This was the first account of a
walk in 2008. Recently there has been such a lot of rain and some
very strong winds and warnings of avalanches in the Lake District.
So Dad thought that is would be advisable to do a walk at low
level, as he did not want to put us in any real danger. The walk
was done in the company of Uncle Eric.
Turning off the main road to Barrow
in Furness there is a maze of lanes and infrequent signposts. Dad
had carefully checked the map and followed the memorised turnings
but despite all that he got on the wrong road and got confused
and lost. Whilst he uses his GPS device on the walks this is the
first time he had to use in to get to the start! After some
doubling back we eventually arrived about 15 minutes late. We
apologised to Uncle Eric, but felt a bit better when he said he
had encountered similar problems! Dad was soon ready and we
jumped into his rucksack and off we all went. First we went along
the road coming to a group of buildings called Force Mills beside
which is Force Falls. These were not surprisingly in spate after
all the rain.
We are sorry about the tree
branches getting in the way but if Dad had gone any closer he
would have fallen in, and we would have got wet. Here is a
long-range shot showing part of the buildings too. Once a farm,
the buildings are now houses and bed and breakfast accommodation.
To get these pictures we had had to
deviate off the route. Finally we started properly walking a good
track through the first of many areas of delightful woodland that
forms the southern end of the Grizedale Forest. The track brought
us to Rusland and its church built in the stone and slate so
traditional of this area.
Now we are sure that you will be
familiar with the author Arthur Ransome, who, amongst his many
books, wrote Swallows and Amazons that was set in the Lake
District. He lived in the nearby Winster Valley at a place called
Ludderburn, and on his death he was buried in a simple grave in
this churchyard, together with his wife who died a few years
later.
Leaving the church we entered more
stark woodland, the trees bare of leaves at this time. This
brought us to a road at a cluster of buildings called Force Forge.
These are all now occupied as houses but we noted that one was
called "The Old Forge" - probably once a blacksmiths
and another was called "Old Bobbin Mill". Bobbin making
was a thriving industry in this part of the Lake District in the
19th century when more that 65 were in operation, providing the
wooden bobbins vital for the Lancashire spinning and weaving
industry. All are gone now, closing over time as the cotton
industry declined and plastic replaced wood. The one at Stott
Park abandoned in 1971 was bought by English Heritage in 1983 and
reopened so that tourists can see and experience the bobbin
making as it was over 100 years ago.
The next section of the walk was
into Grizedale Forest on paths that meandered though the woods
climbing up hill and down dale intersecting at times with the
wide forest roads. It was perhaps as well that we were not here
last December, as we would have had to dodge the rally cars
racing through the Forest on the Coppermines Grizedale Stages
Rally. A wide sweep on the road took us round this pretty tarn.
Nearby we stopped for lunch sitting
on a low wall in the shelter of the woods and out of the cold
wind. Dad took our photo here but the quality was not good enough
to include it. As we said Grizedale Forest is very large and has
many different trails that people can follow and there is
interesting things to see including sculptures. On a visit in
2001, Dad took this photo of Shaun and Tetley.
Our route now took us through Hob
Gill Plantation. Gill is another name for a stream and at times
Uncle Eric and Dad thought they were actually walking in the
stream so wet was the path with running water. Thankfully we were
in the rucksack and kept our paws dry! We dropped down to the
road and then walked on to the pretty village of Satterthwaite.
As we walked through
we paused to look at the stone buildings and whitewashed cottages
of this very typical Lakeland village. We were almost now at the
end of our walk for today but first we had to climb up and over
Force Knott. From the top we were rewarded with this lovely view
of snow capped Dow Crag and Coniston Old Man.
Once back at the car, we jumped out
and settled on the back seat to have our sandwiches, with some of
our other friends who had come to see Uncle Eric. He and Dad
drove to Jane and Sam's Hat Trick Cafe for tea and cake. Now why
are we not surprised!
