Nab.

Cold, sunny, little wind, very pleasant for January.

Michael, Michelle, Ron, Sandy.

Ashley - Hash leg.

Bernie - work commitments.

Carol - belated Christmas celebrations with friends in Leeds.

Evelyn - teaching.

George - had a cold.

Ken - too far to get back early.

Olwen - in Wales.

Comments

We walked along the lakeside, then as we climbed the hill towards Wray Castle, we met Roger Mallinson, a great friend of Fred Dibnah and a similar character. Roger was with his German shepherd dog ‘Whappet’. He invited us to look around his 1906 Steam boat ‘Shamrock’ which is on the same listing as the Cutty Sark and which had featured on the first series of Michael Portillo’s “Great Railway Journeys”, However, we declined as we needed to complete our walk in the dayight. We also had a good discussion about his 1931 green two-door Austin Seven, which we saw parked in a car park near the castle.

We then explored Wray Castle, an interesting building, that had been built as a Victorian folly. It had an unusual history having been used as a Merchant Navy Signals Officer Training centre and a Vodaphone training centre (hence the roof masts), but was now under restoration by the National Trust. There was a beautiful view from the castle of both the lake and Ambleside. Progressing on from the castle there was a lovely house at Low Wray, which had a magnificent conservatory and balcony overlooking Blelham Tarn and the Langdales.

As we walked past the tarn we saw an unusual weather station in the middle. We had the pleasure of the sun on our backs as we followed a path adjacent to a south facing wall. Our lunch stop was at Outgate, sitting on the Jubilee seat in the middle of the village. We then headed up Latterbarrow to enjoy panoramic views of Hawkshead, the Langdales, Old Man Coniston to the west and Ambleside and Lake Windermere to the east. After a gentle amble down through the forest, we picked up a pathed bridleway to Belle Grange, returning along the lakeside to the car park.

Wildlife/Flora/Animals:

Birds: mute swans on lake, goosander duck, long-tail tits, treecreeper, robins, chaffinches, magpies, nuthatch, jay, geese on tarn. En route: pheasant, red kite, heron.

Mammals/others: fluffy inquisitive sheep and a chorus of sheep, rabbit, dog with a wig and several other nice dogs, cows and calf that came out of a barn for a relief stop. En route we saw some alpacas.

Queens Head at Troutbeck on Kirkstone Pass. Food and service very good, in a warm and friendly pub with lots of atmosphere.

Walkers minus one

Swan

Lakeside walk

View across the lake

Snow-capped hills

Austin Seven

Wray Castle

Ascent

Panoramic view

On top

Windemere