Captain's Log

Troutbeck

The weather forecasters hadn’t been kind to us on our latest Lakeland campaign. They’d predicted heavy rain, light rain and strong winds and they’d been proven correct most of the time. They’d predicted rain and wind today, but we decided to do a walk anyway. There was mist on the top of the hills and so I opted for a lower level route. We’d start from Troutbeck and climb Sour Howes, last climbed by us on our Wainwright Venture. From there, we’d make the short hop to Capple Howe, a Lakeland Explorer hill that we’d not ticked. After that, we’d drop down into the Kentmere valley and head south along a bridleway to the village of High Borrans. Some road walking would then take us to the Dubbs Road. We'd then head northwards before dropping back down to Troutbeck. 

We parked at the small offroad parking area near Church Bridge. There’s space for about half a dozen cars. Alternatively there’s space near to the church on the A592. The Kapitan and Cabin Boy didn’t hesitate putting their waterproofs on straight away. It wasn’t raining at the moment and so I thought it best to delay the decision. It would be a steep climb up to Sour Howes and I didn’t want to get too hot in the process. As we climbed above the trees in the bottom of the valley, we had that tremendous view northwards to Stony Cove Pike, Thornthwaite Crag, Froswick and Ill Bell. Looking to the west, the sun was actually illuminating some of the fields above Troutbeck. Maybe we would be lucky with the weather today!

Sour Howes And Capple Howe

We are never lucky of course. As we climbed above the Gartburn Road to Sour Howes, I looked westwards and saw a rainbow, a sure indicator of rain. I delayed putting on my waterproofs, but as soon as I saw a cloud of rain passing over Troutbeck, I quickly got kitted up. I was just in time; seconds later we were hit with a  heavy shower. We headed over to the small hill that holds the cairn indicating Sour Howes’ summit.   

A vague track took us south-eastwards. We dropped downhill, keeping a small area of woodland on our left. We went through the gateless gap in the stone wall and headed towards Capple Howe. It wasn’t much of a climb up to its grassy summit. The hill provided good views eastwards across the Kentmere Valley and to the rolling hills beyond. We headed downhill keeping a stone wall to our left. A pretty stream ran on the other side of the wall. There was a vague track that made the descent a little easier. After a while we came across a stone wall that appeared to block our path, but we found a wooden fence where it intersected with the stone wall and our left and this allowed us to easily hop over to the other side. The vague track continued alongside the wall, but disappeared into an area of ferns just before reaching the bridleway. Some fern wading delivered us onto the stone track. Eight mountain bikers had just beat us to that point and then disappeared northwards up the Kentmere valley.

Bridleway Blues

We headed southwards down the bridleway. It was easier walking than the descent from Capple Howe, but parts of the path were flooded and we had to navigate drier routes.  The rain was quite heavy now and battered our right side. On the occasions that it did stop we looked back up to Capple How. It seemed higher than I expected. The bridleway transported us over an area that was a fell but had been segregated into fields. 

At the end of the bridleway we met a couple of walkers coming the other way. They told us they had a static caravan nearby and were just out for a quick walk. They pointed out Williamson’s Monument that was clearly visible on nearby Hugill Fell. The large stone cairn was built by Reverend T Williamson in 1803, in memory of his father Thomas Williamson, who had climbed the fell every day before breakfast. I took a moment to consider whether we could do an out-and-back to the monument, since it didn’t seem that far away. Talking to the couple though, they thought that there was no public access to it. Later research revealed that the landowner does indeed prevent access to it, which is a bit of a shame.

High Borrans

The rain battered us as we sloshed our way along footpaths to High Borrans. This village was a lot bigger than I expected, with its large houses, farm and outdoor education centre. We were on tarmac now and we made quick progress down the single track road leaving the village. After passing the Borrans Reservoir, we reached the Moorhowe Road. Unfortunately our route demanded that we walk along this road to reach the start of the Dubbs Road (a stone track rather than a road). It was only about 10-15 minutes of walking, but it was very busy and we had to step into the verge to let traffic pass. Looking at the OS map, I suspect that  traffic running southwards down the A592, use this road as a shortcut to get to the A591 Windermere-Kendal road. On leaving Borrans Lane we’d have been better off crossing Moorhowe Road and taking the single track lane to the east, and then turning right at the crossroads. This would have been marginally longer, but would have cut out most of the awkward section along Moorhowe Road.  

It was a relief to reach the entry point to Dubbs Road. I noticed a small stone at the side of the road with the following inscription; ‘ T.C.C./No. 2/ 1882. Later research revealed it to be a boundary marker. T.C.C represents Troutbeck Consolidated Chappelry. Apparently the ‘No. 1’ version of this stone is on the bridge in Troutbeck. . 

Dubbs Road

It was a relief to get off the busy Moorhowe Road. The Dubbs Road was a stone road and made for easy walking. It was still raining and parts of the road were flooded. The sun started to come out but it still rained. We passed Dubbs Reservoir and its surface was pitted with raindrops. As if I couldn’t get any wetter, the Cabin Boy managed to catch the branches of a bush with her rucksack cover; this then sprung back and gave me a watery slap in the face. I thanked her for it. At last we reached the point where we'd crossed Dubbs Road this morning on our ascent of Sour Howes. I vaguely reminisced on how dry I was then. We followed the footpath back down to the A592. Just after crossing the road, we passed a young couple who, judging by the size of their rucksacks, were going for a wildcamp. The young girl was wearing jeans. I just hoped that the weather improved for them.   

It had been a very wet day at the office. We’d explored new territory though and so expanded our knowledge of the Lake District. The views from Sour Howes and Capple Howe made the journey worth the effort. It was a shame about the short Moorhowe Road section, but as explained above, I believe most of the difficulties can be avoided by using my suggested alternative route.