Rydal Water

After few weeks off due to work and things it was time to go for another adventure, much to the delight of my 9 year old son. I recently bought some walking books as a way to get us out of the house and to be more active. I decided to choose the Lake District one for this particular walk.

The Lake District has recently been recognised as a world Heritage site and if you have ever been you will understand why! It is a vast area of outstanding natural beauty which has inspired numerous writers and artists like William Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter to name but two.

Here there is a astonishing variety of landscapes to visit for all abilities from lakeside walks to fell climbing, the latter of which I doubt that I will ever be able to climb but with practice you never know.... watch this space!

This book covers a range of walks covering lakes, peaks, rivers, tarns and waterfalls and are not meant to be over strenuous but promise immense views.

The question was which to choose?

I choose to do "A Rydal round", a 5km walk that should have taken 2 and half hours and according to the book "this beautiful route around Rydal water has rich associations with Wordsworth....The walk in not arduous but can be busy..."

The book tells us to park at Pelter Bridge Car Park LA22 9LW which ia small car park but when we got there mid morning it was full so we drove on a bit and ended up at the White Moss car park. This threw the walk out a little so didn't follow it much from now on in but there was a map at the car park which was a godsend which was named White moss Walks. We did the red circled walk which took in 3 quarters of the original walk.

So we set off crossed the road and started a climb that took us the start of the coffin trail which got its name from when back in the day was the resting place for coffin bearers that had to walk the 4km between ambleside and the churchyard at Grasmere. The views along this route were beautiful as expected.

Here we catch up with the book where we meet the wide track which we followed for awhile as it narrows and pass through a few gates before meeting at junction with a lane. Here we turned right passing Rydal Mount which I believe was Wordsworth home until he died and now houses a museum about the poet. We descended the hill and decided to have lunch at Rydal Hall Built in the 16th Century, Rydal Hall was the home of the le Fleming family. In 1963 Rydal Hall became a conference centre and retreat owned by the Diocese of Carlisle. There was a lovely little tea rooms at the back of the hall where on approach the sound of rushing water can be heard. Water crashes over a series of high waterfalls down a rocky ravine, a perfect stop for a spot of lunch. After lunch we decided to explore the gardens for a bit. As we walked to the bridge we noticed a little hut but it was actually the oldest ‘viewing house’ in the country (1669), the Grott, is sited below the lower fall and is open to the public from 8 am to 4 pm.

As you come out the grounds there is St Mary's church. We continued down the hill to the main road where we turned right and crossed and followed the road a little while until we came to a bridge that crossed the river. At this point we ignore the end part of the book but start it from the beginning but has I said we never really followed the book anyway.

We then just followed the lake round. The views were amazing and peaceful. There were many paths and trails that we could have taken that lead to Loughrigg Fell and terrace or onto grassmere.

We eventually came to another bridge that took us back to our car park. The 2 and half hour walk actually took us nearly 4 hours and that was only doing 3 quarters of the walk in the book, due my little lad taking figures that he wanted to photograph and stopping for lunch but it was all worth it just for the views alone. I am a sucker for a good view!

As always, thank you for reading, until next time.