Whinlatter

When doing the Wainwrights (see Tour De Whinlatter) I'd walked over to nearby Brown How and noticed a good track heading downhill to the west. Obviously people had gone down that way and I'd wondered whether it would be possible to get down to the Spout Force carpark. There was no track indicated on the OS map. I'd decided to investigate this track at a later time. Well, 'investigation day' had arrived; today I'd find out if there was a path.

From the Spout Froce carpark, I followed the forestry road into the valley and before reaching the Aiken plantation I doubled back on a higher road, on the flank of Brown How. I reached a patch of hillside which the Tree Troublers had nuked and started heading directly up the hillside, avoiding the debris from their activities. I could see a stone wall above me and according the OS map, open fell was beyond. I could see a couple of breaks in the stone wall but couldn't make out whether they had been fenced off with wire. I'd not got very far uphill when I reached an obvious track leading up to the stone wall. I followed it and it brought me up to the ridge that is north of Brown How. A stile deposited me over the wall and I was on open fell. Well that was easier than I thought it'd be! There was even an obvious track on the other side, presumably leading up to the summit.  |I started following it and 20 minutes later I arrived at the stone shelter on the top of Brown How. Across the valley to the south, there was a good view of the snow topped Grisedale Pike and its neighbours. I continued onwards and ticked off Whinlatter Hill's top. Now for the tricky bit...finding my way through the forest and those dastardly red-marked areas to Lord's Seat. I set off in that direction with a degree of trepidation.

Forest Trails

I'd seen (presumably) forestry worker's cars down in the valley, together with a crane for moving logs. I couldn't hear any sawing though, which was encouraging. I made my way around the head of the valley and followed the side of Thornthwaite Forest northwards towards Ullister Hill. I was encouraged when I found a gate giving me access to the plantation and a track through the trees soon led to a forestry road. I looked right and left and saw that signs had been put up prohibiting further access along the roads. That was lucky; I'd managed to find an 'allowed passage' to Lord's Seat. By following mountain bike routes (Dead Wood Green Route and then Seat How Summit Trail) I was able to progress northwards to Ullister Hill. I broke away from the trees at this point and could even see the lump of Lord's Seat ahead of me.

Lord's Seat And Broom Fell

As I made my way up to Lord's Seat, I met my first walkers of the day, making their way down. They weren't up for a chat though. It was quite windy and cold on the exposed summit. Mist still clung to the summit of Skiddaw over to the east. My next target, Broom Fell was clearly visible over to the north-west. I remembered that it had a  distinctive large cairn and stone shelter near its top. It was approaching lunchtime and I planned to use the stone shelter to get out of the wind as I ate my grub. 

As it turned out, the wind was blowing directly into the seating area of the shelter. I walked around to its rear and saw that somebody had built a makeshift seat. What luck! I sat down and ate my cheese sandwich. The sun had come out now. Things were looking up.

On the way to Graystones, I met an elderly couple coming the other way. We chatted for a while. They'd just done Graystones and were making their way over to Whinlatter; basically the reverse of the route I had just done. 'Are you going to do Graystones?' the woman asked me. That was a good question and I gave a vague reply; I'd not decided yet.

Graystones

I dropped down to the col before Graystones. The reason I was a bit reluctant to commit to going up Graystones is that it would be an out-and-back affair with a steep 150 foot ascent/descent. The sun was out now though and the day still young. Shame on me if I didn't do it. I set off up its steep flank. 

It didn't take me that long to get to the top. The last time I'd been here, it had been misty. Given the sunny conditions I decided to do some exploring of the large area at the top. Firstly, I visited the 456m high Graystones top. For some reason, Wainright nominated the nearby craggier 450 metre summit for his Wainwright list.  I went over that and continued on to Kirk Fell. It was worth making the short trip over since there was a good view southwards down the valley towards Buttermere. The fell had a grassy slope that rolled away to the village of Lorton down in the valley. I was glad I'd made the effort to do the out-and-back to Graystones and Kirk Fell. I started making my way back to the col where my Graystone's excursion had started.

Return

Back at the col, I couldn't find a stile and had to climb over a wooden fence to gain access to the forestry area. There was a track though that led me down through the nuked area of the plantation to the forestry road below. Progress from here was a lot easier since I could just follow forestry roads back to the carpark. It didn't take me long to make my way down to the bottom of the valley and cross the bridge over Aiken Beck. This is the stream that services Spout Force. Surprisingly, given the moist, ecent weather, there didn't seem to be much water tumbling down the beck. The waterfall would be less impressive than normal (see Spout Force - Eighth Wonder Of The World).

All the parking spots had been taken when I got back to the carpark. Obviously the forestry operations hadn't deterred walkers. It had turned out to be an excellent improvised walk. I'd found a route up to Whinlatter from the west and found a good route through the forest maze to Lord's Seat. This provided me with good knowledge for future walks in the area.