Captain's Log

Watermillock

It was the start of a 6 day Lake District campaign. The BBC Weather website has forecast rain all week. Even overnight.  Oh well, nothing could be done. Our base was Low House at Watermillock, not far from the western shore of Ullswater. I was joined by the Kapitan and the Cabin Boy. We watched an Andrew Foster walk on YouTube last night and he did a walk from Watermillock to Gowbarrow. We’d done a variation of this walk before (see the Captain’s Log for Gowbarrow Little Mell Duo), but Foster went over Little and Great Meldrum. These are Explorer hills and I’d not been over them before and so we decided to investigate their traverse today. We would extend Foster’s walk by carrying out a circuit of Gowbarrow Fell. This would enable us to see the cascades along Aira Beck and visit Aira Force. 

It wasn’t actually raining as we set off, although it did look rather gloomy towards Ullswater. We had a wander around the churchyard of the All Saints Church at Watermillock. It was a very pretty church. It was consecrated by Owen Oglethorpe in 1558, which I thought was a great surname. A few hundred yards along the road from the church we came to the footpath that forms a section of the Ullswater Way. There’s space for roadside parking  for about half a dozen cars near to the start of the footpath. We set off southwards along the path towards Gowbarrow. 

Meldrums

It was a good path although it did undulate. It was also muddy from the rain we’d had over the last few weeks. Just before reaching the forest plantation area we veered off the path and climbed upwards over trackless fell. It was fairly steep, but nothing serious. It wasn’t long before we reached a vague track that headed towards Little Meldrum. We could see a tarn to the north and I wondered if it was one to tick on our Lakeland Tarn Venture; unfortunately it wasn’t. There wasn’t a cairn on the top of Little Meldrum but we did get a good view from its summit.  Little Mell Fell was visible to the north and on its left, we could see Blencathra’s buttresses.  Over to the southwest we could see Great Meldrum and Gowbarrow Fell beyond it. We’d lost the track once we’d reached Little Meldrum’s summit. It wasn’t far though to a forestry road that headed in the direction of Great Meldrum. We tacked across to it and started walking along its stony path. In no time at all we reached a large metal gate that gave access to the open access area containing Great Meldrum. The gate was locked and we had to climb over it. The track up to the summit of Great Meldrum was muddy, but it was gradual enough and we soon reached its summit. It started to spot with rain at this point and so I put on my waterproofs. Shafts of light appeared and disappeared over Martindale as the clouds were blown quickly along Ullswater. The summit trig of Gowbarrow Fell was clearly visible now and we headed towards it along an obvious track. A stone step stile enabled us to get over a stone wall and join the main track that circumnavigates Gowbarrow Fell. This track would be our guide right around the fell. 

Gowbarrow Fell

Initially the path started climbing upwards to Gowbarrow’s summit. It had been windy over the Meldrums but increased several notches in severity as we neared Gowbarrow’s summit. It blew so hard that it was difficult to stand up on its craggy top. Ted made a brief appearance for his Wainwright’s photo on the top of the trig and then quickly disappeared back into his rucksack. It was too windy to hang around and so we started our descent. There was a great view over Matterdale towards Great Dodd. I bet the wind was gale force on its summit. Its flanks still held  a few patches of snow. The National Trust have greatly improved the pathway on this side of Gowbarrow and it made for a quick descent.  We joined the path along the bottom of the fell. There were lots more walkers now moving in both directions. We reached some trees and this provided welcome shelter from the wind. The path ran near to Aira Beck and we soon reached High Cascade where we spent a while perfecting our photos of the white water. 

We followed the beck downstream through the lightly wooded area. Eventually we came to the small stone bridge over the top of Aira Force. It looked a long way down from the top of the bridge. I could see that the National Trust had reopened the viewing area at the bottom of the waterfall. This had been closed for quite a time due to a fallen tree. We made our way around to the path that descended to the viewing area. There was a magnificent view of the waterfall as we descended the steps. At the viewing area, the spray in the air made it a little tricky to get a photo. We didn’t want to get too wet and so we crossed the stone bridge and followed the trail down the valley. This was  quite an impressive part of the trail with a deep gorge on our right side and mature surrounding trees.  Eventually we came to a ‘T’ junction. The track to the right went down to the National Trust carpark and we turned to the left to head along Gowbarrow’s south flank. 

It wasn’t long before we left the trees behind. I thought we might be blasted by a strong wind at this point, but it wasn’t actually that bad. Even the sun started to make an intermittent appearance. The path gradually climbed up Gowbarrow’s slope and the elevation offered a great view over Ullswater. This path was quite busy with walkers too.  The Gowbarrow circuit is a popular pathway. There was a stone memorial seat near to where the path turned to the north. This would make a great place to have your lunch on a sunny summer’s day, but it was a tad too exposed today.  The path headed away from Ullswater, but there were still good views to the north. 

Return

We didn’t quite carry out a complete circuit of Gowbarrow since we turned off the circuit path to head back northeastwards towards Watermillock. The last time we walked this path, it was a lovely trail through a plantation. The area had now been nuked by the forestry company and all that remained was the devastation of tree  stumps and branch debris. The trail had survived though and was in a reasonable state. The trail followed a contour below the  southern flank of Great and Little Meldrum that we’d traversed higher up this morning.   

 I heard a ‘Ug-uurrghh’ behind me. I turned around and found the Cabin Boy diving into the heather near my feet. The momentum flung her water flask out of her rucksack. She’d slipped on a muddy section of path. Fortunately she didn’t hit me and so I survived without an injury. We reached the road at Watermillock and a light rain started. Given the forecast, we’d actually been very lucky with the weather. It had been an excellent walk and one definitely to do when there is low cloud or conditions look rough on the high tops. There were some great views  and the trail along Aira Beck was impressive.