Captain's Log

Troutbeck

There were two campervans parked at the small offroad parking area at Church Bridge near Troutbeck. It is a popular parking spot and so we’d got there early to bag a space. It was a bit of a grey start to the day, but the weather forecast promised some improvement later on. We’d just had two days of rain, some of it torrential, and so it was nice to get out of the house to stretch our legs again. Today’s walk would be an exploration of the Kentmere valley and we’d carry out a valley hop from Troutbeck by crossing the Garburn Pass. Before entering the village of Kentmere, we’d head up the west side of the valley to the reservoir. I’d only been along this valley once before and that was decades ago. Hopefully it would feel like new territory today. At the reservoir we’d cross to the east side of the valley and climb up to the Nan Bield Pass, the gateway to the Haweswater valley in the north. Our route would be westwards to Thornthwaite Beacon, before turning south on that gigantic rollercoaster route over Froswick, Ill Bell and Yolk. The Garburn Track would then return us back to the carpark at Church Bridge. At 15 miles and 1236 metres of ascent, it would no doubt be a tough day at the office. It would have been possible to make the route a little shorter by starting in Kentmere village, but car parking is very limited there and not guaranteed. The Kapitan and Cabin Boy were with me today and we set off from Church Bridge to join the Garburn Track. 

Garburn Track

The Garburn Track was a wide track and had an easy gradient for an ascent. Once we lost the woodland at the bottom of the valley, the views opened up along the Troutbeck valley. The clouds made the place look a bit dull, but the sun did try to break through once or twice which gave us hope. The Tongue could be seen further up the valley; a low level hill that really does look like a tongue lolling in the bottom of the valley. As we ascended, the Garburn Track became almost like a scree. The rain from the last two days had made parts of the track waterlogged which made some of the stones move easier. It wasn’t the best track for walking. At last we reached the top of the pass and at a junction where one path heads north to Yoke. We’d come down that path later in the day. For now, we continued eastwards along the Garburn Track towards Kentmere. Some early starters from Kentmere exchanged greetings with us as they climbed from the village towards Yoke. We’d see most of these people later in the day on our return over Mardale Ill Bell, Froswick and Ill Bell. The sun tried to come out again on our e descent into the Kentmere valley. We reached a single track road and almost immediately diverted off on to a path along the west side of the valley. It started to spit with rain, although it didn’t last long. 

Kentmere Valley

We joined a wide farm track and headed northwards up the valley. Horse flies had accompanied us down the Garburn Track and couldn’t resist joining us along the Kentmere valley too. The Cabin Boy had two huge, red bumps on her legs which I thought had been caused by the horse flies. On enquiry, she said that she’d been bitten on our walk at Coniston three days ago (see Coniston’s White Maiden).  The sultry conditions meant that the horse fliers were annoyingly persistent. When we got near the high ferns, clouds of midges decided to get in on the act too.       

There were quite a few spoil heaps below Rainsborrow Crag and huge openings in the face where the quarry workers had carried out their business. The crag itself was quite imposing, especially on an overcast day like today.  We walked by the reservoir cottage and reached the culvert outflow from the reservoir. A bridge took us across the culvert,  and another across a stream, to the east side of the valley. The OS map had a footpath going up from the bridge to Smallthwaite Knott, about 150m higher, but there was no visible evidence of one. It didn’t really matter since the terrain was easy enough to make our own route. It was fairly steep in places though and occasionally it was worth taking a rest and turning around to get a wonderful view over Kentmere Reservoir, with Yoke, Ill Bell and Froswick in the background.

At Smallthwaite Knott we met the well defined path that follows the east side of the Kentmere valley. We also met two walkers who had descended onto the track from above us and we stopped for a chat. They were reconnoitering a route for a group walk and had just been to investigate the Ull Stone which they described as an impressive, huge boulder. Unfortunately, my temperamental OS App wouldn’t drill down to the 1:25,000 version of the map and the 1:50,000 version didn’t have the boulder's exact location. The couple said that they were now heading off to Rainsborrow Crag and were going to make an ascent up the arete to Yoke's summit. I looked across the valley at the steep edge and told them that it looked quite an exciting ascent. I made a mental note to consider the arete for a future walk. 

We made a half-hearted ascent to find the Ull Stone, but we couldn’t see anything obvious and there would have been a lot of hillside to cover to do a proper search. In the end we dropped back down to the path again and continued our ascent to Nan Bield Pass. Later in the day, the Ull Stone was clearly visible from the hills on the other side of the valley. I reckon we’d been fairly close to it, but it had been hidden by the ‘lay of the land.’ The sun came out as we reached the last steep section. There was nobody in the huge stone shelter at the top of the pass. The Kapitan sat on its stone seat and looked like a very small king on a very big throne. 

Thornthwaite Beacon, Froswick, Ill Bell And Yoke

There was still quite a lot of ascent to do from the Nan Bield Pass on to Mardale Ill Bell. The views opened up north eastwards to Haweswater. The reservoir's water level was well down and so the remains of Mardale village were exposed again for people to explore. A helicopter was buzzing around near the reservoir. The ‘Ull Stone Couple’ had parked there and informed us that the RSPB were putting up some deer fence and so the helicopter must have been delivering materials. We came across a couple of tarns on Mardale Ill Bell, but rather disappointingly, these didn’t register on my Lakeland Tarns list. Thornthwaite Beacon is a hub for footpaths and was busy with people. We found a quieter spot nearby to sit down and have our lunch. 

I found Froswick, Ill Bell and Yoke to be rather a tough ridge to walk with its appreciable amount of ascent and descent. The reward was a wonderful view over the Troutbeck valley to the west and a spectacular view over the Kentmere valley to the east. At least these views were a distraction from the effort involved. To be honest, once the twin cairned summit of Ill Bell had been reached, the work of the day had really been done since the traverse to Yoke was much easier. On our descent from Ill Bell, we met the ‘Ull Stone Couple’ again and I asked them about their Rainsbarrow Crag escapades. They said that they’d investigated some of the caves left by the quarry men at the bottom of the crag. They said that they were able to go through one cave entrance and come out another, although they weren’t particularly clear of the distance between the two. They described the arête as ‘interesting’ and having ‘not much exposure.’ We had a good view of the crag from our position and they pointed out the route. I have to admit that it didn’t look as fearsome from this angle as it had done from below. We left them to continue their long walk back to Mardale. 

Return

It was a sunny descent from Yoke to the Garburn Track. Looking behind I could see dark clouds gathering in the north and I wondered whether we’d get back to the car before they overtook us. The Garburn Track had dried up a bit from this morning, but it still felt a bit like walking on scree. Despite the approaching clouds, Troutbeck was still in the sun and looked a bit cheerier than it did in the overcast grey of this morning. 

The two camper vans were still at the carpark on our return and the remaining spaces had been filled by cars. It had been a tough walk with its long distance and significant ascent. It was nice to revisit the Kentmere valley though after an absence of many decades. It had also given me a couple of ideas for some other walks too, namely visiting the elusive Ull Stone, and also the arete climb on Rainsbarrow Crag up to Yoke's summit.