Day 2 Cockermouth, Keswick

Date : Monday 3 October 2011

Area : Cumbria

Walk : Cockermouth to Keswick

Start At : Market Place

End At : Eskin Street

OS Sheet : OL4

Distance M/k) : 14.7 / 23.7

Ascent (ft) : 1970

Descent (ft) : 1859

Route

The Allerdale Ramble heads East out of Cockermouth before swinging south east down the side of Bassenthwaite Lake and via a selection of routes into Keswick. We took the higher route through Millbeck and Applethwaite, mainly to avoid what we assumed would be a wet walk along the River Derwent.

Journey

I have to say my memory of this days walking is patchy, probably because it was a long walk with few high points. We left Riverside B&B having had a full breakfast sitting around the kitchen table chatting with our hosts, a nice way to start to the day.

The walk out of Cockermouth was a long drag through the outskirts of the town, then up the ridge leading to Watch Hill, before heading down along a forestry track and along the road to Isel Bridge where we had a chat with a chap about to start fishing on the River Derwent.

As we approached Armathwaite Hall we passed through a large area, possibly Howgill Wood where most of the woodland had been removed, it looked a very sad place.

A short while later in some sparse woodland we saw several large, quite high wire pens, then the even weirder sight of a black shape swinging elegantly through the trees, followed by a grey/white shape. It was surreal, apes doing a Tarzan impersonation in an English woodland in Cumbria!!!. We realised they were some sort of ape, possibly not but not chimps and then we saw a bird that looked like a small Emu and something we reckoned might have been a Tapir. Not that we’re experts.

A 100m later all was explained by a sign proclaiming “Trotters World of Animals” with a collection of several hundred animals. Wow

Excitement over we continued along the Allerdale Ramble down to the side of Bassenthwaite Lake passing through a series of fields and stiles, general without much of a view of the Lake.

Stopping near to St Bega’s Church we stuffed our jackets away and sat in the sun for a few minutes before thoughts drifted to Tearooms and refreshments. Which seemed to be a pretty remote prospect.

From the Church the path heads up to the Mirehouse, a historic house and gardens open to the public, then over the A591 to the car park and our wish came true as a Tearoom appeared. Here, as well as decent pot of tea and tasty cakes we were given some good advice as to the easiest route to Millbeck. We’d decided the climb around Dodd and through Thornthwaite Forest would be best avoided and the lovely tearoom lady directed us to the concessionary path that runs above the quarry to the Osprey Viewpoint (where we only managed to see a few LBJ's,) along a path well above the A591 nearly as far as Dancing Gate where we got back onto the Allerdale Ramble through Millbeck and Applethwaite into Keswick

Our B&B in Keswick was at Hawclffe House with Diane and Ian where as usual we had a warm welcome, a lovely room and a great breakfast.