catkins – Bentham Footpath Group

Ellerside from Cartmel

7.4 miles | 11.9 km | 203 m Ascent | 8.4 Naismith miles | Alison Kinder & Colin Stroud
Bentham Footpath Group has visited the Cartmel Peninsula a number of times: It’s a great place to start a walk and offers a good choice of routes. We could head east onto Hampsfell with cracking views over the Kent Estuary and into Morecambe Bay, or as we do on this walk, west onto the ridge at Ellerside with equally good views across the Levens Estuary and over to the Lakeland fells. Along the way we have the opportunity to explore Cartmel Village, potentially adding a visit to the Priory and Cartmel Park racecourse, before heading through Park Wood, and scaling Ellerside where from the top of a ridge running along the side of the estuary, we have great views over to Ulverston. Our return is south past How Barrow, then down to Low Bank Side where we pick up a lane back to the racecourse tracking the river Eea.

Oxenholme round

Easy

7.2 miles | 11.6 km | 271 m Ascent | 8.6Naismith miles | Alison Kinder & Colin Stroud
Kendal styles itself as “The gateway to the Lakes”, and it is indeed a good base for those wishing to explore the southern end of the Lake District. The surrounding countryside also has much to offer in its own right– as we see in this walk.
From convenient parking close to Oxenholme station, we start by climbing the Helm, gaining great views of the Lakeland Fells, the Howgills, and Morecambe Bay. From there we descend past an ancient fort, and a curious folly to pick up St Sunday’s Beck which we follow upstream to the delightful Bleasehall Wood. We note a syphon well before taking an isolated green lane to St Sunday’s Bridge and from there we head to Hawkrigg. The return leg involves a brief but quite steep climb up the aptly named Windy Hill, and then it’s a steady descent to the finish. We show this as an easy walk because it is (just) less than 12 km – but the consensus from the group was that it “feels more like a medium”.

Oxenholme round Read More »