Captain's Log

Askham

Maybe the waves of rain progressing eastwards along Ullswater should have been a clue as to the way the day was heading. The weather forecast said that it would last all day too. The forecast is not always right though and sometimes you can waste a day waiting for the worst weather that doesn't arrive. That’s not so bad when you are at home, but when you’ve paid for a holiday let, you feel obliged to make the most of your time, even if the probabilities aren’t in your favour. The high tops were definitely out and so I decided that we’d do a lower level walk from Askham. I’d been browsing through some walking guides in the holiday let yesterday evening and I picked out one that I thought might be suitable. The walk would start at Askham and start by visiting nearby Lowther Castle. It would then follow the River Lowther northwards until reaching Eamon Bridge on the outskirts of Penrith. We’d then follow the River Eamont westwards, before turning off to Sockbridge. Some field and road walking would then take us back to Askham. 

The sky was gloomy grey and there was a light rain as we parked up in the village’s outdoor swimming pool carpark. The Kapitan, Cabin Boy and Ted were with me today, and we all put on our waterproofs as a pre-emptive action. There was then an economic catastrophe as we managed to put £3 in the honest box, rather than the £2 that was requested. I contemplated the options of retrieving our mislaid £1, but we didn’t have the heavy duty tools available to us. Not a good start. We set off eastwards through the village towards the castle. 

Lowther Castle

Before we even left the village, we passed the rather grand Askham Hall. There was a high stone wall around the pad in order to keep the likes of me out. I still managed to get glimpses of its building and garden though, including its attempts at topiary. It is a hotel and has a Michelin Star restaurant. Their website says that a six course tasting menu will set you back £140. I thought that was the price for a family of four, but it seems that is the cost per person. Add another £110 per person  for paired wine. If you didn’t fancy driving after all that paired wine then the cheapest room I could find was £165 per night. I scanned this website, but I couldn’t see whether they do any sort of meal deal. To be honest, I’d want an unlimited one judging by the small portions shown in their photographs.     

On the other side of the road from the hall was the well presented St Peter’s Church. The nearby Askham Bridge took us over the River Lowther. Not surprisingly there was plenty of water flowing down the river. A trail on the other side gradually climbed through trees until we popped out next to Lowther Castle’s walls. I thought that the castle might be one of those buildings where you can’t get a proper view of it since we could only see the outer wall as we walked along its northern front. Our path pulled away from the main building and at last we were able to see over the wall to the main building. It was a big old pile with only the east wing looking as though it was inhabited. The rest looked derelict. It is actually an old country house rather than purpose built fortification. It was constructed between 1806 and 1814. I’d guess it would cost quite a lot to maintain such a building and perhaps it's not surprising that it was closed in 1935. It was actually used as a tank training range during WWII. The contents were sold in 1947 and the roof was removed in 1957. 

River Lowther

We followed a couple of walkers and their dog along an estate road running northwards. The dog looked something like an Alsatian and insisted on carrying a branch in her mouth which was at least as long as her body. Occasionally she’d drop it to have a rest and look back to check that the owners were still following. The road reached the River Lowther and a bridge was handily placed to take us to its western side. The tarmac surface was a little hard on the feet, but the walk was pleasant enough. Each side of the road was wooded and we came across some forestry operations. One of the workers had left his dog in the car and it was sitting in the driver's seat and looked at us as though he was about to drive away. 

We reached Lowther Holiday Park, another larger area devoted to static caravans, although there did seem to be a small number of pitches for the towable variety. Two red squirrels surprised us on a nearby tree. They were remarkably tame, but after closely inspecting us, they scooted off to the top of a tree. The tarmac road left the caravan site and followed the River Lowther northwards. It went under an impressive viaduct that supported the West Coast Main Line and then under the M6. At last we reached the end of the tarmac road as it intercepted the A6 into Eamont Bridge. This was really where the day’s walk took a downturn. Given the rainy conditions, I had considered just retracing our steps back to Askham. The walking surface had been good and the surrounding trees protected us from the worst of the rain. Unfortunately, I decided to continue with my planned circular route. We headed off along the A6 towards Eamont Bridge.

River Eamont

There was a pavement that ran along the A6 into Eamont Bridge, but it wasn’t wide enough that we could escape all of the spray from the traffic. We made it to King Arthur’s Round Table. I must admit, given its name, I was expecting something a bit more exciting. It turned out to be a field that had a low level ditch in it. The information board didn’t give any indication that it had anything to do with King Arthur. It was actually a prehistoric monument that dates back from between 2,000 BC and 1,000 BC.  Some of the earthwork had been destroyed by the construction of the road to the northwest.     

We continued along the A6 and reached Eamont Bridge. The stone bridge was probably constructed in the 15th century. This place was very important in England’s history since, on the 12th of July 927 AD, it was the venue for a gathering of Kings from across Britain. This date is generally seen as the foundation of the Kingdom of England. 

Given that they met mid-July, I’d guess that the Kings had far better weather than we were having today. It was a relief to turn away from the A6 and follow the River Eamont upstream. Further along the path, another earthwork became visible on our left. This was the Mayburgh Earthwork and was another Neolithic henge. We couldn’t really get a good view of it from the footpath, but given the conditions I didn’t want to test the Kapitan’s and Cabin Boy’s patience by spending time trying to find the site’s entrance. I’d visit it on another day. Instead, we followed a road under the M6 and picked up a path that headed across fields. And that is where the day definitely went downhill, but not in a physical gradient sense. 

Mudfest

The fields were waterlogged and each step included a struggle to extract our boots from the clinging mud. There were no dry routes around the wet areas. Everywhere was wet. The Kapitan and Cabin Boy went into silent mode. I missed a turning and followed a path over a field. At the other end it went under the West Coast Main railway line and entered the farm yard of Yanwath Hall. We started walking away from the hall, down its drive, to the footpath we should have been on. The drive was actually a public right of way, but somebody in a black range rover pulled up alongside the Kapitan and said we shouldn’t have been in the hall’s yard. I have to admit that he was correct in that respect, but it was either walking 20 yards in their farm yard or retracing our steps through his muddy fields. We waded through another massive puddle into the next field. This turned out to be another mudfest. The signage was rather vague again and I mistakenly went 20 yards along the wrong side of a hedge. This meant wading back through the mud again to get back on track. The fields ended and the path dropped down to the River Eamont. The surrounding trees provided a bit of protection from the rain and I thought things might get a little easier. The respite didn’t last long though and we turned away from the river and followed a muddy path towards Sockbridge. 

Sockbridge And Tirrel

A strong southwesterly joined the rain as we followed a country lane into Sockbridge. It looked like a pleasant little village…at least it would have done if I could have seen through the raindrops on my glasses. Sockbridge and Tirrel must have been separate villages at some point in their development, but they seemed pretty much merged together now. We followed a muddy footpath alongside Lady Beck to reach Tirrel. Their bus stop appeared to have more books than my local library. There were also a couple of chairs in the shelter. I might have spent half an hour or so there on a summer's day, but we were too soaked with rainwater to think about taking a break.  

We picked up a footpath out of Tirrel and ascended into more muddy fields. Even though we were walking alongside a stone wall, it offered little protection against the strong wind and horizontal rain. The Cabin Boy motored 50m ahead of me, a sure sign that she wasn’t happy. Eventually, the fields ended and we found ourselves on tarmac. At least the tarmac wasn’t muddy.

Return

Indeed, the tarmac wasn’t muddy, but it held lots of water and was flooded in a few areas. A dozen or so vehicles went by and we managed to avoid most of the spray by diverting from one side of the road to the other. I had planned to take a track off the road, back into Askham, but given our luck with the muddy conditions so far, I didn’t fancy venturing off tarmac again and invoking further grievances from the rest of the team. We stuck to the road and made the best of it back into Askham. The rain didn’t relent even as we quickly disrobed. The Cabin Boy fell over as she took off her overtrousers. It was a silent, icy journey back to our holiday let, even though I had the car heater full on. You could have heard a pin drop. Well, having said that, probably not in that wind, to be honest. 

Crikey, what a day! Despite the rain, I’d quite enjoyed the walk up to the A6. If we’d turned around and retraced our steps back to Askham, the day might have been saved. The walk from the A6, through Yanwath, Sockbridge and Tirrel wasn’t that inspiring. We did get views of the River Eamont, but most of the plodding was through fields or along country lanes. Maybe the experience would have been positive if I’d attempted the walk on a day after a particularly dry summer.