Cumbria Way - Ulverston (Gawthwaite) to Coniston (11m)

Day one 12 June

Our B&B at Sefton House was the most expensive on the trip and I am afraid we found it to be a disappointment.

Having walked to Ulverston before I knew the first few miles of the Cumbria Way were not very special, so to shorten the 15 miles on the first day and reduce the strain on Mrs G toe, we had decided to take a taxi up the road to the edge of the National Park at Gawthwaite. Our driver was Alan of LA12 Taxis, we recommend him highly he was punctual, knowledgeable, friendly and humorous.

As we walked northwards we could see the Coniston fells in the distance and for a short while as we looked back we could still see the lighthouse shape of the Hoad Monument outside Ulvertson.

The day so far was mild but cloudy with a strongish wind from the south west. This is an landscape of stone walls, fields, copses, streams and rough moorland that is pleasant enough to view and walk through. I had thought that having walked south I would be ok going north but a couple of small navigational errors soon brought the reality home, I had to keep good map contact. High Stennerley and Kiln Bank came and went as we approached what on previous walks had been one of the high points of the day, the walk along the east side of the ridge north of Tottlebank. However, dropping down the hillside towards the track up to Tottlebank I heard a scream and a shout from Mrs G ‘it’s a snake’. As I came back up to her I saw a green and black snake about 30mm diameter and 3-400mm long, so I took a couple of photos as it hissed at me.


Mrs G said ‘I nearly trod on it, what is it’.
Naturally I said ‘it’s a snake’, which earned me a thump, ‘I don’t know’.
I think it’s an Adder’ she said.
’Never mind it’s gone now’ earned me another thump.

Eventually we got moving and I told her about the snake I had seen on a walk last year in Leigh Park (near Havant, Hampshire) which was bigger but looked the same, ‘what was it’ she asked. Avoiding another thump I explained that I didn’t know as I hadn’t looked it up, which got me another thump. We moved rapidly along past Tottlebank and on to Beacon Tarn.

By now the wind was getting up and there was wetness in the air and the temperature had dropped about 5 degrees C. We had planned to have dinner here but decided to go on to Sunny Bank which would be more sheltered so we pushed on along the side of the big wet area of Stable Harvey Moss, past Tottle Bank (confusing) up the track and down across the Torver Beck footbridge where we finally put our jackets on, then over the A5084 and down the hill to the Sunny Bank jetty where we had lunch. So far we had only seen a group of three, father, daughter and boyfriend on the Cumbria way who overtook us at Beacon Tarn, two sets of dog walkers at Beacon Tarn and a couple who were walking south out of Torver Low Common.

The rain persisted in a miserable damp sort of way all the way to Coniston with little to see but trees and water plus a couple of groups of school learning sailing and canoeing.

As we walked across the fields into Coniston the drizzle lifted and the sky brightened. Crossing over the bridge we stood for a minute getting our bearings, when a lady brushed past saying ‘it’s over there’, ‘what is’ I said, ‘the cash point’ she replied, disappearing around the corner. ‘allo , allo ‘ I thought.


Ten minutes later, after looking at pub menus and shop windows we walked down Tilberthwaite Avenue past the Crown Inn and into Lakeland House Hotel webite is is a very good, clean efficient, friendly, everything you want a B&B to be, place. We did not fault it. However, the room was small, so small, we had to shuffle around sideways between the bed and wall. At least there would be no midnight hikes to the toilet, in fact, at first we couldn’t find the toilet until I opened a pair of small white doors, which I’d thought was a built in wardrobe and found the Ensuite. There was not a lot of room in there either but the shower was good.

‘I’m just going in the cupboard’ became the standing joke of the holiday.

A good meal in the Crown Inn rounded off the first day.