More from Lakeland!

Carrying on from our last post, with Sunday's walks, our first walk of the day being Bowscale Fell, another which I've had my eye on doing for a while.  Bowscale Fell can easily be accessed from other fells in the area but I really wanted to do it via it's tarn as it looked on the map as if it was a lovely remote tarn set in a typical Lakeland comb - I wasn't disappointed, this place is a like a hidden gem, -  just gorgeous!  Apparently, if you believe in legends, there are two immortal fish in this tarn!

It poured down on the walk in but the weather soon cleared up enough to dry us off!  Here is Holly and I at the stunning Bowscale Tarn - didn't see any fish immortal or not!

Bowscale Tarn

The cloud obliterated most of the views from the summit

On our way back down, the pic below shows the view over towards High Pike where we walked the day before

After this little gem of a walk we headed back to the campsite for some lunch and then to the lovely village of Braithwaite which was our start point for this afternoon's walk.  We decided to walk Barrow and Outerside as the weather looked better in that direction!  Below you can see me walking up the slopes of Barrow which has wonderful views to both Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite Lake as well as towards the Coledale fells.  We were really lucky with the weather for this part of the day as you can see.

Walking up Barrow (Bassenthwaite Lake behind)

Lovely views down to Bassenthwaite Lake

That's me and Holly on Barrow summit with our next target behind us - Outerside - that cloud looks a bit ominous and we were wondering it we were going to make it without getting another soaking.

On the way to Outerside with Causey Pike overlooking us 

Outerside summit with  Stile End and Barrow in the background

The clouds were really closing in now and it was soon time for another soaking!  Here is a rather wet me on the summit of Stile End which we decided to walk over on the way back down to Braithwaite.

The rain just got worse and worse and we were like drowned rats by the time we got back to the car.  The sun soon came back out though and the rest of the evening was gorgeous so we headed down to the shores of Derwentwater in Keswick for a wander.

Monday was our last day in the Lakes and by far the best day weather wise - which always seems to be the case when we're on our way home.  Our planned route for the day was to follow Dob Gill from Thirlmere up to Harrop Tarn and on to the open fells to Ullscarf.  I was blown away by the views from up there, being practically in the centre of the Lake District there were fab views all around.

The walk started through the forest which opened out into this small clearing with gorgeous views of a stunning waterfall

continued by more woodland and then the beautiful Harrop Tarn, where Holly enjoyed having a swim amongst the lily pads

We were soon out on the open fell with amazing views all around, here you can see Blea Tarn, Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite Lake with Skiddaw also in the distance.

We stopped for a bite to eat on Standing Crag before walking up to Ullscarf's summit

Ullscarf summit

We would have loved to have stayed longer up there but time was against us and we had to head back down for the long journey back to North Wales and home.

Blea Tarn again from Standing Crag

Ullscarf appears to be one of those fells which are often overlooked in favour of higher fells nearby but we loved it up there, we didn't see another soul on our walk and the route up from Thirlmere via the stunning Harrop Tarn was fabulous.

So that's it from our weekend, we're back in the Lake District again next weekend for a friends' 214th Wainwright fell. Many Lake District walkers challenge themselves to complete all the fells Wainwright wrote about in his Pictorial Guides and it has become popular (at least among the walkers we know) to finish off the last one as a big group walk and celebration so that's what Saturday's walk will be all about.  I may complete them all myself one day who knows!