Lake District Holiday Plans

I thought I'd finalised my holiday plans several weeks ago but they've recently been thrown into disarray by a family crisis. Posting details here would be highly inappropriate; suffice to say that S- and I are still alive, fighting fit, very much in love and resolved to make plans for just the two of us.  It does, however, go some way to explaining why I haven't posted here for a while.

Hay Stacks, looking towards Crummock Water in 2014.
Little wonder that I keep coming back to the Lakes. 

Our love affair with the Lake District goes back a long way, before we were even engaged to be married. We spent a week at the old Pontins camp in Lytham St Anne's – separate rooms (of course!) as it was a church do – but soon tired of camp life.  One day we escaped to the Lakes, where it rained incessantly... but we were hooked. Since then we have returned several times and I spent a wonderful week in 1989, Youth Hosteling with the kids. We climbed High Street, Helvellyn, Cat Bells, Great Gable and Scarfell Pike, and by the end of the week I was knackered! It was good fun, though.

Now the Lake District calls us again. We've planned a two-centre 'AirBnB' holiday and are determined to climb a few mountains. High on the list is Coniston Old Man, which I have never climbed, so our first little self-catering cottage will be in Coniston.

Pre-Slimming World tubby Angie aboard the steam yacht Goldola on Coniston Water, 2010. 
Photos like this one make me feel positively skinny.

Weather permitting, I would really love to go up Helvellyn, via Striding Edge. The last time I was there was on that Youth Hosteling holiday but S- had to work and missed the adventure. As we won't be heading for the next Youth Hostel this time, I have plans to descend on Swirral Edge.

Back in 1989 we used a video camera for nearly all our photography. Consequently, we have a lovely record of our children in their teenage years but the photo quality isn't that great – in fact it's miserable. However, here are a few photo-grabbed images from that ascent of Striding Edge.

That's Ullswater in the background

There have been a few fatalities on this ridge, though it remains a popular ascent – it's just very important to take ones time and tread carefully. I certainly felt no danger back in 1989 but how will I feel 30 years on? I definitely won't think of tackling it in high winds but the mountain weather can deteriorate rapidly. Thankfully, though, there is an alternative path that runs 30-40 feet below the ridge, avoiding the challenging sections. 

For the second half of our holiday we will descend to Ulverston. It's only about 7 miles from the lakes and we may venture that way again but I'm keen to explore some of the gentler slopes in Furness and Arnside that have featured on one of my favourite blogs, Beating the Bounds. That will all be new to both of us.

The Devil in the Forest

To my mind, the Devil gets far too much credit for spectacular places in our green and pleasant land. To name but a few that I've visited over the years, there's The Devil's Cauldron (Lydford Gorge, Devon), The Devil's Punchbowl (Surrey), Devil's Dyke (Sussex) and Devil's Bridge (Ceredigion).

This photo (right) recently appeared in the Facebook group Old Industry and History of the Forest of Dean.  It's one of the many scowles that are unique to the Forest – clefts and hollows in the limestone that have been exploited over many centuries for their iron. I've blogged about them before (here) but knew nothing about this spectacular-looking one, before seeing it on Facebook.

A few days ago I set out to find the place and, lest I should be accosted by some prowling, demonic being, took my aunt Sarah with me. A short forest track leads in from the Lydney - Bream road to an area shown as The Scowles on the 1:25000 OS map. In marked contrast to the scowles in Noxon Park, the enlightened folk of Lydney Park Estates have not encircled the deep pits with high fences, so we were free to explore.

On her own admission, Aunt Sarah isn't the most athletic of souls but she did well to clamber into the first scowle, then took this picture of me.

So impressive were the rock formations here that I initially thought I'd found The Devil's Chapel, but my map showed it to be further along the track, so onward we pressed. 

And here it is, looking more like a Forest Cathedral than a Devil's Chapel. One thing my photos don't clearly show are the deep pits to the left and right of this tall stump. "Do be careful!" shouted an anxious Auntie from high above me, and indeed I was. I certainly wouldn't wish to scramble out of the deepest of those pits. 

As well as a Devil's Chapel, we also have a Devil's Pulpit in the Forest but it's nowhere near his chapel!

That's Tintern Abbey, down beside the River Wye, and I have it on good authority that The Devil used to stand on the rock in the foreground and preach to the monks, tempting them to abandon their righteous lifestyle. What a cunning, evil creature he is!

When Lucy and I visited the spot on a baking-hot day in 2014 there was no devil, just a kind passer-by who took this photo for us.